The Jewish Ghetto and the Visual Imagination of Early Modern Venice

Dana E. Katz's study reveals that the marginalization of Venice's Jewish ghetto in 1516 paradoxically amplified its visibility, shaping urban space and Christian-Jewish relations through discourses of sight. The research demonstrates how nocturnal curfews, intended to reduce Jewish presence, instead embedded the ghetto in the sensory imagination of both Christian and Jewish inhabitants. Katz's approach combines historical analysis with spatial and visual discourse studies, uncovering complex, contradictory ways the ghetto influenced urban perceptions and social dynamics.

Katz, D. E. (2017). The Jewish Ghetto and the Visual Imagination of Early Modern Venice. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316691526