Decentralization, Absolutism, and the Papal States
by David Kertzer
Historian David Kertzer made a name for himself with his 1997 book
The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara. The book covers the until then rarely mentioned case of an Italian Jewish boy who was illicitly baptized by the housekeeper, and then kidnapped in 1858 by Papal State authorities on the grounds that Jews in the Papal States could not be permitted to raise a Christian child.
Because so few books or in-depth articles have been written on the topic in English, Kertzer now enjoys a position as perhaps the preeminent expert on the case. This is no small thing since a number of filmmakers including Steven Spielberg have expressed interest in dramatizing the Mortara case on film. The film project explicitly based on Kertzer’s book was still moving forward as of February of this year.1