Monumenta Symoniniana

The Monumenta Symoniniana project is born with the goal of making widely accessible to the public the corpus of documents that date to the episcopacy of the prince-bishop of Trent Johannes Hinderbach and concern the notorious blood libel case that was originated by the death of Simon of Trent in 1475 of which the Jews of the city were accused.

Most of the manuscript documentation is currently kept at the Archivio di Stato of Trent, especially in two wooden boxes collectively known as the capsa 69, or capsa del Simonino (i.e.: "little Simon's box").

This project starts with the publication of the collection of letters exchanged between bishop Hinderbach and his correspondents in the years from 1475 to 1481; the project aims to publish also the remaining documentation and chiefly the trial against the priest Paolo of Novara, who was accused in 1476 of having colluded with the Jews to set free the incarcerated Jewish women and making them escape on a raft to Verona, plotted to poison the bishop, captain and podestà of Trent and promised to the Jews to steal the corpse of Little Simon.