COLORNI, VITTORE

COLORNI, VITTORE (1912– ), Italian jurist. Born in Mantua, he lectured on the history of Italian law at the University of Ferrara, where he was appointed professor in 1956. Colorni was much esteemed as a pioneer in the study of the legal situation of the Jews in Italy from the Roman period to medieval times. In his major work, Legge ebraica e leggi locali (1945), Colorni examined the special status of the Jews and how far Jewish private law was recognized in Italy, tracing the history of rabbinical courts in the medieval Italian states. Colorni also wrote many articles on Mantuan Jewish history, on the names and history of ancient Jewish families, and on subjects of general interest, including "Teologi cristiani dell' Ottocento, precursori del Sionismo" (RMI, 21 (1955), 170–85) and the books, Gli ebrei nel sistema del diritto comune fino alla   prima emancipazione (1956) and L'uso del greco nella liturgia del giudaismo ellenistico (1964). -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. Perani (ed.), Man Tov le Man Tovah. Una Manna buona per Mantova. Studi in onore di Vittore Colorni per il suo 92 compleanno (2004), incl. bibl. of. Calorni's writings. (Alfredo Mordechai Rabello / Alfredo Rabello (2nd ed.)