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This paper focuses on the idea of an Italian nation among the Jews of the peninsula in the 15th-16th centuries. Beyond the diversity of customs and origins, their sense of community makes it acceptable to talk about “Italian Jews”, who were happy to write in Italian and to resort to shared cultural forms. In addition, an institutional structure appears across Italy, via “synods” organized irregularly since the late 14th century. An Italian Jewish nation does appear, but in interaction with the societal majority. This nation had only begun to define itself, and did not entirely survive the upheaval of the 16th century Italian Jewish history.