The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara

David I. Kertzer

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Dec 30, 2008 - History - 368 pages

Soon to be a major motion picture from Steven Spielberg. 

A National Book Award Finalist

The extraordinary story of how the vatican's imprisonment of a six-year-old Jewish boy in 1858 helped to bring about the collapse of the popes' worldly power in Italy.

Bologna: nightfall, June 1858. A knock sounds at the door of the Jewish merchant Momolo Mortara. Two officers of the Inquisition bust inside and seize Mortara's six-year-old son, Edgardo. As the boy is wrenched from his father's arms, his mother collapses.  The reason for his abduction: the boy had been secretly "baptized" by a family servant.  According to papal law, the child is therefore a Catholic who can be taken from his family and delivered to a special monastery where his conversion will be completed. 
   With this terrifying scene, prize-winning historian David I. Kertzer begins the true story of how one boy's kidnapping became a pivotal event in the collapse of the Vatican as a secular power.  The book evokes the anguish of a modest merchant's family, the rhythms of daily life in a Jewish ghetto, and also explores, through the revolutionary campaigns of Mazzini and Garibaldi and such personages as Napoleon III, the emergence of Italy as a modern national state.  Moving and informative, the Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara reads as both a historical thriller and an authoritative analysis of how a single human tragedy changed the course of history.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - SheldonDeVane - LibraryThing

If you only have time to read one chapter, make it the first one "The Knock at the Door." If you have time to read another chapter, make it the Epilogue at the end. Hopefully, you will feel inspired to read all the chapters in the middle.

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - mbmackay - LibraryThing

True story of the Catholic Inquisition in Italy in 1858 taking a 6 yr old boy from his Jewish family because the illiterate maid had secretly baptised him when he was sick! Stunning story told in great detail. Read Feb 2007

Contents

• Jews in the Land of the Popes: 13
• Days of Desperation: 32
• The House of the Catechumens: 55
• Pope Pius IX: 74
• A Servants Sex Life: 91
• Meeting Mother: 109
• The Church Strikes Back: 129
• A Matter of Principle: 143
• Sir Moses Goes to Rome: 162
• The Inquisitors Arrest: 184
• The Case Against the Inquisitor: 195
• The Inquisitors Trial: 205
• Defending the Inquisitor: 222
• The Rites of Rulers: 238
• New Hopes for Freeing Edgardo: 247
• Edgardos Escape: 256
• Afterword: 299
• Acknowledgments: 305
• Archival Sources and Abbreviations: 329
• Index: 341

About the author

David I. Kertzer is the Paul Dupee, Jr. University Professor of Social Science and professor of anthropology and Italian studies at Brown University, where he served as provost from 2006 to 2011. He is the author of nine books, including The Popes Against the Jews, which was a finalist for the Mark Lynton History Prize, and The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He has twice been awarded the Marraro Prize from the Society for Italian Historical Studies for the best work on Italian history. He and his wife, Susan, live in Providence, Rhode Island.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara
• Author: David I. Kertzer
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2008
• ISBN: 0307486710, 9780307486714
• Length: 368 pages
• Subjects: History / Europe / Italy; Religion / Ethics; Religion / History