Two Sales/Loan Documents of Jewish Merchants, Venice: August 14, 1559

2 leaves (17 1/2 x 8 3/8 in.; 445 x 214 mm; 13 x 7 in.; 332 x 180 mm), written in brown ink on parchment in an elegant notarial Italic script. Signed by the notary Antonius Maria Vincentibus and with his cipher on both leaves; larger leaf with witnesses' signatures; notarial indexing on versos. Creased at folds. Larger leaf with two small holes, each affecting a single letter, and a natural parchment defect at lower corner. Light marginal finger soiling. 

Mark R. Cohen, The Autobiography of a Seventeenth-century Venetian Rabbi: Leon Modena's Life of Judah, Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press 1988, p. 81; Achille Olivieri, Marc’Antonio Calbo, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol 16 (1973); A.M. Habermann, in: Aresheth, 1 (1959), 61–90; A. Yaari, Diglei ha-Madpisim ha-Ivriyyim (1944), nos. 14, 35, 36; idem, in: KS, 30 (1955), 113–7; D.W. Amram, Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (1909), index.

Two sales contracts executed in Venice, and dated August 14, 1559, enumerating objects sold by Marc Antonio Calbo to the Jews, Michael di Mandolino (Mikhael ben Mendel ) and Angelo Jacobi (Mordechai Gumpeln ben Yaacov) of Parenzo. The goods included strazzaria (used clothing) as well as pearls and gold and silver jewelry, Signed by the notary Antonius Maria Vincentibus with offices in St. Barnabas and witnessed by Leonardo Simonis Petassii of Carnia and Andrea Barcharolo son of Joannis Pietoris.

With the rise of economic and social role of strazzaroli (used clothing merchants) among Jews in the Veneto from the mid-fifteenth century onward, it became common to link this kind of sales contract to what were actually loans. Designed to avoid restrictions on certain kinds of Jewish commerce, the seller (or borrower) receives cash in exchange for certain goods. The “loan” is then considered repaid in advance by virtue of the disposal of the items by the purchaser (lender). This legal fiction allowed for interest rates (already included in the valuation), beyond the maximum amount of 12% mandated by Venetian legislation.

It is therefore somewhat ironic that the seller (borrower) is the Venetian nobleman Marco Antonio Calvo, (ca. 1470-1562), former Mayor and Captain of Rovigo and one of four Venetians elected "Syndic of the Levant.” In this extremely important and prestigious office, Calvo had the authority to adjudicate legal matters on behalf of the City-State in the outlying reaches of Venetian influence.

The buyers (lenders) are two Ashkenazi Jews: Michael ben Mendel and Mordechai Gumpel ben  Yaacov of Parenzo. Mordechai is remembered by Leone Modena in his autobiography (Hayyei Yehudah):

My revered father’s wife Peninah died in the year [5]329 (1568-1569), … He [then] married Rachel, …  from a family of Ashkenazim. She was at that time the widow of Mordechai, Known as Gumpeln Parenzo, the brother of Meir Parenzo.

Mordechai’s brother, Meir Parenzo trained at the Bomberg press, where he worked together with Cornelio Adelkind.