by Roberta Rich
Palladio said, “And you, Hannah? What is your opinion? There is a stone cottage on the grounds of the villa, fair size, snug, with its own sweet water well and kitchen garden. The place could be reroofed and whitewashed, and turned into a dwelling for you and your family.”
How unusual that a man, especially one as celebrated as Palladio, would ask the opinion of a woman. “And Matteo?” inquired Hannah.
“He could live with you,” said Palladio.
“Then of course we can come to an arrangement,” said Hannah.
“Could we raise him as a Jew?” asked Isaac.
“I could not as his guardian permit it,” Palladio replied.
Still, in the country there would be few neighbours to object to a few lessons in Hebrew, a few prayers whispered over candles and challah on Shabbat. Hannah posed the question she dreaded hearing the answer to: “Has Matteo been christened?”
“Another task left uncompleted, I am afraid. Soon I must. The village priest hangs about, pestering me as to when it shall be done. When Matteo is ten years old, the priest insists that the boy be sent to the Franciscans to be educated.”
“Where his primary lesson will be to learn to hate the Jews,” said Isaac.
Palladio shrugged. “But what is to be done? The boy must be schooled.”
Hannah said, “Would you excuse Isaac and me a moment while we talk?”
“Of course.” Palladio walked to the other side of the campo.
“It is a bitter thing to know Matteo will be raised as a Christian…” Isaac trailed off.
“Yes, but it cannot be helped.” She moved closer to her husband. “This could be a new start for us, Isaac. Together we will raise Jessica, Daniel and Matteo. They will grow up rosy cheeked and straight limbed in the country. We have had so many struggles. On Matteo’s estate, we will have peace at last. We will pull together once again like two horses hitched to the same cart.”
With the money from selling our silk business, who knows? Maybe someday we will have our own estate, she thought.
“I have never lived in the country,” said Isaac. “I understand raising silkworms, and unreeling cocoons, and printing silk cloth. I know nothing of the rustic life.” He shook his head. “I am unfit for what Palladio has in mind.”
“You are so quick-witted, Isaac. Everything you turn your hand to is a success. Look how well you have done with our silk workshop. Would you try for my sake? Only for the next year or two. If you are unhappy, I promise we will return to Constantinople.” Hannah searched her mind for further arguments. “You are so good at teasing order out of chaos. I know that in a short time you will have Matteo’s estate operating as smoothly as a well-oiled gate.” Hannah wrapped Daniel more tightly in his blanket. “It will be an opportunity for you to learn new things.”
“Draining swampy fields?”
“Double-entry bookkeeping of the sort they do in Venice.”
“Growing winter wheat and rye?”
“Discussing Petrarch with an educated man like Palladio.”
“Collecting rents from unhappy tenants?”
“Pressing golden olive oil, fermenting wine.”
“Watching sheep bloat from grazing on new meadow and crops wither from insects and lack of rain?”
“Having Matteo back. All of us together as a family again.”
There was a long pause.
Isaac said, “Hannah, you are right.”
Was there a sweeter sentence in the universe than this one?
“Who knows?” said Hannah. “We have one baby.” She looked down and stroked Daniel’s cheek with her finger. “Maybe there will be more.”
“And to be with Matteo again, safeguarding his fortune, would be a wonderful thing.”
Hannah felt something loosen in her breast that had nothing to do with the rich milk flowing into Daniel.
Isaac said, “I know you have never felt at home in Constantinople.” He toyed with Daniel’s foot, unwrapping the swaddling, thinking out loud. “I can write to our Armenian neighbour and ask him to manage the workshop. He will do a good job. He has always had his eye on it. But only for a year or so, mind.”
“You are certain?” Now that she had succeeded in convincing Isaac, Hannah wanted to make sure he was acting on his own desires, not to please her.
“No, I am not certain. The offer is so unexpected. But I am willing to try. I am restless here in the ghetto. There is little for me to do to occupy myself. Asher is busy. The other men all are occupied with their own affairs. I feel useless.”
“Jessica would thrive, as well.”
Matteo came over and climbed into Isaac’s lap. Turning to Hannah, Isaac said, “What use are a house and a business if the people you love are not present?”
“Will it be enough for us simply to raise Matteo without having the power to decide his religion or whom he marries or what profession he follows?” asked Hannah.
“Yes,” said Isaac, “Matteo’s sweet company will be enough. He is not too young to learn to read and reckon. He is a clever boy. I will teach him.”
“I love you, Isaac.” But one thing continued to trouble her. “Are you still angry with me for leaving Constantinople against your wishes?”
When Isaac said nothing, Hannah said, recalling a passage from the Christian Bible, “ ‘Love keeps no record of wrongs. It does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. Love always perseveres.’ ”
Isaac smiled. “May I quote from the Song of Solomon?” He took her in his arms. “ ‘Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.’ ”
Hannah settled back against Isaac as she regarded the campo and the surrounding wood frame structures. Through a space between Asher’s building and its neighbour, she glimpsed the blue of the Rio del Ghetto. Yes, she thought, there is no woman as fortunate as I.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to thank the many people who helped in the conception and bringing forth of this book.
To my editor, Kiara Kent, for her astute direction, and to Rachel Cooper for the lovely cover. To Beverley Sotolov, copy editor, whose attention to detail and insistence on historical verisimilitude is admirable, and to everyone at Doubleday Canada and Penguin Random House Canada.
To Beverley Slopen, my agent extraordinaire, for her limitless wisdom, insight, unconditional support and guidance.
To Jordan Hall, my wonderful mentor and insightful critic.
To my friends Shel and Marv Shaffer, Canan Ozbek, Beryl Young, Kate Rose and Linda Holeman for their warmth and support. And to Ruth Peacock, Marcia Jacobs, Gay Ludlow, Roland Lougheed and Susan Barclay-Nichols for being good and generous listeners.
A wistful thanks to Nita Pronovost and Adria Iwasutiak, whom I continue to miss.
To my family, I thank in particular my wonderful sister, Alice Rich, for her caring and clever artistic eye, and to Kerstin Peterson, for her invaluable editing suggestions as well as her formidable formulating skills.
Special thanks to Nicholas Terpstra, Department of History, University of Toronto, for his patience in answering my questions on orphanages in Venice.
And to Ken Peterson, my wise and wonderful husband, without whom life would not mean a hill of beans.
RECIPES
A word of caution, gentle reader: formulating creams and soaps is a highly engaging pastime. As a result of my research for A Trial in Venice, I became addicted to making soaps and creams. I now spend my free time stirring vats of soap, experimenting with colour, scents and moulds. I test creams for consistency, fragrance and colour; shop for exquisite containers when I travel; and give my creations to friends for birthdays and holidays.
Soap and cream making in Hannah’s day was a messy, inexact and sometimes dangerous endeavour. Lye was prepared from soaking wood ashes in rainwater until the solution reached a concentration sufficient enough to float an egg. Luckily for us, lye is now readily available in most hardware stores. Hannah would have used beef or sheep tallow and olive oil.
Her soap may have been, by modern standards, quite harsh. We will use modern versions of Hannah’s ingredients: manufactured lye, beef tallow, olive oil and coconut oil.
In the old, pre-emulsifier days, Tzipporah would have heated almond oil, tallow, olive oil and wax together, relying on beeswax to make a firm cream. We are fortunate now to have a variety of emulsifiers, such as Polawax and e-wax, to bind our ingredients together.
I have included my two favourite recipes—modern versions of what Hannah and Tzipporah prepared. Both formulae will produce good, useable products. I like to think Hannah and Tzipporah would approve of the results.
Tzipporah’s Night Cream
EQUIPMENT NEEDED: digital scale, large cook pot, immersion blender, two heat-proof glass beakers or Pyrex measuring cups, small food scale, spatulas and spoons, jars to contain the final product (you will need about 5 jars of 50-ml size).
QUANTITY: 200 grams
PART A:
Water Phase:
58% water ……………………………………………… 117 grams
2% sodium lactate (humectant) ………………… 4 grams
PART B:
Oils, Butters and Waxes:
10% almond oil ………………………………………… 20 grams
5% shea butter …………………………………………… 10 grams
10% cocoa butter ……………………………………… 20 grams
8% Polawax (emulsifier) …………………………… 16 grams
3% cetyl alcohol (thickening agent) ………………6 grams
PART C:
Cool-down Phase:
1% fragrance ………………………………………………… 2 grams
0.5% Germal Plus (preservative) ……………………… 1 gram
2% panthenol (humectant) …………………………… 4 grams
1% vitamin E ……………………………………………… 2 grams
2% cyclomethicone (gives a silky feel) …………… 4 grams
2% dimethicone (glide, protective barrier) ……… 4 grams
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Weigh out the Part A ingredients in a heat-proof container, such as a Pyrex measuring cup. Weigh out the Part B ingredients in a separate heat-proof container. Place both containers into a double boiler or large cook pot filled with water. Heat to 70°C and hold at this temperature for 20 minutes.
2. Weigh Part A again and add a touch to compensate for evaporation.
3. Combine Parts A and B and blend with an immersion blender for at least 3 minutes. Continue blending now and then until the mixture cools to 45°C.
4. Add the Part C ingredients. Mix well with the immersion blender. Let cool to room temperature.
5. Scoop into sterile jars.
6. Ingredients are available from online soap and cream supply companies such as www.voyageursoapandcandle.com or www.brambleberry.com. For further information and recipes, I highly recommend www.swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.ca.
Hannah’s Hand Soap
Soap making is not for sissies. Hannah made soap outside so she didn’t breathe in the fumes from the lye. She wore gloves to protect her hands. She banished children and animals. She would have worn safety glasses if they had been available. So should you. Handling lye is a serious business.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED: digital scale, digital thermometer, large cook pot (not aluminum), stick blender, spatulas, a mould, container for mixing lye and water (a large glass measuring cup or a plastic juice jug will do), container for weighing out the lye (a clean yoghurt container works well), gloves, safety goggles.
Until you decide whether you are a committed saponificatrice, use a small wooden or cardboard box lined with freezer paper as a soap mould. The Soap Queen (www.soapqueen.com) has excellent videos on YouTube to guide you through the process.
You can order beef tallow online or render your own in a slow cooker on low heat. Buy ground beef suet from the butcher or buy it in chunks and cut it into 1/4-inch cubes for rendering.
QUANTITY: 3 pounds or approximately 10 bars of soap
Beef tallow …………………………………………… 400 grams
Olive oil ………………………………………………… 50 grams
Coconut oil …………………………………………… 250 grams
Lye ……………………………………………………… 143 grams
Distilled water ……………………………………… 380 grams
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Slowly and carefully add the lye to the water in a container. Gently stir until the lye has dissolved and the liquid is clear. When mixed with water, lye becomes hot and active very quickly. Set aside to cool to approximately 50°C. (Always add the lye to the water, never the other way around. To remember, think “snow falls on the lake.”)
2. Weigh out the oils and tallow. Add to the cooking pot and melt on low heat.
3. Remove from heat and allow the lye water and oil/tallow mixture to cool to about 50°C.
4. Slowly pour the lye mixture into the oil/tallow mixture and mix with your stick blender. The mixture will turn a creamy yellow color. Continue to mix with the stick blender for about 5 minutes. When the mixture is thick enough to support your initials on the top of the mixture, you have achieved “trace.”
5. Pour it into the mould.
6. Let the soap sit in the mould for 36-48 hours. Press out of the mould and cut into bars. If the soap sticks in the mould, put it in the freezer for 1 hour, then press out.
7. Allow the soap to cure for 4-6 weeks.
8. Rejoice!
FURTHER READING
While this is a work of fiction, I have tried to be as accurate as possible in recreating the atmosphere of sixteenth-century Venice. Some of the books that I used in my research that I found helpful, informative and entertaining include:
Ackroyd, Peter. Venice: Pure City. Random House. 2009.
Baron, Salo. A Social and Religious History of the Jews: Late Middle Ages and Era of European Expansion (1200–1650): The Ottoman Empire, Persia, Ethiopia, India, and China. Columbia University Press. 1983.
Beltramini, Guido. The Private Palladio. Lars Müller Publishers. 2008.
Brooks, Andrée Aelion. The Woman Who Defied Kings: The Life and Times of Doña Gracia Nasi. Paragon House. 2002.
Crowley, Roger. City of Fortune: How Venice Won and Lost a Naval Empire. Faber & Faber. 2011.
Gable, Sally, and Carl I. Gable. Palladian Days: Finding a New Life in a Venetian Country House. Random House. 2005.
King, Ross. Brunelleschi’s Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture. Bloomsbury Publishing. 2000.
Laven, Mary. Virgins of Venice: Enclosed Lives and Broken Vows in the Renaissance Convent. Viking Press. 2002.
Menuge, Noël James. Medieval English Wardship in Romance and Law. D.S. Brewer. 2001.
Monson, Craig A. Nuns Behaving Badly: Tales of Music, Magic, Art, and Arson in the Convents of Italy. The University of Chicago Press. 2011.
Roth, Cecil. The House of Nasi: Doña Gracia. Greenwood Publishing Group. 1948.
Salomon, Herman Prins, and Aron di Leone Leoni. “Mendes, Benveniste, de Luna, Micas, Nasci: The State of the Art (1532–1558).” The Jewish Quarterly Review. 1998.
Terpstra, Nicholas. Abandoned Children of the Italian Renaissance: Orphan Care in Florence and Bologna. Johns Hopkins University Press. 2005.
Terpstra, Nicholas. Lost Girls: Sex and Death in Renaissance Florence. Johns Hopkins University Press. 2010.
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