Trent 1475
Stories of a Ritual Murder Trial
R. Po-chia Hsia
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Price: $25.00
September 25, 1996
204 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/4
12 b/w illus.
ISBN: 9780300068726
Paper
Published in cooperation with Yeshiva University Library
In this engrossing book, R. Po-chia Hsia reconstructs the events of this tragic persecution, drawing principally on the Yeshiva Manuscript, a detailed trial record made by authorities in Trent to justify their execution of the Jews and to bolster the case for the canonization of "Little Martyr Simon." Hsia depicts the Jewish victims (whose testimonies contain fragmentary stories of their tragic lives as well as forced confessions of kidnap, torture, and murder), the prosecuting magistrates, the hostile witnesses, and the few Christian neighbors who tried in vain to help the Jews. Setting the trial and its documents in the historical context of medieval blood libel, Hsia vividly portrays how fact and fiction can be blurred, how judicial torture can be couched in icy orderliness and impersonality, and how religious rites can be interpreted as ceremonies of barbarism.
"A highly readable report of one of the most notorious chapters in the history of anti-Semitism. The book gives the modern historian and the general public access to the stunning spectacle of medieval ’due process,’ the assumptions of the persecutors, and the experiences of the victims."—Heiko A. Oberman, author of Luther: Man between God and the Devil
"The horrible story of judicial torture, false witness, conversions exacted on the promise of less painful forms of execution, is told calmly and with scholarly care."—Frank Kermode, London Review of Books
"Specialists and non-specialists will find this a stimulating and rewarding work."—Stephen D. Benin, Religious Studies Review
"Po-chia Hsia’s riveting narrative combines exacting scholarship with sensitivity in addressing this painful aspect of European experience and makes the 15th century Prozess manuscript come alive as a key witness to it."—Lester A. Segal, Italian Quarterly
