Download or read book The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara written by David I. Kertzer and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2008-12-30 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Kidnapped by the Vatican written by Vittorio Messori and published by Ignatius Press. This book was released on 2017-09-08 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1888 Father Edgardo Mortara wrote his autobiography so that the world would understand he had not been kidnapped by the Vatican. So what had happened to him--to the baptized Jewish boy whose removal from his family by Pope Pius IX remains an international controversy to this day? Mortara's previously unpublished memoirs, accompanied with commentary by Italian journalist Vittorio Messoi, answer this question with an account that runs contrary to popular opinion. As an infant, Mortara was on the point of death and secretly baptized by a Catholic servant employed by his family. He recovered his health, and in the Papal State where his family lived, the law required that he, like other baptized children, receive a Christian education. After several failed attempts to persuade his parents to enroll him in a local Catholic school, in 1858 Pope Pius IX had the boy taken from his family in Bologna and sent to a Catholic boarding school in Rome. There the child grew in faith and eventually responded to the calling to become a Catholic priest. The Mortara case reverberated around the world. Journalists, politicians, and Jewish leaders tried to pressure the pope to reverse his decision. The pope's refusal to do so was used as one of the reasons to dissolve the Papal State in 1870. Here now for the first time in English is the actual true story in the words of Mortara himself.

Download or read book The Pope and Mussolini written by David I. Kertzer and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 587 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The compelling story of Pope Pius XI's secret relations with Benito Mussolini. A ground-breaking work that will forever change our understanding of the Vatican's role in the rise of Fascism in Europe.

Download or read book The Pope at War written by David I. Kertzer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-11-17 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Filled with discoveries, this is the dramatic story of Pope Pius XII's struggle to response to the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Nazi domination of Europe.The Pope at War is the third in a trilogy of books about Pope Pius XII's response to the rise of Fascism and Nazism. It tells the dramatic story of Pope Pius XII's struggle to respond to the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the ongoing Nazi attempts to exterminate the Jews of Europe. It is the first book dealing with the war to make extensive use of the newly opened Vatican archives for the war years. It is based, as well, on thousands of documents from the Italian, German,French, British, and American archives. Among the many new discoveries brought to light is the discovery that within weeks of becoming pope in 1939, Pius XII entered into secret negotiations with Hitler through Hitler's emissary, a Nazi Prince who was married to the daughter of the King of Italy and who was veryclose to Hitler. The negotiations were kept so secret that not even the German ambassador to the Holy See was informed of them. The book also offers new insight into the thinking behind Pius XII's decision to maintain good relations with the German government during the war, including keeping the Germans happy while they occupied Rome in 1943-1944. And throughout, David I. Kertzer shows the active role of the Italian Church hierarchy in promoting the Axis war while the pope, who as bishop ofRome was responsible for the Italian hierarchy, offered his silent blessings and cast his public speeches in such a way that both sides could claim support for their cause.

Download or read book The Popes Against the Jews written by David I. Kertzer and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this meticulously researched, unflinching, and reasoned study, National Book Award finalist David I. Kertzer presents shocking revelations about the role played by the Vatican in the development of modern anti-Semitism. Working in long-sealed Vatican archives, Kertzer unearths startling evidence to undermine the Church’s argument that it played no direct role in the spread of modern anti-Semitism. In doing so, he challenges the Vatican’s recent official statement on the subject, We Remember. Kertzer tells an unsettling story that has stirred up controversy around the world and sheds a much-needed light on the past.

Download or read book Prisoner of the Vatican written by David I. Kertzer and published by HMH. This book was released on 2006-02-20 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Pulitzer Prize winner’s “fascinating” account of the political battles that led to the end of the Papal States (Entertainment Weekly). From a National Book Award–nominated author, this absorbing history chronicles the birth of modern Italy and the clandestine politics behind the Vatican’s last stand in the battle between the church and the newly created Italian state. When Italy’s armies seized the Holy City and claimed it for the Italian capital, Pope Pius IX, outraged, retreated to the Vatican and declared himself a prisoner, calling on foreign powers to force the Italians out of Rome. The action set in motion decades of political intrigue that hinged on such fascinating characters as Garibaldi, King Viktor Emmanuel, Napoleon III, and Chancellor Bismarck. Drawing on a wealth of secret documents long buried in the Vatican archives, David I. Kertzer reveals a fascinating story of outrageous accusations, mutual denunciations, and secret dealings that will leave readers hard-pressed to ever think of Italy, or the Vatican, in the same way again. “A rousing tale of clerical skullduggery and topsy-turvy politics, laced with plenty of cross-border intrigue.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Download or read book The Pope who Would be King written by David I. Kertzer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Days after the assassination of his prime minister in the middle of Rome in November 1848, Pope Pius IX found himself a virtual prisoner in his own palace. The wave of revolution that had swept through Europe now seemed poised to put an end to the popes' thousand-year reign over the Papal States, if not indeed to the papacy itself. Disguising himself as a simple parish priest, Pius escaped through a back door. Climbing inside the Bavarian ambassador's carriage, he embarked on a journey into a fateful exile.Only two years earlier Pius's election had triggered a wave of optimism across Italy. After the repressive reign of the dour Pope Gregory XVI, Italians saw the youthful, benevolent new pope as the man who would at last bring the Papal States into modern times and help create a new, unified Italian nation. But Pius found himself caught between a desire to please his subjects and a fear--stoked by the cardinals--that heeding the people's pleas would destroy the church. The resulting drama--with a colorful cast of characters, from Louis Napoleon and his rabble-rousing cousin Charles Bonaparte to Garibaldi, Tocqueville, and Metternich--was rife with treachery, tragedy, and international power politics.David Kertzer is one of the world's foremost experts on the history of Italy and the Vatican, and has a rare ability to bring history vividly to life. With a combination of gripping, cinematic storytelling, and keen historical analysis rooted in an unprecedented richness of archival sources, The Pope Who Would Be King sheds fascinating new light on the end of rule by divine right in the west and the emergence of modern Europe.

Download or read book Summary of David I Kertzer s The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara written by Everest Media, and published by Everest Media LLC. This book was released on 2022-07-16T22:59:00Z with total page 65 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 On June 23, 1858, police visited the Mortara home and asked for Momolo. His wife, Marianna, was terrified to say that he was not there. The police asked for each of the Mortara children, from oldest to youngest, and Momolo was forced to comply. #2 When the Marshal checked all the Mortara family members, he announced that he would take Edgardo with him. The Mortaras were terrified, and pleaded with the Marshal not to take their son. #3 The Mortaras were told that their son had been secretly baptized, though they had no idea how or by whom. The Inquisitor, Father Feletti, said that he had acted in good conscience because everything had been done punctiliously according to the sacred Canons. #4 The Mortara family’s vigil was interrupted by the arrival of Moscato and Padovani, who brought news that the Jews had obtained a delay in the boy’s deportation. The neighbors were shocked to hear that the Inquisitor had given in to their demands.

Download or read book Sacrificed for Honor written by David I. Kertzer and published by Beacon Press (MA). This book was released on 1993 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Il volume descrive il fenomeno dell’abbandono dei figli da parte delle madri nubili in Italia nel XIX secolo.

Download or read book Amalia s Tale written by David I. Kertzer and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2008-03-06 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This quintessential David-and-Goliath saga tells the story of a wholly unexpected triumph of the poor against the rich and of a crusading city attorney who fought on behalf of an impoverished peasant. Amalia Bagnacavalli, an illiterate young peasant from the mountains near Bologna, is forced by poverty to take in a child from the city’s foundling home to wet-nurse. When Amalia contracts syphilis from the sickly and malformed baby given to her, the city fathers callously dismiss her pleas for treatment and restitution. Bewildered and frightened, she seeks out Augusto Barbieri, an ambitious attorney looking to make a name for himself. He takes up Amalia’s cause, fighting the case for years through the Italian courts before winning an unprecedented and stunning victory for his by now broken client. The unforgettable story of a landmark struggle for basic human rights, Amalia’s Tale is the moving drama of a rural woman whose life was ruined and the man from the city who would not stop -- or so it seemed -- until he had seen justice done.

Download or read book Secretum written by Rita Monaldi and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2017-06-29 with total page 890 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A papal conspiracy is revealed in the midst of a plague in this Italian historical thriller that sparked controversy with the Vatican. Rome, 1683. The citizens anxiously await new of the battle for Vienna as Ottoman forces lay siege to the defenders of Catholic Europe. Meanwhile, a suspected outbreak of plague causes a famous Roman tavern to be placed under quarantine. One of its detainees, Atto Melani, a spy in the service of France, discovers a secret passage leading deep into the Roman underworld. But what he uncovers there is even more astonishing: a plot to assassinate Pope Innocent XI and plans to use the plague as a weapon of mass destruction against the Islamic world. Meticulously researched and brilliantly conceived, Imprimatur is based on startling historical revelations that have been concealed for centuries, drawing on original papers discovered in the Vatican archives. A thriller in the vein of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, this novel sheds new light on the power struggles of 17th-century Europe. First published to great controversy in Italy in 2002, Imprimatur was boycotted by the Italian press before being translated into 20 languages with editions published in 45 countries.

Download or read book Giotto the Crucifix in Santa Maria Novella written by Giotto and published by EDIFIR. This book was released on 2002 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Moral Reckoning written by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With his first book, Hitler’s Willing Executioners, Daniel Jonah Goldhagen dramatically revised our understanding of the role ordinary Germans played in the Holocaust. Now he brings his formidable powers of research and argument to bear on the Catholic Church and its complicity in the destruction of European Jewry. What emerges is a work that goes far beyond the familiar inquiries—most of which focus solely on Pope Pius XII—to address an entire history of hatred and persecution that culminated, in some cases, in an active participation in mass-murder. More than a chronicle, A Moral Reckoning is also an assessment of culpability and a bold attempt at defining what actions the Church must take to repair the harm it did to Jews—and to repair itself. Impressive in its scholarship, rigorous in its ethical focus, the result is a book of lasting importance.

Download or read book Family Political Economy and Demographic Change written by David I. Kertzer and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 1989 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Family, Political Economy, and Demographic Change represents an unprecedented interdisciplinary effort to discover how changes in family life and demographic behavior actually occurred in this crucial period, and how people's lives were affected. The book takes issue with a number of the most influential demographic and sociological theories dealing with the evolution of the Western family and the factors responsible for fertility decline. As in so many other parts of Europe, the northern Italian community of Casalecchio experienced massive social and economic changes in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Characterized by sharecropping agriculture and large, complex family households, the community faced the effects of industrialization, urbanization, and dramatic political change. Making use of unusually rich archival sources to reconstruct the live of 19,000 people who lived in Casalecchio during this period, Kertzer and Hogan challenge many current generalizations regarding the emergence of modern European society.

Download or read book Introduction to Geometric Probability written by Daniel A. Klain and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1997-12-11 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this book is to present the three basic ideas of geometrical probability, also known as integral geometry, in their natural framework. In this way, the relationship between the subject and enumerative combinatorics is more transparent, and the analogies can be more productively understood. The first of the three ideas is invariant measures on polyconvex sets. The authors then prove the fundamental lemma of integral geometry, namely the kinematic formula. Finally the analogues between invariant measures and finite partially ordered sets are investigated, yielding insights into Hecke algebras, Schubert varieties and the quantum world, as viewed by mathematicians. Geometers and combinatorialists will find this a most stimulating and fruitful story.

Download or read book Reversible Destiny written by Peter T. Schneider and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2003-03-13 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reversible Destiny traces the history of the Sicilian mafia to its nineteenth-century roots and examines its late twentieth-century involvement in urban real estate and construction as well as drugs. Based on research in the regional capital of Palermo, this book suggests lessons regarding secretive organized crime: its capacity to reproduce a subculture of violence through time, its acquisition of a dense connective web of political and financial protectors during the Cold War era, and the sad reality that repressing it easily risks harming vulnerable people and communities. Charting the efforts of both the judiciary and a citizen's social movement to reverse the mafia's economic, political, and cultural power, the authors establish a framework for understanding both the difficulties and the accomplishments of Sicily's multifaceted antimafia efforts.

Download or read book Abel Ferrara written by Brad Stevens and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Driller Killer - a victim of the original video nasty' panic - to Bad Lieutenant, Ferrara's films have attracted both controversy for their extreme subject matter and admiration for their fine acting: Harvey Keitel, Christopher Walken, Madonna, Lili Taylor and Willem Dafoe all gave their finest performances under Ferrara's direction. Now Brad Stevens has subjected Ferrara's output to exhaustive analysis and uncovers a tender heart beating beneath the excessive imagery.'