At the ICJG: Jews in Italy

Nardo Bonomi lives in the beautiful Tuscan village of Greve, near Chianti and Firenze (Florence). He is a dedicated genealogical researcher attempting to build a database of the Jewish archives of Italy.

In real life, he is an architectural historian, documenting histories of Tuscan buildings and estates.

I’ve known Nardo for several years and his focus on these little-known records has been remarkable. For more information, take a look at Italian-family-history.com, as well as his Guide for research on Jewish genealogy in Italy.

There has been evidence of Jewish life in Italy since the Roman Empire, when some 8,000 Jews were documented during the reign of Emperor Augustus, and tens of thousands lived there under Emperors Tiberius and Claudius. In the late first century, there were 10 synagogues in Rome, which grew to 15. Around the same time, there were at least 43 Jewish settlements on the mainland and the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. In addition to Rome, the largest Jewish communities were in Genova, Milano, Bologna, Ravenna, Napoli, Pompei, Siracusa and Messina.

Later additions came from Germany after the plague, and from France. A major influx shifted from Sicily to the mainland. Many of these Sicilian Jews had been expelled from Spain in 1492, then were expelled from Sicily in 1493.

According to Nardo, Italian Jewish population statistics were: in 1170 c.e., 15,000; in 1300, 50,000; in 1500, 120,000 (following the Spanish and Sicilian expulsions); in 1600, 20,702; in 1700, 26,760; in 1800, 34,275; and in 1920, 43,730.

There's a list of 1,970 family names of conversos in Sicily; half indicate a place name. That group is split evenly between Sicilian and Spanish Jews. It is believed that the place names are ancestral towns; the same indicators are found in North Africa and the Middle East.

Old names, from Roman Empire times, include de Rossi (min ha-adomim), del Vecchio (min ha-zakanim). Some are personal names (Bondi=Yom Tov); occupation (Roffe=doctor); Hebrew words (Zaddic=pious, Haggeri=Ha-geri=stranger); as well as Italian words (Tartaglia=stammerer, Gioioso=joyful).

In 1540, most had family names; only 15% didn’t.

Language origin of names range from Spanish/Portuguese (19%), Hebrew (19%), Italian (18%), Arabic (16%), Berber (5%), French (2%), others (German, Turkish) (1%), with family origins from Italy (36%), Central Europe (26%), Middle East/North Africa(19%), Hebrew (9%), Unknown (4%)and Converso (4%).

The most frequently named families were Levi/y, 101 families, 21 places; Coen/Cohen, 58 in 18 places; Sonnino, 42 in 5 places; di Segni, 38 in six places; di Veroli, 35 in six places; and di Porto, 34 in four places.

There are existing lists of 390 deaths in the Venice ghetto (1630). In 1645, the largest families (10-16 individuals) in Pisa included Salema, Leuchia, Navarro and Coronello. The Siena ghetto, established in 1658, included Italian and Spanish Jews. In 1685, the name of Agnolo Cicilia (from Sicily) in house 39 can be seen.

The Livorno (Leghorn) census shows many Spanish names among the 2,413 Jews. In fact, says Nardo, this community used Spanish until 70-80 years ago. There are surnames for 510 heads of family (1740-1802).

Given name lists indicating Italian translations replacing Hebrew: Izhak (Gaio), Eleazar (Lazzario), Rebekka (Rica), Ruben (Rubino), Mordekhai (Marco), Gershon (Grassino) and Baruch (Benedetto).