BENEVENTO:
City in southern Italy; capital of the province of the same name; about 32 miles northeast of the city of Naples. Benjamin of Tudela visited it about 1165, and found there 200 Jewish families, having at their head three parnasim: Kalonymus, Zeraḥ, and Abraham ("Mas'ot Binyamin," ed. Asher, p. 13). This unimportant community increased after the Spanish exile. When King Ferdinand conquered the kingdom of Naples (1504), he established the Inquisition at Benevento in order to exterminate the Spanish and Portuguese Maranos who had settled there in somewhat large numbers.
Bibliography:
- Revue Orientale, ii. 151;
- Grätz, Gesch. der Juden, 3d ed., vi. 239;
- P. M. Lonardo, Gli Ebrei a Benevento, 1899.
