"The first half of Mampieri’s edition of this work provides a detailed background for everything discussed by Benjamin in his chronicle. (...) This thoroughness will enable novices in Jewish studies, early modern Catholicism, or Italian history to catch up easily on context they need. (...) The second half of the book provides an English translation and Hebrew transcription of the text itself, annotated and presented with superlative linguistic skill. Mampieri has also furnished the volume richly with maps, useful tables, a luxurious number of plates and figures, and a full facsimile of the only surviving copy of the original manuscript (a transcription made in the nineteenth century). These all enhance its use as a teaching tool and give the chronicle solid purchase and context."- Emily Michelson, University of St Andrews, in: Renaissance and Reformation, Vol. 44 No.1 (2021)."Thanks to Martina Mampieri’s exhaustive research and careful analysis, however, we now have a much fuller perspective on this work and its context. Mampieri’s Living under the Evil Pope, a revision and expansion of her PhD dissertation, offers a new critical edition of the chronicle, an English translation, critical and historical notes, a facsimile of the manuscript (now at the National Library of Israel), and some of the key archival documents. Mampieri also offers a full-scale monograph that uses the chronicle and archival sources to shed new light on the Jews of Civitanova Marche and the status of Jews in the Papal States during the papacy of Paul IV, 1555-1559.(...) Indeed, one of the most fascinating aspects of Mampieri’s work is her account of the modern traces of the work’s history—including a 1943 novelistic reworking of the Merchant of Venice based on Benjamin’s account. Mampieri also notes some of her research on the nachlass of Sonne here. We can look forward to her future publications that will tell us more about both twentieth-century scholarship and the Jews of sixteenth-century Italy. In the meantime, we have Mampieri’s careful study and excellent edition of an important primary source that offer us considerable advances in understanding the second half of the 1550s, a crucial moment in Italian Jewish history and Jewish-Christian relations."- Adam Shear, University of Pittsburg, in: Annali d’italianistica, Vol. 39 (2021)."Martina Mampieri provides scholars with a source of great interest, which helps better understand the complex period following the election of Pope Paul IV Carafa from a Jewish perspective. This is undoubtedly an important book that contributes to the advancement of our knowledge regarding that historical moment."- Alessandra Veronese, University of Pisa, in: AJS Review, Vol. 45 No. 1 (2021)."(...) even Hebrew speakers will benefit from the translation. This valuable source is now available to the many – the many including, and this is no small thing, those who study the history of historical writing for itself as that writing began emerging from the shadows at just this time. We are deeply indebted."- Kenneth Stow, University of Haifa, Emeritus, in: Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, Vol. 20 No. 1 (2021)."This thorough volume makes available for the first time the diplomatic edition and English translation of an extraordinary sixteenth-century Hebrew source on the pontificate of Paul IV Carafa (1555–59), written by Benjamin Nehemiah ben Elnathan from Civitanova Marche in the Papal States. (...) Benjamin’s chronicle was previously known—the Galician scholar Isaiah Sonne published a version of the text in 1930–31 with Hebrew annotations—but Mampieri corrects several mistakes from Sonne’s first, partial edition, and she accompanies the text with a meticulously researched introduction built on a veritable wealth of archival and literary sources. The volume also includes a facsimile of the only extant copy of Benjamin’s work, housed at the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem; a documentary appendix; maps; and plates. (...) Not only is the publication and translation of Benjamin’s chronicle a very welcome addition for Jewish historians, but her detailed introduction will be essential reading for any scholar interested in the pontificate of Paul IV."- Francesca Bregoli, Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, in: Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 74 No. 4 (2021). "Mampieri provides almost 200 pages of historical background placing the Hebrew chronicle in its context before offering a revised edition and an English translation, followed by a facsimile of the only surviving copy of the chronicle done in the 19th century. Recommended to all academic libraries."- Roger S. Kohn, Silver Spring, MD, in: AJL News and Reviews, Vol II, No 2 (2020-2021).
