The death of Abramo of Montecosaro

In this microhistory from 1553, set in Montecosaro, in east-central Italy, local officials, armed with their lords permission, set out to catch a Jewish banker in sexual traffic with a Christian. To bait their trap, they hire a local woman, who agrees to be found at night in the bankers house. Two years later, the entrappers, arrested, jailed, and tried for high-handed tactics, recount their version of the enterprise, and the lord, also jailed, gives his. The unfortunate banker, meanwhile, has died of prisons rigors, while the lord has pocketed his fat ransom. Though harsh, the state courts aim to punish all those guilty of justices miscarriage, including the rough handling of a Jewish victim. The article explores the attitudes of small-town Christians to the Jewish banker and strives to re-assemble the dialogue across the religious gap as the trap snaps shut. It also offers a well furbished narrative from a period for which few extended Jewish tales survive.