There are reports of Jewish settlements in Ferrara as early as the 12^th century and a legate from 1227 reports a certain Sabatinus Judeus as the beneficiary of 20 soldos. The oldest and most useful evidence, however, dates back to the second half of the 13^th century. A document from 1254 and others from the seventies of the thirteenth century, in fact, concerned cash transactions between Christians and Jews from which it is assumed that the latter dealt with money loans. In 1275 a public decree showed the existence of chapters stipulated between the Municipal Council, represented by the judge and the vicar of the podestà, and the Jews of Ferrara; the decree called for compliance with the agreements stipulated with the Jews, without citing them. This document, merged into the Statutes of 1287, attested that, at that date, the Jews had already settled in the city and established themselves in the field of industry and commerce, to the point of obtaining protection from the Municipality.

During the thirteenth century, groups of Jews from Lazio, Umbria and the Marche, had reached northern Italy to practice usury lending, often the only occupation allowed to the Jews, at the time still tolerated by the Church and also exercised by Christian merchants. In Ferrara the first settlements were located in Via Centoversuri, as indicated in the oath of allegiance to Pope Clement V, then the Jews of more recent immigration moved to an area between the current Via Scienze and Corso Giovecca. In the fifteenth century they settled mainly between Via Sabbioni and San Romano, where they remained definitively, even after the establishment of the ghetto.