Il diritto di giurisdizione sugli ebrei dei vescovi di Terra di Bari: nuovi documenti

Abstract

New documents on the right of jurisdiction held by the bishops of the Land of Bari over the Jews

This article presents an unprecedented sentence emitted in July 1538 to settle a jurisdictional conflict that had arisen between the Sacred Royal Council and the archbishop of Bari, who had affirmed that his authority to judge disputes between Jews was being violated. The lawsuit that the archbishop of Bari was trying to adjudicate, concerned a dispute between a Neapolitan neophyte and his Jewish relatives in Bari over some patrimonial rights related to a dowry. The author also analyzes other documents that prove the jurisdictional power of the archbishop of Bari over the Jews, despite legislation to the contrary of the kingdom of Naples in the Aragonese and Viceregal times. Among the documents that support the rights claimed by the archbishop of Bari are attestations of the concession to a number of bishops of the Land of Bari to judge Jews, and others showing that bishops of the same province could exercise this right even in absence of specific authorization.