ABSTRACT
Reformers were often most punitive in their dealings with other reformers, and the experience of Protestants in Italy of the Counter-Reformation underscores this. Did Italian experiments with coexistence for Jews through the form of the ghetto not provide an alternative to prosecution? Were there ghettos for Protestants? This essay considers three models of interreligious coexistence that developed in early modern Italy towards Protestants: the first model was the “open air” virtual ghetto of the Waldensian valleys of Savoy. The second was the limited de facto tolerance granted to foreign Protestants in Livorno and some other mercantile cities. The third was Venice’s use of merchant warehouse-hostels (fondaco), where foreigners lived while pursuing their business in the city; the German fondaco allowed some limited exercise of protestant worship within the walls. How far could these models extend, and what do they tell us of the limits to balancing reform and difference?
