ABSTRACT
This chapter turns directly to a relatively neglected aspect of the relatively neglected seventeenth century and focuses on the treatment of money-lending in a relatively new genre: vernacular apologetica. The Venetian government, in order to assure domestic tranquility in the large metropolis, had to make some provisions for the availability of short-term credit for the poor of the city. Many Italian cities, wishing neither to allow their Christian inhabitants to engage in moneylending nor to tolerate any Jewish moneylending in their midst, established institutions known as monti di pieta. Luzzatto’s intention was to refute Christian arguments advanced against Jewish moneylending. Yet, interestingly, his refutation became yet another link in the chain of ongoing polemics.
