CALL FOR PAPERS – The Jews, the arts and the Mediterranean (1450-1750)

International Conference

The Medici Archive Project, in collaboration with the Université de Versailles–Saint-Quentin and the Fondazione Ugo e Olga Levi, is organizing an international conference on Jewish artistic culture, patronage, production in the early modern Mediterranean.
A period of major sociopolitical transformations and profound cultural and spiritual ruptures—from the discovery of the New World to the rise of religious dissent—the early modern era marked for Jews the beginning of a long phase of arbitrary legal impositions, among which were the creation of ghettos, fi rst in Italy and then in the rest of Europe. Despite these legal, economic, and social discriminations, small groups of Jewish intellectuals, artists, musicians, and artisans managed to weave fruitful relationships with the cultural and political elites of Italian and Southern European courts. Starting from this premise, some strands of historiography have often failed to recognize the interpenetrating interactions that took place beyond, and the connections that were triggered between different social groups thanks to the porous nature of the barriers of separation.

Clear evidence of this phenomenon can be found in the world of craftsmanship and the arts, both visual and musical. A systematic review of historical sources shows that in these areas the legal restrictions imposed upon Jews were repeatedly disregarded—by Jews and Christians alike. Such “exceptions” often extended far beyond the specifi c spheres of the disciplines involved, giving rise to more complex exchanges.

The purpose of this conference is to identify, contextualize, and historically defi ne the signifi cance of these phenomena; to analyze the education, working conditions, and material production of Jewish musicians, artists, and artisans in the early modern Mediterranean. All forms of artistic production (music, visual arts, performing arts) and craftsmanship were essential activities for the functioning of daily life, and in particular for the artistic life (theater, concerts, performances, visual arts) of a court, a city, or a given place. The organizers—Piergabriele Mancuso (The Medici Archive project/Fondazione Ugo e Olga Levi) and Jorge Morales (Université de Versailles–Saint-Quentin)—invite proposals for 20-minute unpublished papers in English, Italian, French, which address topics including, but not limited to:

• Collecting and Patronage Patterns (Visual Arts, Literature, Music and Theater)
• Decorative Arts
• Jews as Artistic Brokers
• The Ottoman Empire and the West
• The Jewish Maghreb
• Port Cities and Cultural Exchange
• Women and the Arts
• Book and Print Culture
• Artistic Dialogue between Sephardic, Italian, and Ashkenazi Cultures
• The Architecture of Sacred Spaces
• Northern European Jews in the Mediterranean
• Artistic Theory and Practice

 

The conference will take place at Palazzo Alberti in Florence on 12 June 2026

To apply: please send a PDF with an abstract (max 250 words) and a short bio (max 100 words) by 1 March 2026 to education@medici.org

Successful applicants will be notified on 1 April 2026.

Selected papers will be included in an edited volume published by the Medici Archive Project
Series with Brepols/Harvey Miller