Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories in the Early Modern Iberian World

Abstract

artist, Salomone regularly found himself in financial straits and political peril. Francesco Gonzaga accused him of stealing gold from the amount the marquis provided for an elaborate chain, and Mantuan Jews accused Salomone of sodomy, which led to his imprisonment and impending execution. Eleonora of Aragon ultimately intervened on her goldsmith’s behalf. In releasing him from prison, Eleonora could enrich her jewelry collection and ensure Salomone’s conversion to Christianity. From the baptismal font, Salomone the Jew became Ercole de’ Fedeli—one of the Christian faithful. In a major feat of archival sleuthing, Herzig presents a study of conversion that will interest academics and the general audience alike. Through careful analysis of contemporary letters, inventories, payment records, notarial registries, guild regulations, and chronicles in eight Italian archives, Herzig provides a documentary description of Salomone’s life and that of his family as well as the events that led to their conversion. Conversion in early modern Italy most often came at a steep cost. For example, if a Christian man decided not to marry a converted Jewess following her baptism, the neophyte would most likely face destitution. Upon conversion she could no longer receive financial support from Jewish kindred and thus would lead a life of misery. In the case of Ercole (Salomone), Herzig underscores the benefits the goldsmith received from conversion, as princely protection saved the artist’s life and livelihood. Demand for his work continued throughout much of his life, until the Italian Wars devastated the economy. The author focuses on the biographical travails of Salomone/Ercole, but his glittery objects steal the show. Conversion may have catalyzed his release from prison, but the inimitability of his art saved him from imminent death. In fact, Isabella d’Este imprisoned the goldsmith again—post conversion—to compel him to complete her bracelets. The fate of the subject (Salomone or Ercole) relied on the desire for his objects. Jean Baudrillard observes, “We have always lived off the splendor of the subject and the poverty of the object” (Fatal Strategies [1999], 111). In Herzig’s pages, the objects activate the subject to reveal their supremacy. It is through the world of the object, the commodity, the thing that we understand culture.