DAVID I. KERTZER: “THE
KIDNAPPING OF EDGARDO MORTARA”; Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1997.
A non carefully worked out and a very non unknown chapter of the European
history, despite of its important consequences, the kidnapping of the Jewish boy Edgardo Mortara by the authorities of the Inquisition and his adoption by the Pope Pio IX, is was masterly discussed in this book.
According to the old education of the Church, any
baptized kid can''t be living with their Jewish
family, this six years old kid was snatched from his family and was carried to Rome to be educated in a monastery when they were realized by the parish of Bologna that the Mortara''s maid had baptized him in secret.
In spite of these kind of situtations were not usual in Italy and they were normally forgotten without any announcement, the Mortara''s case was becoming famous due to its uncommon timing during the big historic changes taking place and of which, as per Kertzer opinion, this episode contributed to precipitate. Because it''s about the first
days of the secular Italy, abolition of the Papal States, the revolutionary campaign of Mazzini and Garibaldi. Anyway, first days of the modernity.
The Mortara''s penuries in their
long and unsuccesful fight to recover the son, all the legal confrontations, the press contribution and the worldwide opinion, the Church
behaviour, the Jewis communities behaviour. Cleverly, the author interweave all of this like a thriller where there are more questions than answers... Has been true that that girl get baptized that boy when he was a baby? If she did, why she did it? By fanaticism? By revenge? By ignorance? Why the wealthy Jewish have been taken christian maids when they knew about this risk?
A very interesting book, very well writen, not difficult reading and where the political and historical context and the very long trial transcriptions, don''t overshadow the human characters, the Mortara''s and their play.
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