r
which flows through the city provides it with ingress and egress for
ships.

From Pisa it is four parasangs to the city of Lucca, which is the
beginning of the frontier of Lombardy. In the city of Lucca are about
forty Jews. It is a large place, and at the head of the Jews are R.
David, R. Samuel, and R. Jacob.

[p.8]

Thence it is six days' journey to the great city of Rome. Rome is the
head of the kingdoms of Christendom, and contains about 200 Jews, who
occupy an honourable position and pay no tribute, and amongst them are
officials of the Pope Alexander, the spiritual head of all
Christendom. Great scholars reside here, at the head of them being R.
Daniel, the chief rabbi, and R. Jechiel, an official of the Pope[20].
He is a handsome young man of intelligence and wisdom, and he has the
entry of the Pope's palace; for he is the steward of his house and of
all that he has. He is a grandson of R. Nathan, who composed the
Aruch[21] and its commentaries. Other scholars are R. Joab, son of the
chief rabbi R. Solomon, R. Menachem, head of the academy, R. Jechiel,
who lives in Trastevere, and R. Benjamin, son of R. Shabbethai of
blessed memory. Rome is divided into two parts by the River Tiber. In
the one part is the great church which they call St. Peter's of Rome.
The great Palace of Julius Caesar was also in Rome[22].

[p.9]

There are many wonderful structures in the city, different from any
others in the world. Including both its inhabited and ruined parts,
Rome is about twenty-four miles in circumference. In the midst
thereof[23] there are eighty palaces belonging to eighty kings who
lived there, each called Imperator, commencing from King Tarquinius
down to Nero and Tiberius, who lived at the time of Jesus the
Nazarene, ending with Pepin, who freed the land of Sepharad from
Islam, and was father of Charlemagne.

There is a palace outside Rome (said to be of Titus). The Consul and
his 300 Senators treated him with disfavour, because he failed to take
Jerusalem till after three years, though they had bidden him to
capture it within two[24].

In Rome is also the palace of Vespasianus, a great and very strong
building; also the Colosseum[25], in which edifice there are 365
sections, according to the days of the solar year; and the
circumference of these palaces is three miles. There were battles
fought here in olden times, and in the palace more than 100,000 men
were slain, and there their bones remain piled