The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara [Hardcover]

David I. Kertzer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 6, 1997

Bologna, 1858: A police posse, acting on the orders of a Catholic inquisitor, invades the home of a Jewish merchant, Momolo Mortara, wrenches his crying six-year-old son from his arms, and rushes him off in a carriage bound for Rome. His mother is so distraught that she collapses and has to be taken to a neighbor's house, but her weeping can be heard across the city. With this terrifying scene--one that would haunt this family forever--David I. Kertzer begins his fascinating investigation of the dramatic kidnapping, and shows how the deep-rooted antisemitism of the Catholic Church would eventually contribute to the collapse of its temporal power in Italy.  As Edgardo's parents desperately search for a way to get their son back, they learn why he--out of all their eight children--was taken. Years earlier, the family's Catholic serving girl, fearful that the infant might die of an illness, had secretly baptized him (or so she claimed). Edgardo recovered, but when the story reached the Bologna Inquisitor, the result was his order for Edgardo to be seized and sent to a special monastery where Jews were converted into good Catholics. His justification in Church teachings: No Christian child could be raised by Jewish parents.  The case of Edgardo Mortara became an international cause célèbre. Although such kidnappings were not uncommon in Jewish communities across Europe, this time the political climate had changed. As news of the family's plight spread to Britain, where the Rothschilds got involved, to France, where it mobilized Napoleon III, and even to America, public opinion turned against the Vatican. The fate of this one boy came to symbolize the entire revolutionary campaign of Mazzini and Garibaldi to end the dominance of the Catholic Church and establish a modern, secular Italian state.  A riveting story which has been remarkably ignored by modern historians--The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara will prompt intense interest and discussion as it lays bare attitudes of the Catholic Church that would have such enormous consequences in the twentieth century.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Out of seemingly small events are sometimes born great historical moments. The case of young Edgardo Mortara is one. In 1858 the 6-year-old Jewish boy was taken from his parents' home in Bologna, Italy, by agents of the Papal inquisition. The year before, seriously ill, Edgardo had been secretly baptized, by the Mortaras' Catholic servant (or so she claimed); it was against the law for baptized Christians to be raised by Jews, and so, in the eyes of the Church, the kidnapping was only just. Secular Italians did not agree, and thus was set in motion a series of reforms that ended the Church's temporal power in Italy and forged the creation of a liberal, near-democratic state. For his part, young Edgardo became a priest and lived in a Belgian abbey until 1940--just before the invading Germans began to deport and execute all those tainted with Jewish blood. David Kertzer has shaped a remarkable narrative from almost forgotten events.

From Library Journal

Kertzer (Sacrificed for Honor, Beacon, 1993) has uncovered fascinating new information about the unification of Italy. He recounts here the kidnapping of a six-year-old Jewish boy from Bologna who was then raised as a Catholic under the supervision of Pius IX. The incident altered both Italian and church history. What Cavour, Garibaldi, and Victor Emmanuel II could not accomplish in the halls of Versailles and London, and even on the battlefield, the kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara did by arousing antichurch feeling in the cause of national unification. This case is an example of the Catholic Church's institutionalized suppression of the Jews. Kertzer weaves the story into a vivid tapestry that will be appreciated by historians and Italian specialists. Recommended for academic and public libraries with 19th-century revolutionary European or Jewish studies collections.?Harry V. Willems, Southeast Kansas Lib. System, Iola
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 350 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (May 6, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679450319
• ISBN-13: 978-0679450313
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #778,035 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #56 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Jewish

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Research, Exciting Story, Horrifying Incident, April 27, 2001

By 

Ricky Hunter (New York City, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara (Paperback)

David I. Kertzer has written a wonderful account of a pivotal event in Italian, Jewish and Catholic history. The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara tells the story of the 1858 kidnapping of a six year old Jewish boy secretly baptized while a baby by a Catholic servant in the home. From this horrifying personal incident for this Jewish family the panorama of the story grows very large indeed, taking into account the Pope, the governments of Europe, and the forces for the unification of Italy. The author does a superb job of making all of this understandable to the reader. He also never allows the epic scope of the book to overwhelm the family as the centre of all of this controversy. The Mortaras hold a special place in this tragedy as they deserve and the lives lived by Jewish families, such as theirs, in Italy is vividly presented. It is a shocking book, yet very illuminating and well written. Highly recommended.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forces of intellectual liberalism versus medieval power, April 24, 2000

By 

Esther Nebenzahl - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara (Paperback)

This is non-fiction at its best! David Kertzer deserves our applause for such professional and academic research. Using his background in anthropology and history, the author revives the all-forgotten story of the abduction by Catholic Church authorities of a 6 years old Jewish boy, in 1858, under the pretense that the child had been secretly baptized. Church authorities acted with utter contempt for Edgardo's parents, trusted on the belief that the boy would receive eternal damnation where he to remain a Jew. He was adopted by then Pope PiousIX who nurtured for the boy the affection of a father. This rather insignificant event (not unusual at that time in the Papal States) is given a pivoted historial role in the soon to come unification of the Italian states, flaming the forces behind the Risorgimento. The fact received great publicity at the time mainly due to the influence of the Rothschilds and Mr. Moses Montefiore. It's one more tale of prejudice, of abuse of power, reaching the unconceivable.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exemplary microhistory of 19th cent.Italian Jewish relations, October 24, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara (Hardcover)

Prof. Kertzer has written an exemplary microhistory illuminating Italian Christian/Jewish relations on the eve of the Risorgimento. Kertzer's scholarship is excellent and even-handed and uses the Mortara abduction as a prism through which the geopolitics of Italian church/state relations, Christian-Jewish relations, and Italian Jewish identity come into sharp focus during the critical decade during which the Italian state was created. As a former professor of Italian history trained in History and in Anthropology (now Silicon Valley executive), I can say with a fair degree of confidence that this book should appeal equally to the specialist and the general reader. Upon finishing this lively, well-written monograph, my strongest reaction was, "this is a book that I wish I had written." Ronald F.E. Weissman Menlo Park, California