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JewishHistoryעברית

Expulsion of the Jews from Mantua

Date
July 1630
Location
MantuaItaly
Perpetrators
  • Imperial landsknechts under Johann von Aldringen and Matthias Gallas (Military)
Killed (estimate)
No reliable estimate
Expelled (estimate)
1,600 – 1,800[1]1,800 expelled (source 1). About 1,600 (source 2).
Worldwide

0.12% – 0.23% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1490)[13]

Category
Expulsion
Confidence
DisputedThe Jewish Encyclopedia says 1,800 Jews were expelled in 1630 and does not give the month or a death count. Bernardini's review of Fontanella, based on Massarani, says about 1,600 were expelled at the end of July 1630, many having already died of plague, and that not even half returned. It records 8 deaths when a wagon broke and says others suffocated, drowned, or were thrown into the water, without a total of deaths. Those deaths are not entered as casualties because no source gives a full death count.

Summary

At the end of July 1630, after Imperial troops took Mantua, landsknechts under Johann von Aldringen and Matthias Gallas expelled the Jews from the ghetto and confiscated their property. The Jewish Encyclopedia states that 1,800 Jews were expelled when the city was betrayed during the siege by Emperor Ferdinand II. A review of Alessia Fontanella's study, drawing on Abraham Massarani's chronicle of 1634, puts those expelled at about 1,600, many already dead of plague and hunger, and says they left with clothing, a few personal belongings, and three ducatoni. About 600 went on foot toward San Martino dell'Argine and about 1,000 by river toward Governolo; a broken wagon killed 8 people, and others drowned. Not even half of the community returned.

Sources

  1. Gotthard Deutsch, Ismar Elbogen, Joseph Jacobs, Mantua. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  2. Paolo Luca Bernardini, «La fame e la spada, l'esilio e la peste cattiva». L'assedio e sacco di Mantova del 1630 e l'espulsione degli ebrei. Nuova Rivista Storica (2023)

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 800,000 – 1,300,000[13]c. 1490DellaPergola's Fundamentals Table 2 gives 1.3 million in 1490. Botticini and Eckstein Table 9 give about 0.8–1 million for the late fifteenth century; their Chosen Few summary puts world Jewry below one million on the eve of the 1492–97 Iberian expulsions.

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
  2. Sergio DellaPergola, Notes toward a Demographic History of the Jews. Genealogy 8(1) (2024)
  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  4. Jewish Population of the World. American Jewish Year Book 1948–1949, via Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1949)
  5. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History. American Economic Association annual meeting paper (2007)
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  9. The Contagion of Violence. 1391 and the Jews of the Spanish Kingdoms. Palgrave / Springer chapter (preview) (2021)
  10. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European History. Handbook chapter PDF via zvi-eckstein.com
  11. Sergio DellaPergola, Some Fundamentals of Jewish Demographic History. Berman Jewish Policy Archive (PDF) (2001)
  12. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, THE CHOSEN FEW: HOW EDUCATION SHAPED JEWISH HISTORY, 70–1492 (book summary). Bar-Ilan University Economics seminar PDF (Princeton University Press forthcoming summary)
  13. Joseph Jacobs, Statistics. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
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  20. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank / Israel CBS host (2025)
  21. Sergio DellaPergola, Demographic Trends in Israel and Palestine: Prospects and Policy Implications. American Jewish Year Book 2003, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2003)
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