Art and Poetry in the Gravestones of the Ancient Jewish Cemetery of the Lido in Venice

The Ancient Jewish Cemetery of the Lido in Venice was built in 1386, but it was regularly used only from 1516 onwards, when the Ghetto was established. Due to its favorable location just across the lagoon, the cemetery was occasionally used for defensive and military purposes. Many tombstones were lost, destroyed or reused, others were moved to a more internal area of the lagoon, which in 1774 became the official cemetery known as “New Cemetery”.
Venetian tombstones are artifacts rich in history, poetry and art. Their study allows us not only to rebuild the lives and the fortunes of the community members, but also to detect meaningful aspects of the literary and artistic culture of that time. A substantial number of epitaphs, often composed by important rabbis, are written in verse, rhyme and rhythm and graved with different writings. The tombstones also present elaborate architectures engraved with peculiar heraldic symbols.
The lecture focuses on the history of the cemetery and the Jewish community of Venice, as well as on the poetry of epitaphs, the paleography and art. This last topic is further explored through an architectural analysis of the tombstones and a study on the Hebrew heraldry in light of the emblems engraved on the stones of the Venetian cemetery.