The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara

by David I. Kertzer

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679768173
• ISBN13: 9780679768173
• Release Date: June 1998
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

An Astounding Story and Well-Written

I can't help but think that millions who do not know that they are interested in the history of the Italian Risorgimento would suddenly find themselves incapable of putting this book down. David Kertzer kept my attention while helping to answer my questions regarding how a country that is predominately Roman Catholic can name streets, buildings, and piazzas after the heroes of the Risorgimento who took by force most of the lands ruled by the Pope while Pope Pius IX called upon all the faithful to oppose them. I am now closer to seeing how statues and monuments honoring Garibaldi, Mazzini, Cavour, and King Victor Emmanuel can share the beautiful Italian landscape with cathedrals and the Vatican. Historical events are impossible to understand without learning of the human issues of the times in which they transpired. Such a study should not be a dry recounting of the facts when it can be, as Kertzer demonstrates, a living, breathing, gut-wrenching encounter with those who created that compelling history. I know it's almost cliché to say that this reads like a good novel, but it's true. The trial of Momolo Mortara rivals any of the stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and it is all the more riveting in the context of the amazing events that led to it. Sherlock Holmes could not have used his powers of deduction more skillfully than Momolo's attorney used his unbiased mind to separate facts from prejudiced and selective interpretations. I give this book my highest recommendation. I hope that THE KIDNAPPING OF EDGARDO MORTARA has been or will be translated into Italian. Perhaps a greater awareness of the past can positively influence current challenges in Italy involving the assimilation of other cultures and religious beliefs - brought on by mass immigrations in recent years.

Wonderful Research, Exciting Story, Horrifying Incident

David I. Kertzer has written a wonderful account of a pivotal event in Italian, Jewish and Catholic history. The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara tells the story of the 1858 kidnapping of a six year old Jewish boy secretly baptized while a baby by a Catholic servant in the home. From this horrifying personal incident for this Jewish family the panorama of the story grows very large indeed, taking into account the Pope, the governments of Europe, and the forces for the unification of Italy. The author does a superb job of making all of this understandable to the reader. He also never allows the epic scope of the book to overwhelm the family as the centre of all of this controversy. The Mortaras hold a special place in this tragedy as they deserve and the lives lived by Jewish families, such as theirs, in Italy is vividly presented. It is a shocking book, yet very illuminating and well written. Highly recommended.

The Best Kind of History

Few books, fiction or non-fiction, are the satisfying read that "The Kidnapping ..." is. This book succeeds on every on level. First of all, it is an interesting story, well told with first rate writing. Secondly if you didn't know much about mid 19th century Italy (I didn't, which is why I picked up the book.) you will learn a lot. (Even if you do know a lot about that period I suspect you will learn even more.) Finally, I can't imagine reading this book without it having an effect upon your views about the Catholic Church. Lots of food for thought. Wowie Zowie. I wish I could say as much about most books I read.

Forces of intellectual liberalism versus medieval power

This is non-fiction at its best! David Kertzer deserves our applause for such professional and academic research. Using his background in anthropology and history, the author revives the all-forgotten story of the abduction by Catholic Church authorities of a 6 years old Jewish boy, in 1858, under the pretense that the child had been secretly baptized. Church authorities acted with utter contempt for Edgardo's parents, trusted on the belief that the boy would receive eternal damnation where he to remain a Jew. He was adopted by then Pope PiousIX who nurtured for the boy the affection of a father. This rather insignificant event (not unusual at that time in the Papal States) is given a pivoted historial role in the soon to come unification of the Italian states, flaming the forces behind the Risorgimento. The fact received great publicity at the time mainly due to the influence of the Rothschilds and Mr. Moses Montefiore. It's one more tale of prejudice, of abuse of power, reaching the unconceivable.

A riveting history which reads like fiction...

But it is even scarier because it's true. The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortora tells the story of the taking of a Jewish child who had (maybe) been baptized by a Jewish family's Caholic servant. With intrigue that includes Church officials from the inquisition to the Pope, a famous French Emperor, and a famous Jewish philanthropist, the history reads like a work of fiction. Would that it were! This book is all the more horrifying for its truth. Think that this horrifying story took place in the 1400's? Wrong. Only 150 years ago, Edgardo Mortora was stolen from his parents, and the rest of the story... Can be found in this fantastic book... For history lovers and fiction lovers... An absolute must!