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Jewish Bankers
The Italian Norzi or Norsa family, whose name derives from the Umbrian city of Norsa, is documented from 1369 in Ferrara, Mantua and other places in Northern Italy, mainly in connection with banking activities.
Manuel Norzi moved from Rimini to Mantua in 1428 and obtained permission to open a loan bank (condotta). Leone Norzi and others were authorized in 1482 to trade in wool and silk cloths.
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The Italian Norzi or Norsa family, whose name derives from the Umbrian city of Norsa, is documented from 1369 in Ferrara, Mantua and other places in Northern Italy, mainly in connection with banking activities.
Manuel Norzi moved from Rimini to Mantua in 1428 and obtained permission to open a loan bank (condotta). Leone Norzi and others were authorized in 1482 to trade in wool and silk cloths.
Click for further information
Jewish Bankers
The Italian Norzi or Norsa family, whose name derives from the Umbrian city of Norsa, is documented from 1369 in Ferrara, Mantua and other places in Northern Italy, mainly in connection with banking activities.
Manuel Norzi moved from Rimini to Mantua in 1428 and obtained permission to open a loan bank (condotta). Leone Norzi and others were authorized in 1482 to trade in wool and silk cloths.
Click for further information
The Italian Norzi or Norsa family, whose name derives from the Umbrian city of Norsa, is documented from 1369 in Ferrara, Mantua and other places in Northern Italy, mainly in connection with banking activities.
Manuel Norzi moved from Rimini to Mantua in 1428 and obtained permission to open a loan bank (condotta). Leone Norzi and others were authorized in 1482 to trade in wool and silk cloths.
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The Mantua branch was the wealthiest and most important of the family. Daniele Norzi, authorized by Duke Gonzaga to engage in money-lending, appears on a painting made by an unknown painter, now at the Basilica of S. Andrea in Mantua, with three other members of his family wearing the Jewish badge. This painting is linked to an incident in 1493 when Daniele Norzi settled in Mantua, where he bought a house which had a painting representing the Virgin on its façade; its erasure by Daniele, although authorized by the bishop, caused a general uproar. Norzi first had to pay 1,100 gold ducats to the painter Andrea Mantegna for a painting of the Madonna (now at the Louvre). The Madonna della Vittoria was commissioned by Francesco II Gonzaga to commemorate the victory over the French troops of Charles VIII at Fornovo, near Parma, July 6, 1495. A year after the battle, the painting was carried in a solemn procession to the new church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, the church that Marquis Giovanni Francesco II Gonzaga ordered Norzi to be built on its premises. The unknown painter, basing his theme on the Mantegna painting, made a new version with the Norzi family at the foot of the Virgin throne.
The Norzi family played an important role in the life of the community of Mantua. Many members of the family, pupils of Joseph Colon and Judah b. Jehiel Messer Leon, became rabbis celebrated for their learning beyond Italy. Sara da Pisa, wife of Isaac Norzi donated the gilt wooden Torah Ark and monumental carved chairs for the Great Synagogue of Mantua in 1543.
Benjamin ben Immanuel Norzi wrote Sod La'asot Lu'ach (1477; in Ms.), a study of the Jewish calendar, as well as commentaries on rulings by R. Isaac Tiburino and on the Talmud tractates Pesachim, Yoma, Sukkah, Yom Tov, Rosh Ha-Shanah, and Megillah.
Raphael ben Gabriel (1520–1583?) rabbi in Ferrara and Mantua, was author of various works on rational ethics in religious questions: Se'ach Solet (Mantua, 1561); Marpe la-Nefesh (Mantua, 1561; Venice, 1571); and Orach Chayyim (Venice, 1549; Amsterdam, 1557). He exchanged polemics with the rabbi of Ferrara. A kinah was published on the occasion of his death.
Eliezer ben David Norzi (16th century), son of a banker from Mantua and cousin of Raphael ben Gabriel, wrote a commentary on Abraham Ibn Ezra's Sefer ha-Shem (1834, ch. 6), dealing with the significance of letters and of the Holy Name. The geometrical diagrams in the commentary indicate that he had knowledge of mathematics.
Moses ben Jedidiah Solomon (d. 1590) was a rabbi in Mantua and author of a commentary to tractate Middot. Solomon ben Samuel, a 16th-century scholar, wrote responsa (Mantua, 1588).
JehieL Vidal ben Jedidiah Solomon (d. 1665), son of the rabbi and scholar Jedidiah Solomon Raphael ben Abraham Norzi, was appointed rabbi of Mantua in 1628 shortly before the expulsion of the Jews from the town, when he led the exiles to San Martino. They resettled in Mantua in 1630 and he devoted himself to the community until his death. He was often at variance with his community. His responsa are scattered in the archives of the community and in works by contemporaries.
Moses ben Jedidiah Solomon, rabbi in Mantua in the 17th century, brother of Jehiel, corresponded with Samuel Aboab.
Jedidiah Solomon ben Abraham Norzi (1560–1616) was a rabbi and biblical scholar, among his works is the Minchat Say. Chayyim ben Jehiel (d. c. 1698), who sat on the rabbinical tribunal of Mantua in 1665, was a sofer in 1677 and became rabbi of the community with the assent of Moses Zacuto in 1685. With Zacuto and other rabbis he drew up the statutes of the community in 1677, and issued moral precepts for the Jews of Mantua. Some of his responsa were recorded by Zacuto and other poskim of that time. He is often confused with another rabbi of the same name of the 16th century.
Isaac ben Moses Norsa was rabbi in Ferrara in the 18th century, and author of a ruling on shchitah as part of a Talmudic discussion held at Ferrara and presided over by Isaac Lampronti. Umberto Norsa (1866–1943), was a scholar and translator into Italian from various languages, including the Psalms (1926, not published), and was president of the community of Mantua.
The former synagogue of the family, the so-called Norsa-Torrazzo Synagogue which was destroyed when the ghetto was demolished, has been entirely reconstructed on the present community premises in Via Govi, and is now the only synagogue in Mantua.
The Norzi family played an important role in the life of the community of Mantua. Many members of the family, pupils of Joseph Colon and Judah b. Jehiel Messer Leon, became rabbis celebrated for their learning beyond Italy. Sara da Pisa, wife of Isaac Norzi donated the gilt wooden Torah Ark and monumental carved chairs for the Great Synagogue of Mantua in 1543.
Benjamin ben Immanuel Norzi wrote Sod La'asot Lu'ach (1477; in Ms.), a study of the Jewish calendar, as well as commentaries on rulings by R. Isaac Tiburino and on the Talmud tractates Pesachim, Yoma, Sukkah, Yom Tov, Rosh Ha-Shanah, and Megillah.
Raphael ben Gabriel (1520–1583?) rabbi in Ferrara and Mantua, was author of various works on rational ethics in religious questions: Se'ach Solet (Mantua, 1561); Marpe la-Nefesh (Mantua, 1561; Venice, 1571); and Orach Chayyim (Venice, 1549; Amsterdam, 1557). He exchanged polemics with the rabbi of Ferrara. A kinah was published on the occasion of his death.
Eliezer ben David Norzi (16th century), son of a banker from Mantua and cousin of Raphael ben Gabriel, wrote a commentary on Abraham Ibn Ezra's Sefer ha-Shem (1834, ch. 6), dealing with the significance of letters and of the Holy Name. The geometrical diagrams in the commentary indicate that he had knowledge of mathematics.
Moses ben Jedidiah Solomon (d. 1590) was a rabbi in Mantua and author of a commentary to tractate Middot. Solomon ben Samuel, a 16th-century scholar, wrote responsa (Mantua, 1588).
JehieL Vidal ben Jedidiah Solomon (d. 1665), son of the rabbi and scholar Jedidiah Solomon Raphael ben Abraham Norzi, was appointed rabbi of Mantua in 1628 shortly before the expulsion of the Jews from the town, when he led the exiles to San Martino. They resettled in Mantua in 1630 and he devoted himself to the community until his death. He was often at variance with his community. His responsa are scattered in the archives of the community and in works by contemporaries.
Moses ben Jedidiah Solomon, rabbi in Mantua in the 17th century, brother of Jehiel, corresponded with Samuel Aboab.
Jedidiah Solomon ben Abraham Norzi (1560–1616) was a rabbi and biblical scholar, among his works is the Minchat Say. Chayyim ben Jehiel (d. c. 1698), who sat on the rabbinical tribunal of Mantua in 1665, was a sofer in 1677 and became rabbi of the community with the assent of Moses Zacuto in 1685. With Zacuto and other rabbis he drew up the statutes of the community in 1677, and issued moral precepts for the Jews of Mantua. Some of his responsa were recorded by Zacuto and other poskim of that time. He is often confused with another rabbi of the same name of the 16th century.
Isaac ben Moses Norsa was rabbi in Ferrara in the 18th century, and author of a ruling on shchitah as part of a Talmudic discussion held at Ferrara and presided over by Isaac Lampronti. Umberto Norsa (1866–1943), was a scholar and translator into Italian from various languages, including the Psalms (1926, not published), and was president of the community of Mantua.
The former synagogue of the family, the so-called Norsa-Torrazzo Synagogue which was destroyed when the ghetto was demolished, has been entirely reconstructed on the present community premises in Via Govi, and is now the only synagogue in Mantua.
Click to Enlarge the Norzi Family