Jews and Magic in Medici Florence

Edward Goldberg reveals the dramas of daily life behind the scenes in the Pitti Palace and in the narrow byways of the Florentine Ghetto, using thousands of new documents from the Medici Granducal Archive.

Edward Goldberg is an art historian and a long-time resident of Florence. He has worked for more than thirty years in the Medici Granducal Archive.

‘Edward Goldberg’s fascinating and compulsively readable study of Benedetto Blains, is all the more remarkable for the vividness with which he is able to reconstitute the life and thought of this ambitious and troubled man.’

Giuseppe Veltri:

‘These are two fascinating books…. Edward Goldberg presents us with an excellent edition of the letters of Blains and a monograph on this enigmatic Jew… the two books are a treasure trove of knowledge and details as well as a look into the fascinating era of the late Renaissance and the dei Medici period.’

Hallie Cantor:
‘ Never a dull read, this book provides fine background to the Jews of that region… Recommended for college libraries with Jewish or European history collections.’

Giulio Busi; Storia Moderna: October 2011:
‘Goldberg has sifted the correspondence between Blanis and Don Giovanni, rich with two hundred letters, plus other archival sources, in order to deduce a new image of Counter Reformation Tuscany. ’

Lucia Frattarelli Fischer, Interdepartmental Centre of Jewish Studies, University of Pisa:
'Suspenseful and compelling, Jews and Magic in Medici Florence plunges readers into the lives and destinies of two figures who strove to explain the world through the language of magical power—Benedetto Blanis, a learned Jew, and Don Giovanni dei Medici, the Duke of Tuscany's one-time unacknowledged son. Edward Goldberg's great narrative talent is revealed through his faithful, flowing translations of Blanis' letters and his vibrant reconstruction of everyday Florentine life.'

Robert Bonfil, Department of History of the Jewish People, Hebrew University of Jerusalem:
This dazzling, valuable biography combines Edward Goldberg's thorough archival expertise with his fresh, fluent writing style to create a vividly detailed portrait of Benedetto Blanis and seventeenth-century Florence. Goldberg compellingly shows how the episodes of Blanis' life reflected a complex, deeply moving response to the conditions of baroque Italian society. Since our knowledge concerning Jewish life in this period is considerably limited, Jews and Magic in Medici Florence must be welcomed as a superb achievement adding substantial components to this puzzle. Travellers can also use it as a muse as they stroll through the narrow lanes of the historical centre of Florence, wondering what it may have been like to walk there five hundred years ago.