Anna and Tranquillo
by Kenneth Stow, Yale, £20
In May 1749 Anna del Monte, a young Jewish woman, was escorted by papal police to the Roman House of Converts. Over 13 days, vigorous attempts to convert her to Christianity proved futile and Anna was allowed to return home.
At this period, an average of 10 Jewish people every year were exposed to the methods of the Casa: a versatile mix of preaching and instruction, cajolement and threat. A strong majority of those who entered the House of Converts went on to be baptised, so Anna’s story was unusual; and she also stands out because of the intimate account she wrote of her experiences. It was only circulated decades later, during the 1790s, by Anna’s brother, Tranquillo, as part of his campaign to expand Jewish rights in the Papal States. With new freedoms arriving for Jews in post-revolutionary France and America, Tranquillo articulated a legitimate “animus against the absurdity of Roman Jewish life at the end of the 18th century”.
