Naples נאפולי
The city that received the exiles of 1492 and Abarbanel with them, where the first Mishnah was printed, and which twice expelled its Jews, in 1510 and 1541.
Jews have been in Naples and around it since the first century: Josephus knows a community in neighbouring Puteoli, and the Jewish burials of Naples are dated to the end of the fourth and the middle of the fifth century. Benjamin of Tudela in 1159 found here about five hundred Jews, a synagogue and a school.
In 1487-1492 a Hebrew press stood in Naples: here in 1492 the first printed Mishnah appeared. In that same year the city received the exiles from Spain, and among them Don Isaac Abarbanel, who became adviser to the kings of Naples.
It did not last. A decree of 1510 expelled the Jews, leaving two hundred wealthy families for an annual payment, and in 1541 the Emperor Charles expelled them all. The Bourbons admitted Jews in 1740 and expelled them again in 1746; in 1822 the banker Rothschild settled in Naples, in 1864 a synagogue opened. In the twentieth century the community did not reach a thousand.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Documents of the period
- The first printed Mishnah, Naples, 1492 — the year and place of printing
Scholarship
- The standard reference works and encyclopedias — the years, the numbers and the circumstances
Basis: documents and evidence.