Melange of four early 19th-century Jewish works, bound with works of general French interest, including:
AUCTION 50 |
Thursday, February 24th,
2011 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Hebrew Printed Books, Manuscripts, Graphic & Ceremonial Art Including: The Alfonso Cassuto Collection of Iberian Art
Lot 110
(FRENCH JUDAICA)
Melange of four early 19th-century Jewish works, bound with works of general French interest, including:
Est: $600 - $900
PRICE REALIZED $950
These fascicles provide a picture of the quotidian life of the Jews of Alsace-Lorraine in the first years of the French Republic. In the earliest document (Nancy, 1806), written during the Napoleonic Era, Isaac-Berr remonstrates with a French senator that the price of French citizenship should not be the relinquishing of the Jewish religion. On p.10 the writer argues that even if the Jews were to en masse dishonor themselves by converting to Christianity, His Majesty the Emperor would certainly not want such feckless subjects: "de pareils hommes, qui n'auraient ni foi ni loi, ne pourraient jamais devenir de bons citoyens, dignes d'etre gouvernés par lui" (“Such men, who would have neither faith nor law, could never become good citizens, worthy of being governed by him...”)