A sweeping, riveting history of the Venetian Ghetto, the world’s first Jewish ghetto.

'Brilliantly researched and deeply moving' Roger Crowley, author of City of Fortune

'Alexander Lee combines expertise in Venetian history, with sensibility to the Jewish past, and a gift for story-telling. Highly recommended' Professor Miri Rubin, author of Cities of Strangers

In the early sixteenth century, amidst the ruins of war, and in an atmosphere of religious hatred, the world’s first Jewish ‘ghetto’ was established in Venice. Constrained in cramped, often insanitary conditions, the Jews who were forced to live there were extorted, abused and subjected to countless humiliating restrictions. Before long, Venice’s Ghetto became the prototype for ghettos throughout Europe, paving the way for a more vicious and enduring form of antisemitism.

Yet the Ghetto’s story is also a testament of hope. Despite all they faced through the centuries, its residents thrived, creating a flourishing literary, musical and religious community. They sustained Venice’s economy – and, as more migrants arrived, the Ghetto became a microcosm of the Jewish world.

Historian Alexander Lee traces this vivid story from the first Jewish arrivals in the early fourteenth century to the present day, reconstructing the Ghetto through the eyes of its inhabitants – from the domestic squabbles of a sixteenth-century rabbi to the agonising wait of a family bound for Auschwitz.

Authoritative, detailed and incomparably intimate, this definitive history offers a fitting monument to the Ghetto’s past – and powerful lessons for the future.

Brilliantly researched and deeply moving, this history of the Jews of Venice makes a significant and much needed contribution to the city’s story -- Roger Crowley, author of City of Fortune
Embattled and persistent, the Jewish community of Venice played a fascinatingly rich role in the city's cultural and economic life. In Alexander Lee, they have found their true and elegant historian -- Judith Mackrell, author of The Unfinished Palazzo
Ghetto is the most accessible history of this renowned Venetian quarter. Alexander Lee combines expertise in Venetian history, with sensibility to the Jewish past, and a gift for story-telling. Highly recommended -- Professor Miri Rubin, author of Cities of Strangers

Alexander Lee is a fellow in the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance at the University of Warwick. Educated at the universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh, he has previously held positions at the universities of Oxford, Bergamo, Luxembourg, Lyon 2 and Lyon 3, amongst others. He is the author of several acclaimed books, including Ghetto: The Jews of Venice, Machiavelli: His Life and Times (a Financial Times and New Statesman ‘Book of the Year’) and Humanism and Empire: The Imperial Ideal in Fourteenth-Century Italy. He writes a regular column for History Today and frequently appears on television, radio, and podcasts. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.