Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 1058

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

0.25 linear feet (1 box and 1 oversize folder)

Preferred Citation:

French Judaica manuscripts, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1640s-1873 (inclusive)

Form:

Manuscripts, French -- 19th century, Manuscripts, French -- 18th century, Manuscripts, French -- 17th century, and Notarial documents

Abstract:

Manuscript documents related to Jewish communities in France from the 17th century into the Napoleonic era.

Collection of manuscript documents related to Jewish communities in France from the 17th century into the Napoleonic era. The bulk of the collection comprises 10 documents, housed together, arranged chronologically: copies of late 16th-century legal documents made in the mid-17th century; a deed on parchment dated 1737 in which one party is a rabbi; 18th-century texts of a prayer and a sermon; early 19th-century documents from interactions between the Jewish leaders of Paris and the secular authorities; and a manuscript copy of the song Mogen owos for soprano with musical notation. 5 oversize documents, all from the 19th century, are housed separately: a large table summarizing the steps of studying writing and reading Hebrew, a list of Jews from the Gironde, an official document concerning the Jews of Verdun, a page possibly from a sermon with numerous scriptural citations, and a broadside about raising money for the Temple Portugais de la rue Neuve St. Laurent with extensive notes on the reverse documenting years of interest payments. Jewish communities from Alsace, Avignon, Gironde, Metz, Paris, and Verdun are represented.