The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara (60 page)

2
.
Journal de Bruxelles.
September 18, 1858. Reprinted in
Archives Israélites
19 (October 1858):558–9.

3
. A brief history of
L’armonia della religione colla civiltà
and an analysis of its writings on the Mortara case can be found in Floriana Naldi,
Il caso Mortara: Il processo nel 1860 e le reazioni della stampa ecclesiastica ed ebraica,
tesi di laurea, Università de Bologna, 1993, pp. 61–87. For an analysis of the writings of the Italian press, see Grazia Parisi,
Il caso Mortara: Il processo del 1860 e le reazioni della stampa italiana,
tesi di laurea, Università di Bologna, 1993.

4
. “Notizie del giovanetto cristiano Mortara,”
L’armonia della religione colla civiltà,
October 17, 1860.

5
. Momolo Mortara’s testimony at the trial of Feletti, Bologna, February 6, 1858.

6
. “Il piccolo neofito, Edgardo Mortara,” p. 406. For a widely circulated pamphlet, in both French and Italian editions, polemicizing with the
Civiltà Cattolica
article, see
Roma e la opinione pubblica d’Europa nel fatto Mortara
(Turin, 1859).

7
. “Il piccolo neofito, Edgardo Mortara,” p. 400.

8
. Ibid., p. 391.
L’armonia
(October 31, 1858, p. 2) took up this theme, blaming the clamor created by the Mortara case on the fact that “the major part of the influential newspapers are in the hands of the Jews.”

9
. These letters, on
Civiltà Cattolica
stationery, are found in ASCIR.

10
. “Al
Journal des Débats,
Parigi,”
L’osservatore bolognese,
29 October 1858.

11
. “Edgardo Mortara,”
Il vero amico,
December 5, 1858. For background on this and other of Bologna’s newspapers of this period, see Isabella Zanni Rosiello, “Aspetti del giornalismo bolognese,” in
Il 1859–60 a Bologna
(1961).

12
. “L’unione e il popolo,”
Il Cattolico,
December 1, 1858, p. 1.

13
. For an examination of a fifteenth-century charge of Jewish ritual murder, see R. Po-Chia Hsia,
Trent 1475: Stories of a Ritual Murder Trial
(1992).

14
. “Orrendo assassino di un fanciullo,”
Il Cattolico,
January 26, 1859, front page.

15
. S. Cahen, “Chronique du mois,”
Archives Israélites,
March 1859, pp. 180–1.

16
. Vincenzo Manzini,
L’omicidio rituale e i sacrifici umani, con particolare riguardo alle accuse contro gli ebrei
(1925), pp. 143–5.

17
.
Civiltà Cattolica,
ser. 15, vol. 5 (1893), p. 269.

18
. Ibid., ser. 13, vol. 2 (1886), p. 437.

19
. Ibid., ser. 15, vol. 2 (1892), p. 138.

20
. “L’ebreo di Bologna e le bombe di Giuseppe Mazzini,”
L’armonia della religione colla civiltà,
August 17, 1858.

21
. “I papi, gli ebrei, e i giornali italianissimi nel 1853 e nel 1858,”
L’armonia della religione colla civiltà,
October 3, 1858.

22
. Antonio Gramsci,
Quaderni del carcere,
vol. 3 (1975), P. 2035.

23
. Delacouture,
Le droit canon,
p. 44.

24
. Ibid.

25
. Letter from Carlo Archbishop Sacconi, nunzio apostolico, Paris, to Cardinal Antonelli, December 19, 1859, ASV-SS, fasc. 3, n. 164.

26
. Giovanni Battista Clara,
Memorie per la storia de’nostri tempi,
vol. 1 (1863), pp. 206–14.

27
. Letter from Cardinal Antonelli, Rome, to the Monsignor Nunzio Apostolico, Paris, December 30, 1858, ASV-SS, fasc. 3, n. 166.

28
. Letter from Carlo Sacconi, Paris, to Cardinal Antonelli, January 17, 1859. In Gabriele,
Il carteggio Antonelli-Sacconi,
letter N. 1179, p. 18.

CHAPTER 15

1
. The Pro-memoria and the Syllabus are to be found in ASV-Pio IX. These documents were used as the basis of Sharon Stahl’s doctoral dissertation,
The Mortara Affair, 1858
(St. Louis University, 1987), and I make use of her translations from the Latin portions of these texts.

2
. “Brevi cenni e riflessioni sul Pro-memoria e sillabo, scritture umiliate alla Santità de Nostro Signore Papa Pio IX relative al battesimo conferito a Bologna al fanciullo Edgardo figlio degli Ebrei Salomone e Marianna Mortara.” ASV-SS, fasc. 1, n. 88. Addressed to the nuncios of Vienna, Munich, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Brussels, Naples, The Hague, and Florence; to the representatives to Lucerne and Turin; and to the apostolic delegates to Panama, Bogotá, and Mexico. The names of the Latin American representatives have all been crossed out in pencil, which may mean that the materials were not, in the end, sent to them.

3
. See “Cronaca,”
Il Cattolico,
November 4, 1858, p. 1.

4
.
Brevi cenni,
p. 8.

5
. Ibid.

6
. Ibid., p. 18.

7
. Ibid., p. 12.

8
. Ibid., p. 27.

9
. Bajesi remains a mystery figure in the Mortara case. She never came to the attention of the magistrate who later investigated the matter in connection with the kidnapping trial of the Inquisitor. The parish records of San Gregorio reveal that she lived near the Mortaras when they first moved to Bologna but then shortly thereafter left the parish. Of course, it is possible that Bajesi heard of the matter not directly from Regina Bussolari but from a third party who had heard of the baptism from Bussolari.

10
. Ibid. The capitalization is in the original.

11
. Capitalization in original.

12
. Ibid., pp. 30–31.

13
.
Dubbi critico-teologici sul battesimo che si pretende conferito in Padova alla Signora Regina Bianchini
.… (1786), p. 5. A copy of this document is found in the Archiginnasio di Bologna.

14
. My account of the Bianchini case is based on the above-cited source, an anonymous thirty-one-page booklet written by a man who describes himself as a “
private,”
responding to the great public interest in the case.

15
.
Brevi cenni,
p. 22.

16
. Ibid., pp. 22–3.

17
. Commandant Weil, “Un précédent de l’affaire Mortara,”
Revue historique
137. Reprinted as pamphlet (Paris, 1921), p. 3. This quote is from Count de Rayneval’s letter of June 26, 1840, to M. Thiers in Paris. Weil reproduces much of the relevant French diplomatic correspondence, and the texts of the correspondence I use here are drawn from this source.

18
. Ibid.

19
. Ibid., p. 5.

20
. Ibid., pp. 7–8.

21
. Ibid., p. 15. Letter from Count de Rayneval to Cardinal Lambruschini, July 21, 1840.

22
. Ibid., pp. 9–10. Letter from Count de Rayneval to M. Thiers, July 17, 1840.

23
. Ibid., p. 12. Letter from Cardinal Lambruschini, Quirinale palace, Rome, July 18, 1840, addressed to Monsieur le chargé d’affaires de S.M. le roi des Français.

24
. Ibid., pp. 10–13. Letter from Count Rayneval to M. Thiers, July 27, 1840.

25
. Massari,
Diario, vol. 1858–60,
p. 95.

26
. Frank Coppa,
Pope Pius IX: Crusader in a Secular Age
(1979), p. 129.

27
. Luigi Previti, “La circolare del gran maestro della Massoneria,”
Civiltà Cattolica,
ser. 13, vol. 12 (1888):391.

28
. Dufault,
Vie anecdotique,
pp. 131–2.

29
. Louis Veuillot,
Le parfum de Rome. Oeuvres complètes,
vol. 9 (1926), pp. 448–51.

30
. Moroni Romano, “Ebrei,” p. 29; Di Porto, “Gli ebrei di Roma,” p. 30.

31
. The account of this meeting is based primarily on Berliner,
Storia degli ebrei,
pp. 305–7. Also see Di Porto, “Gli ebrei di Roma,” p. 59.

32
. Quoted in Martina,
Pio IX,
p. 34n53. Martina provides no date for this encounter.

CHAPTER 16

1
. Letter from Momolo Mortara to S. Scazzocchio, December 3, 1858, ASCIR.

2
. Letter from S. Scazzocchio to Momolo Mortara, December 7, 1858, ASCIR.

3
. Israel Davis, “Moses Montefiore,”
Jewish Encyclopedia
(1901) vol. 8, pp. 668–70.

4
. On the extended Rothschild family, see Egon Caesar Corti,
The Reign of the House of Rothschild,
trans. by Brian and Beatrix Lunn (1928); and Virginia Cowles,
The Rothschilds: A Family of Fortune
(1973).

5
. This description of Montefiore’s Damascus mission is based principally on the account found in Myrtle Franklin with Michael Bor,
Sir Moses Montefiore, 1784–1885
(1984), pp. 41–57.

6
. Letter from Moses Montefiore to the Deputati dell’ Università Israelitica di Reggio, January 17, 5001 [year given according to Hebrew calendar], ASRE-AN, b. 28. The other documents sent by Montefiore are also found here.

7
. Chaim Bermant,
The Cousinhood: The Anglo-Jewish Gentry
(1971), pp. 104–5.

8
. L. Loewe, ed.,
Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore
(1890), pp. 85–6.

9
. The exchange of letters between Montefiore and Eardley was reprinted in
The Jewish Chronicle and Hebrew Observer
(London), December 31, 1858, p. 2.

10
. Among those accompanying Montefiore was Gershom Kursheedt, a Jewish businessman from New Orleans who was living in London at the time. As noted by Korn,
American Reaction,
p. 157, Kursheedt went as the “unofficial representative of American Jewry,” and as such his trip constituted the first direct intervention of the American Jewish community on behalf of Jews abroad. This is a rather tenuous claim, however, as just what role he had in Rome is hard to see. Montefiore himself makes virtually no mention of him, and Kursheedt did not attend any of the crucial meetings there with Sir Moses.

11
. Loewe,
Diaries of Sir Moses Montefiore,
p. 103.

12
. “Return of Sir Moses Montefiore,”
The Jewish Chronicle and Hebrew Observer,
May 27, 1859, p. 4.

13
. Isidore Cahen, “Chronique du mois,”
Archives Israélites,
July 1859, pp. 423–4.

14
. Ibid.

15
. Volli, “Il caso Mortara nell’ opinione pubblica,” p. 1117.

16
. The handwritten account by Enrico Sarra, Rector of the Catechumens, that includes this information is found in ACC #184, entry n. 317, pp. 95–6.

17
. Letter from Scazzocchio to Angelo Padovani, Bologna, February 1, 1859, ASCIR.

18
. The source for this account is Edgardo himself, from the autobiographical notes he wrote in 1878, which were republished in the appendix of Masetti Zannini, “Nuovi documenti,” pp. 264–5. We have no direct verification from papal records.

19
. This is the account given in Moroni Romano, in his entry for “Chiese di Roma—S. Pietro in Vinculis,” in his
Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastico,
vol. 13 (1843), P. 6.

20
. This passage of Veuillot is reproduced in Dufault,
Vie anecdotique,
pp. 125–9.

CHAPTER 17

1
. Giambattista Casoni,
Cinquant’anni di giornalismo 1846–1900
(1908), vol. 2, p. 21.

2
. Cited in “Spoglio dei giornali,”
Gazzetta del popolo
(Bologna), January 11, 1860, p. 3.

3
. Arturo Carlo Jemolo,
Chiesa e stato in Italia dal Risorgimento ad oggi
(1955), pp. 49–50.

4
. Martina,
Pio IX,
p. 34. Recall that according to Pius IX’s eminent French biographer Roger Aubert (
Il pontificato,
p. 145), it was the Pope’s actions in the Mortara case that led Napoleon III to drop his last hesitations before agreeing to the dismantling of the Pope’s earthly empire. Or, in the words of the British historian J. Derek Holmes (in
The Triumph,
p. 126), it was the Mortara case that “once again raised the question of temporal power and ecclesiastical autocracy” and “prepared French opinion for a shift in Napoleon’s foreign policy.”

5
. Bottrigari,
Cronaca,
vol. 2, p. 446.

6
. “Cronaca contemporanea—Notificazione dell’Em. Legato di Bologna,”
Civiltà Cattolica,
ser. 4, vol. 3, p. 103.

7
. My description of the events surrounding the departure of the Austrian troops from Bologna is based primarily on Bottrigari,
Cronaca,
vol. 2, pp. 460–4.

8
. Alberto Dallolio, “Bologna nel 1859,” in
Bologna nella storia d’Italia
(1933), p. 163.

9
. Fantini, “Un arcivescovo bolognese,” p. 220; also see Fantini, “Il clero bolognese nella crisi del 1859–60,”
Bollettino del Museo del Risorgimento di Bologna
3(1958):109–61.

10
. Letter from Odo Russell to Lord J.R., July 22, 1859, no. 94, in Blakiston,
The Roman Question,
pp. 26–7.

11
. This description is based on Bottrigari,
Cronaca,
vol. 2, pp. 479–82, including the story from Bologna’s
Monitore,
which he reprints.

12
. “Popoli della campagna,”
Gazzetta del popolo,
August 17, 1859.

13
. The text of Farini’s declaration can be found as appendix E in Francesco Jussi,
Studi e ricordi di Foro Criminale per l’avvocato Francesco Jussi
(1884).