This text provides a broadly-based study of Jewish history in Italy during the Renaissance, focusing on the most distinguished group in Jewish society, the Rabbinate. The author discusses a variety of subjects in the social, cultural and institutional history of the period, including the status and functions of the Rabbinate, the relation of Rabbinic ordination to the doctorate conferred by universities, the religious role of the Rabbinate, and the relations between members of the Rabbinate and the lay leaders of their communities. This discussion is set within the context of the wider Catholic environment which impinged on Jewish life at many points. Of special interest and importance is a chapter dealing with the cultural world of the rabbis and the broader issue of cultural change and movements in intellectual attitudes during the Renaissance. In this edition the translator has inserted substantial excerpts from the appendices at appropriate points within the text in order to make available to the reader all the evidence necessary to support the arguments presented.