ITALY
Italy was split up into many petty states whose boundary lines were constantly shifting. The treatment of the Jews varied in its details according to time and locality but is the same in general throughout mediæval times. It was characterized by restriction of economic liberty and humiliation in social position. The Jews produced quite a number of eminent scholars, physicians (sometimes attending on the Popes), astronomers and translators of Arabic works into Latin. Their economic activity was largely confined to money-lending and, in the fourteenth century, they became the pioneers of banking by combining the pawn-shops in a certain city into companies which were given the exclusive privilege of money-lending.
In the fifteenth century clerical agitation became very strong, and loan associations were formed under priestly management to suppress money-lending by Jews. One of the most notable agitators in this respect was Bernardin of Feltre, who is known through his participation in the ritual murder trial at Trent (1475). Italy became a force in Jewish culture by the establishment of the first Hebrew printing presses. The first book printed seems to have been published in 1474. One of the earliest printed books was the “Psalms” with the commentary of David Kimhi, 1475. The edict of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain affected also those of Sicily and southern Italy, at that time Spanish dependencies. Since that period there has existed no Jewish community in that part of Italy.