Beyond Mantua, in the second half of the sixteenth century, the obstacles to a shared culture had become grimly formidable. Paul IV’s papal bull of July 1555, Cum nimis absurdum, proclaimed at the very outset of his pontificate, had begun by stating that the Jews had been condemned to ‘perpetual servitude’ on account of their collective guilt. Notwithstanding this, and exploiting the indulgence of Christians, they had had the temerity to dwell amongst them, even in the best parts of cities and in the vicinity of churches! Paul was tapping an ancient but, since the Black Death, intense paranoia
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169 bce
