The Jews in Modon and Coron during the second half of the fifteenth century

The region of Messenia in the south-western Peleponnese, with its two main port towns of Coron and Modon, was under Venetian rule for nearly 300 years, from the early thirteenth to the end of the fifteenth century. The presence of Jews and their occupations are attested by the descriptions of foreign travellers, as well as in Venetian official documents. This study focuses on the last half-century of Venetian rule - the second half of the fifteenth century - a period relatively better documented than earlier ones. The economic occupations of the local Jews are presented in the wider context of Jewish occupations in the Byzantine and post-Byzantine world and the question of whether there were two Jewish neighbourhoods, related to two different social strata of Jewish society, is raised on the basis of the testimony of one traveller. Although Jewish presence in Coron is attested in Jewish sources, nearly all the evidence concerns Modon. The reasons behind this discrepancy remain to be elucidated by further research.