Abstract

Using very fragmented and laboriously collected documentation, it was possible to draw a somehow surprising picture of sexual behaviour outside the marriage within the Jewish community in XV century Tuscany, especially in the Florentine area. The attention has not been focused on the relationships between Jews and Christians as much as on those between Jews (illegitimate births, Jewish prostitution, homosexuality between Jews). The fact that most information does not come from Jewish sources but from public and private sources produced within a Christian context but pressed for by Jews, has led to highlight the contradictions of the status of a barely tolerated minority which did not hesitate to ask for the majority's protection.