Feeding the Eternal City: Jewish and Christian Butchers in the Roman Ghetto

A testament at once to prejudice, resourcefulness, and cooperation, this is an account of more than 300 years of efforts by Roman butchers to circumvent laws which restricted the supply of kosher meat to the city’s Jewish population.

Kenneth Stow, Professor of Jewish History, Emeritus at the University of Haifa, uses a rich body of evidence to expose the extensive efforts of authorities to suppress Jewish identity in Rome, and in the process reveals much about how the city obtained its food and what was eaten.

Beginning with the diary of Jewish woman who was kidnapped as part of an attempt to forcefully convert her, Stow makes clear how the forces were arrayed to make life as difficult as possible for the group. He turns from contracts between butchers of different faiths and leasehold agreements for slaughterhouses to Papal orders, rabbinical decrees, and Hebrew-Italian books on niqur, the process of removing forbidden fats that were used in ancient sacrifice.

Very readable with extensive notes and a good bibliography.

Hardcover.