‘A Ship with Two Rudders’: ‘Righetto Marrano’ and the Inquisition in Venice

Abstract

In Venice on 5 October 1570:A man of ordinary height, dressed in the foreign style, with a curved black beard, was escorted into the Holy Office and asked his age.He answered, ‘Some forty years’.He was asked his name, his surname, his father, his status, his country and his employment.He answered, ‘My name is Abraham, called Righetto, my father's Num Rig (a Spaniard of Portugal), my occupation is that of an exchange-broker; I am no Christian but a Jew; and I have been detained in the prisons of the Most Excellent Council of Ten’.He was asked, ‘For what reason have their Most Excellent Lordships sent you to this Holy Office?’He answered, ‘I know not, and cannot imagine, for I have never heard of Jews entering this Office’.He was asked, ‘Do you know what Office it is?’ He answered, ‘This moment I was told it was the Office of the Holy Inquisition’.He was asked, ‘In the last ten years, where have you lived?’He answered, ‘Lately I have been in Spain, and was there three years from leaving this place, and I journeyed, too, to France; and seven months have passed since my return to Venice’.