The Renaissance Speaks Hebrew, curated by Giulio Busi and Silvana Greco, recounts an extraordinary intellectual history. The Renaissance is an age of artistic turmoil and the elegant life of the courts. The Italian peninsula is full of ideas and new creative impulses. The Jews, who have lived in Italy since Roman times, actively participated in this atmosphere. For the first time ever, the MEIS exhibition in Ferrara brings together some of the masterpieces of art in which the Hebrew language occupies a central place and Judaism is a source of inspiration and a symbol of wisdom. But the Renaissance is made of light and shadow. Alongside the encounters and mutual influences, the exhibition itinerary and the essays collected in this catalogue explore conflicts, controversies, and discrimination. There is no Italian Renaissance without Judaism. And we could not imagine Italian Jewry without the Renaissance.
