In her introduction to this book, Katherine Aron-Beller sets out the broad geographical and chronological range covered by her research into various Christian tales or allegations of Jews desecrating Christian sacred images, such as Christ, his Passion and the Virgin Mary, the latter in particular gaining ground in the thirteenth century as the veneration of Mary increased. Covering the geographical spread from Byzantium to Iberia, to northern and southern Europe, with a particular focus on Italy, and chronologically spanning over a thousand years, Aron-Beller offers a wide range of evidence, using a broad variety of literary, chronicle and artistic sources, of imagined and actual events of these desecrations. The author provides useful background on the conflict between Christianity and Judaism with regard to mutual accusations of idolatry or veneration. Furthermore, she notes that initially the charges of desecration were more often Christian imaginings in order to demonstrate to a Christian audience the hope, miracle and process of Jewish conversion, while serving to emphasise the rightness of the path of Christianity. However, over time, the tales’ conflation of the biblical and contemporary Jew did eventually give rise to the accusation of real Jews allegedly desecrating images, an accusation that took a firmer hold with the coming of, and ongoing influence of, the mendicant orders.

The book comprises six chapters, well-illustrated, individually dealing with specific geographical divisions over time, culminating in the detailed close study of a particular incident of desecration that took place in Spilamberto in Italy during the seventeenth century. One particular chapter, however, focuses on Jewish responses to such Christian allegations of desecration, revealing that contemporary Jews did not remain passive in the face of such charges.

In chapter i, Aron-Beller considers the creation of the desecrating narrative, focusing on the growth of such tales within Byzantium, the conflicts arising between iconoclast and iconophile, and the spread of ideas of Jewish desecration of Christian images into Western Europe. With the alleged finding of the true cross, the inventio crucis, Aron-Beller illustrates how tales of Jewish desecration of the cross gained ground with Christian authors. Such tales would detail how a Jew would hide a cross (hiding being an act of desecration), that would be eventually and miraculously found, compelling the Jew to acknowledge the truth of Christianity and be baptised. The Jew here is converted not punished. Over time however the tales expand and vary in content, culminating in the tale of Christ of Beirut evolving in the eighth century, and in which fictional and actual Jews, for example those active in Byzantine society, become conflated. The tale is reflective of Christ’s trial and crucifixion and includes descriptions of Jews attacking an image which then leaks blood and water, again perceived as miraculous and leading to Jewish conversion and baptism. Aron-Beller demonstrates in this opening chapter how the tales of desecration spread geographically and chronologically up until the ninth century to reveal not only the ever-increasing anti-Jewish tropes present within Christian society, but also the tensions within Christian society itself.

In chapters ii and iii, the author focuses first on the growth of desecratory tales within northern western Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and second, on Spain and the impact of such tales within the conversos community and the influence of the Spanish inquisition. The tales that circulated during the twelfth century became increasingly varied and complex. The Christ of Beirut tale continued to gain ground as a standard exempla of Jewish desecration, but the tales of the desecration of images of Mary being insulted by Jews were also increasingly popular. It is Aron-Beller’s contestation that this topos of Jewish desecration would eventually lead to the allegations of Jewish host desecration and blood libel. Moreover, the tales would also lead to accusations of acts of desecration against real Jews alive and active within Christian society. What had originally been fictional allegations would thus eventually become real accusations, leading to Jews being tried in court. Aron-Beller points out however that while few such cases actually succeeded, the claims made regarding allegations of Jewish desecration appeared sufficiently credible that they were legally investigated. Again, as in earlier times, it becomes clear that these allegations were often a reflection of the conundrum within Christianity as theologians tried to reconcile the fear of the accusation of idolatry with the encouraged practice of image veneration, while, at the same time trying to come to terms with the presence of Jews active socially and economically within Christian society and showing no particular wish to convert to Christianity.

The situation in Spain regarding tales of image desecration, such as Christ of Beirut, reveals a slower pace of growth of allegations against Jews, perhaps, as Aron-Beller discusses in chapter iii, a reflection of Jews under the protection of the king and also in positions of power at court. It is however the increasing presence of conversos within Iberian society that caused growing disquiet, particularly as the Inquisition gained prominence, with actual investigations into allegations of lapsed conversos either desecrating Christian images, or lacking sufficient respect or care for the images. Such accusations often mirrored events related in the fictional tales, such as throwing images into latrines or, a new trend, accusations of scourging crucifixes.

In chapters v and vi, Aron-Beller provides an overview of image desecration in medieval and early modern Italy, with chapter vi providing the case study of a seventeenth-century allegation of desecration in Spilamberto, the details of which were held in the archives in Modena and which Aron-Beller relates with meticulous analysis of the evidence of desecration charges brought against the Sanguinetti family. Chapter v shows how the ubiquitous Christ of Beirut tale proliferated in Italy, both literally and pictorially. Using judicial records, primarily from the Roman inquisition in Modena, Aron-Beller has been able to demonstrate not only just how present Jews were in Christian society, often as merchants and bankers, in active social contact with Christians, but also how the fictitious tales often led to real accusations of desecration and to the application of judicial process against Jews, via either the episcopal or ducal courts. While the end result of these cases, frequently arising from elements of personal vendetta, malice or evidence that eventually proved insufficent, did not result in punishment, they did provide a way in which the Inquisition in Italy could monitor, judge and discipline Jews when and where it was deemed necessary.

Chapters iii, v and vi all deal with the allegations, fictional and real, made by Christian society against Jews. It is however in chapter iv that Aron-Beller details the Jewish reaction to these allegations and the various ways in which Jews, across the broad geographical and chronological swathe, reacted to and dealt with these charges. Providing background to the early rabbinic teachings regarding the perils of idolatry, Aron-Beller demonstrates how Jews, living in an overwhelming non-Jewish space, came to deal with Christian imagery, initially by rabbinic encouragement of disdain and contempt and then by growing use of invective, as seen in the Toledo Yeshu, providing what Aron-Beller describes as an ‘arsenal’ of emotive terms to mock Christian images, with most mockery in Jewish sources being reserved for images of the cross, rather than images, for example, of Mary. Eventually, by the seventeenth century, Jewish sources evolved to include their own folktales of desecration, wherein Jews survive despite heinous acts and baseless allegations being committed against them. Aron-Beller shows that even though Jews were aware and fearful of the accusations being made against them, they were able, over time, to develop strategies that allowed them to defend themselves against Christian allegations of desecration.

In this book Aron-Beller sets out to show that while stories of ritual murder and host desecration by Jews proliferated and have been studied in detail, stories of Christian image violation or desecration have not been studied to the same extent. This book has filled that gap, giving detailed evidence from a plethora of Christian and Jewish sources amassed from a broad geographical and chronological base. It provides, in particular to the scholarship of Christian-Jewish relations, a valid and varied, and until now, neglected resource to add to the corpus.