Ketubbah (detail) Livorno, Italy, 1719 Smithsonian Institute, 1997 The Jewish community in Livorno dates to 1593, when the Medici rulers, who were to transform the town into Tuscany's major port, invited Jews to settle there. The Jews were accorded many rights and privileges they did not enjoys elswhere, including self-jurisdiction in both civil and criminal cases. Moreover, Livorno had no walled ghetto. Marranos, the hidden Jews whose ancestors had fled the Inquisition in Spain, were also welcomed. The Prosperity of the Jewish community is evidienced in the elaborate ornamentation of many Livorno ketubbot. As often the case with these documents, this particular marriage contract is richly decorated and includes the tenaim, bethrothol conditions as well as the kettubbah text.