A Sephardic Family. Migration and Resilience of Discriminated. From Terra d’Otranto to the State of the Church.

Contribute by: dr. Benedetto Ligorio, Ph.D. Post-Doc, Adjunct Modern History, Sapienza University of Rome

The Speranza. From the Kingdom of Naples to the State of the Church. Traces of a Sephardic Family between centuries 15th and 16th on Progressus n.7 (2020), pp. 19-34.

Published by Benedetto Ligorio, Ph.D. Post-Doc Sapienza University of Rome

on Progressus n.7 (2020), pp. 19-34.

The Speranza. From the Kingdom of Naples to the State of the Church. Traces of a Sephardic Family between centuries 15th and 16th

The kingdom of Naples hosted ancient, conspicuous, and prosperous Jewish communities. The Apulian “Giudecche” were particularly rich and developed because of their commercial role. In Puglia, the Jews played a central role in cross-cultural trade and loan activity. The Sephardic from Puglia adopted the same settlement strategies as the “Port-Jews” and resided in the main port cities and along the commercial routes. The Speranza’s family fully reflects this approach and after the expulsion of the Jews from Southern Italy they moved to the territories of the State of the Church, where they were authorized by the Holy See to set up a bank in Vetralla. Keywords: Migrations, Sephardim, ethnic minorities, tax.