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Jewish Communal Autonomy and Institutional Memory in Venetian Crete
a Study of Takkanot Kandiyah
Series: - Studies in Jewish History and Culture, Volume: 75
Author:
In the first book-length study of Takkanot Kandiyah, Martin Borýsek analyses this fascinating corpus of Hebrew texts written between 1228 –1583 by the leaders of the Jewish community in Candia, the capital of Venetian Crete. Collected in the 16th century by the Cretan Jewish historian Elijah Capsali, the communal byelaws offer a unique perspective on the history of a vibrant, culturally diverse Jewish community during three centuries of Venetian rule. As well as confronting practical problems such as deciding whether Christian wine can be made kosher by adding honey, or stopping irresponsible Jewish youths disturbing religious services by setting off fireworks in the synagogue, Takkanot Kandiyah presents valuable material for the study of communal autonomy and institutional memory in pre-modern Jewish society.
Martin Borýsek, Ph.D. (1983) is a postdoctoral researcher and Associate fellow at the Selma Stern Zentrum für Jüdische Studien Berlin-Brandenburg, Germany. He has published numerous articles on medieval and early modern Jewish cultural and intellectual history.
This book will be of interest to university departments of Jewish studies and Hebrew philology, academic libraries, postgraduate students of relevant disciplines or Jewish museum and research centre libraries.