This round table aims to present a collective research project bringing together researchers from different countries and disciplinary backgrounds around a Digital and Geomatic Atlas of the Jewish Presence in Early Modern Mediterranean Italy (“Geo-J”). The first presentation will give a general overview of the project, both from the point of view of its scientific, methodological and technical objectives and two other papers will present some of the aspects developed in this project.
The first presentation (Michaël Gasperoni, and Benoît Pandolfi: A Digital and Geomatic Atlas of the Jewish Presence in Italy in a Long-Term Perspective: The Project “Geo-J”) will present a digital and geomatic atlas project on the Jewish presence in Italy in a long-term perspective (Middle Ages - early modern period): “Geo-J”. Bringing together researchers from different disciplines and historical periods, it relies both on massive collections of archival sources as well as computer tools developed as a part of the project. The goal of this project is to make databases on the Jewish population available to the scientific community. Their purpose is to make the databases on the Jewish population of the Italian peninsula, the outcome of a large-scale source collection, available to the scientific community.  This presentation will illustrate the sources, tools and scientific axes of the project, which is structured around three main themes: 1) population and space; 2) economy and exchanges; 3) institutions, politics and Jewish culture(s).
Martina Mampieri will talk about Book Lists through Four Centuries. Reconstructing Early Modern Jewish Libraries. In 1953, the Galician scholar Isaiah Sonne stressed the importance of book lists coming from European Jewish centers that he had had the chance to come across either in Hebrew manuscripts or among archival materials from Italy, Germany, and France. In his words, “the general cultural flavor of the respective countries can be reflected even in such a dry, technical in appearance, piece of writing, as a book list.” Despite their laconic nature, book lists are indeed an invaluable help in reconstructing early modern libraries. Besides revealing information on the taste of collectors, sometimes these sources provide precious details on the prices of books, bibliographical data, writing material, binding, etc. The proposed paper will address these issues by presenting inventories of books contained in wills and other archival sources as relevant cases illustrated in the project Geo-J. 
Davide Mano will consider Hebrew manuscripts as a source for the history of Jewish intellectual mobility. He will present the case of a Hebrew manuscript copy of the Sefer Kad haQemah, copied by a member of the Arles family, a Jewish rabbinical family from Provence (France). This rare manuscript offers rich information about the wanderings of the Arles family members in North-Central Italy, where they served as copyists, rabbis and teachers, between the XVth and the XVIth century. The paper will offer a spatial representation of the mobility of this rabbinical family, where it will be possible to follow personal events and family networks.
Finally, Matteo Al Kalak will propose a reflection (Interactions: the Jewish presence through the eyes of Christians) on the way in which an atlas of the Jewish presence can obtain valuable data through the interactions between Jews and Christians. In particular, the study of the phenomenon of conversions can offer a complementary perspective with respect to Jewish sources. Evidence of the Jews’ conversions to Christianity - understood either as definitive conversions, ephemeral conversions (which did not lead to baptism) or as conversions that were revoked after baptism - can be traced through records from the archives of Christian courts that tried the Jews (e.g. the Inquisitions, both Roman and Iberian) as well as archival sources from the House of the Cathecumens and other smaller institutions (parishes, confraternities, etc.) in charge of promoting conversions to Christianity. The paper will underline some points of the strengths and some critical aspects of this kind of sources, showing how a digital atlas of Jewish presence can acquire a more dynamic dimension through the use of different types of data, also in a long-term perspective.

Towards a Digital and Geomatic Atlas of the Jewish Presence in Early Modern Mediterranean Europe

The international conference #DHJewish - Jewish Studies in the Digital Age will bring together more than 60 scholars and heritage practitioners to discuss how the digital turn affects the field of Jewish Studies. The conference is organised by the [Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH).](https://www.c2dh.uni.lu/) 

[For more information, and a PDF download of the program, please see also here.](https://www.c2dh.uni.lu/events/dhjewish-jewish-studies-digital-age) 



In order to meet other participants and for informal chats in the breaks, join us in our [wonder.me room](https://www.wonder.me/r?id=73a12756-8d93-4871-9374-143253bfbf59).