The fascinating history of the Jews in Venice – and the truth behind one of Shakespeare's most famous characters.

More than millions of visitors flood Venice every year. However, many ignore its history – a history of dramatic expansion but also rapid decline. Central to Venice's history during its glorious days is the story of its Jewish population. Venice gave the world the word ghetto. Surprisingly, the prison of the ghetto proved to be as remarkable a place as the city of Venice itself.

With authoritative research and storytelling ability, Harry Freedman narrates the history of the Jews of Venice. From the founding of the ghetto in 1516, until Napoleon's occupation of Venice in 1797, he describes the remarkable cultural renaissance that took place in the Jewish ghetto of Venice. Despite the gates and walls, for the first time in European history, Jews and Christians communicated spiritually, learned from each other, shared ideas, and entered modernity together. Culturally, the walls of the ghetto were porous.

Any history of Venice and its Jews cannot avoid the story of Shakespeare and Shylock. The cultural and political upliftment in the Venetian ghetto is often overshadowed by this fictional character. Who was Shylock really? Would the inhabitants of Venice have recognized his character, and what did Shakespeare actually think of him? Shakespeare's ambivalent anti-Semitism reflects attitudes towards Jews in Elizabethan England – but as Freedman proves, the myth of Shakespeare is entirely ignorant of the literary, cultural, and interfaith renaissance that Shylock would have experienced.

Pages: 256, Publication Year: 0604, Dimensions: 15.3x15.3cm