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of 1467 (24).
At the end of March of that year, the authorities of Regensburg proceeded with the arrest of the rabbi Jossel di Kelheim and another five
influential leaders of the Jewish communities, including Sayer Straubinger, the owner of the stiebel, and Samuele Fleischaker, Wolfgang's
friend. A few days after, seventeen Jews, all accused of participation or complicity in the ritual child murder were placed in irons. The
interrogations were carried out under torture, and at least six of the accused issued a complete confession mentioning the names of other
persons involved in the wickedness. Rabbi Jossel was the first to admit to the judges that he had purchased the child from a beggar woman at
Regensburg eight years before, and had brought it to the synagogue as a sacrifice during the days of the Jewish Passover; he then withdrew
his confession, accusing his inquisitors of extorting it through indescribable torture. Before him, Samuel Fleischaker had also confessed that
the Jews had made use of children's blood, mixing it into the dough of the unleavened bread (25).
The admissions, obtained from the accused by force, appeared overly general and insufficiently detailed to be convincing; the confessions
were deemed insufficient factual basis for a ritual murder trial. Thus, on 15 April 1476, Friedrich III personally ordered the
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city counsel of Regensburg to free the prisoners immediately and hand them over to the Imperial authorities. But one week later, a dramatic
sensation occurred.
A few workers, engaged in repairs on Rabbi Jossel s dwelling, found a skeleton while excavating and cleaning up the cellars. The skeleton,
examined by a commission of physicians and surgeons in the presence of the bishop and other civil authorities, proved to be that of a child,
presumably aged between three and six years (26). The Jews replied to the accusations by claiming that the bones had been deliberately
planted in the rabbi s cellar by those interested in his condemnation. Notwithstanding the discovery of the new evidence, Friedrich did
nothing, and continued unperturbedly to demand the release of the incarcerated Jews, despite the claims of bishop Heinrich, who sustained
the validity and plausibility of the defendant s confessions to the crime; Ludwig, Duke of Regensburg, petitioned the Emperor not to
interfere in the internal affairs of the city (27).
On 8 May 1478, two years after they began, the trials might be said to have concluded with the absolution of the Jews, imposed by the
inflexible Imperial will. But the defendant s release was not obtained cheaply. Frederick demanded eighteen thousand florins from the Jews
as payment for his intervention in their favor, while the judiciary of Regensburg declared itself prepared to release only following payment of
all procedural expenses, amounting to five thousand florins, plus a fine of eight thousand florins, imposed on the city by the Emperor for
holding the trial. In a plenary meeting announced by the rabbis of the German lands at Nuremberg, presumably in early 1478, an obligatory
collection of funds began among the Jewish communities of Germany, accompanied by the creation of suitable committees responsible for
coordinating the efforts made to save prisoners. In Italy, Yoseph Colon, formerly a rabbi at Mantua (until 1475) and now at Pavia, intervened
with all his related authority; Colon is said to have died at Pavia a few years later, in 1480, after recommending that the appeal of the
spiritual heads of German Judaism receive a rapid, positive and generous response (28). From the very outset, the affair of the Jews of
Regensburg made a profound impression on the Jews of the Ashkenazi communities of northern Italy. In a letter written in Hebrew dated 11
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May 1476, the daughter and son-in-law of Crassino (Gherhon) of Novara, one of the richest and most influential Ashkenazi bankers of the
Duchy of Milan, both wrote to him,
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probably from Brescia, making explicit reference to the "sensational affair in which, as a result of our sins, members of the holy community
of Regensburg have been arrested and confined to prison, where God the pitiful and merciful caused them to exit the darkness and enter the
intense light" (29).
In another missive, written in Yiddish by the same Ashkenazi Jews, the son-in-law again complained of the sad fate of the Jews of
Regensburg, victims of the blood accusation.
"Alas! We have heard sad news, caused by our innumerable sins, originating from Regensburg. They have arrested all the Jews of the city
and slandered them, turning against them the blood accusation of Trent. That God should have pity and not cause us to hear lying accusations
of this type anywhere. We wish Him to render us assistance with His love. Amen."
Another message, also in Yiddish, sent by the young Geilin (Gaylein) to his father, the same Crassino of Novara mentioned above, dated
mid-May 1476, once again made explicit reference to facts of Regensburg.
"The sad news reached me from Pavia. May God be merciful and help His people and the Jews of Regensburg who have suffered, for our
sins, for this infamous slander. Ever since I heard this bad news, I have been unable to sleep. How much you must suffer for certain [...] May
God give you strength and health; that is, how I wish your daughter Geilin, unhappy for having heard this unhappy news" (30).
The courier of this letter was Paolo of Novara, the shady priest who, according to him, had been paid by the Jews of the Dukedom of Milan
to poison the bishop of Trent. The Jews alluded to him calling him gallech, the cleric, the man with the tonsure (31).
Another two years went by before the Jews of the Ashkenazi communities on both sides of the Alps succeeded in scraping together the huge
sums required to liberate the prisoners at Regensburg. But the seventeen defendants, still incarcerated, were finally removed from their
shackles on 4 September 1480, four years and half after their arrest (32). Thus concluded a matter which perhaps began at Regensburg,
rebounded to Trent, and new returned to Regensburg, leaving many unanswered questions and unresolved doubts, which the payment of
another twenty thousand florins
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in gold by the German-speaking Jewish communities was certainly insufficient to dissipate. If the ritual child murder at Regensburg was
really a fact, it should be possible to track down the blood, distributed free of charge among the participants, or put up for sale by them
immediately afterwards, admitting that it might have reached the Jewish communities of northern Italy. The interrogation of the accused,
more or less based on leading questions as to this point, seemed to vindicate the accusation.
The most important clue appeared to point to a certain Rizzardo (Reichard), a Jew from Regensburg who had moved to Brescia with his
family in 1464 (33). The latter, with their two brothers Enselino (Anselmo) and Jacob, were engaged in lending money at interest through a
bank they owned at Barvardo, deriving a large proportion of their clientele from the city of Brescia, where Rizzardo lived. Rizzardo of
Regensburg had top connections, and enjoyed protection as a member of the influential entourage of Bartolomeo Calleone, Captain of the
Serenissima (34). In Angelo da Verona s house, Rizzardo was often mentioned, partly because Lazzaro, who rendered services for the
banker, was his nephew, and did not hesitate to spend his holidays and vacations in his uncle s company. On one of these occasions, a few
years before, when Lazzaro found himself at Brescia to be cured of an illness of the eyes, Rizzardo confessed to him that he had bought a
certain quantity of blood originating from the Regensburg child murder. In addition, the Brescian Jew allegedly made use of it during the
Jewish Passover period, administering it to his wife Osella (Feige), his sons Jossele and Mezla (Mazal), and his servant, Jacobo da Germania [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]