Livorno European printing capital
Throughout the eighteenth century, ships from all countries docked in the Medici Harbour and the town became an attractive stopping-off place for travellers on their Grand Tour. It became so renowned that the playwright Carlo Goldoni, who spent considerable time here, set his “Holiday Trilogy” (1761) in Livorno and Montenero, the hill to the south of Livorno where rich locals built villas to which they would habitually return in the summer months, to escape the sultry heat of the town and defend themselves against cholera epidemics. In the eighteenth century, Livorno was one of the most important printing centres in Italy, not just on account of the number of publishers and the sheer quality and precision of the printing work, but also because of the judicious choice of works published.
Indeed, only in Livorno, which also enjoyed a certain freedom at social and political level (in the Grand Duchy it was said “A Tuscan law will last a week, a Livorno law just a day”), it was possible to print works like the third edition of the “Encyclopédie” by Diderot and d’Alembert (1770-1778) or the first edition of a fundamental text of the Italian Enlightenment like “On Crimes and Punishments” (1764) by Cesare Beccaria. Another distinctive feature of Livorno is the enormous iconographic heritage it has built up over the centuries: it is one of the Italian cities with the largest collection of antique prints.
The Jews in Livorno
With the legislation known as the Leggi Livornine of 1591 and 1593, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany resolved to attract to Livorno a large number of Spanish and Portuguese Jews (Sephardic, from Sefar, Spain in Hebrew) expelled from the Iberian peninsula in the fifteenth century. They were offered many concessions (owning real estate, for example), which prompted the arrival of a great number of Jews in Livorno, bringing their commercial knowledge and skill with them.
The town developed rapidly with the Jews, but other nationalities were also attracted by the commercial incentives of the free port. In a short space of time, the Jews made up 10% of the whole population. They built a synagogue (the second in Europe in terms of size and beauty, after that of Amsterdam) which was unfortunately destroyed by the bombings of the Second World War.
The Jews in Livorno could worship freely and Livorno never had a ghetto, one of the few places in Europe. The climate of tolerance and privileges accorded promoted the flourishing of Judaic studies. In this respect, Livorno established itself as the ideal city for at least three centuries: rabbis and scholars came here and found a favourable environment, patrons willing to support them and finance studies and publications; there were also educational and Talmudic institutions, each provided with a well-stocked library. The tombs of the major Jewish figures who lived in Livorno can still be visited today in the Monumental Cemetery in Via Ippolito Nievo.