Single leaf of Hartman Schedel's book, Weltchronik (Nuremberg Chronicle), Nuremberg, 1493. Illustration of Jews torturing the child Simon of Trento.
On March 23 1475 a Christian two and a half years old child by the name of Simon disappeared from his parents home in Trento in north Italy; three days later, on the eve of Good Friday (the day of Jesus Christ's crucifixion), his body was found near the home (or in its cellar or its well) of a Jew who was a resident of the city, a money lender by the name of Shmuel.
After the body was found the Bishop announced that all of Trento Jewish community, including a few converted Jews, are guilty of the murder of the child. All the Jews of the city were arrested, tortured and some executed by fire or decapitated. Simon was declared a saint by the pope, and his memory was mentioned every year in the month of March, until his status a saint was cancelled in 1965.
40.5 cm. Good condition. Stains, mainly to margins. Tear with omission to upper right margins.