Memoire Pour la Ville de Carpentras [collected transactions between the Jews and Christians of Carpentras]. Contains five “Pièces justificatives,” also the text of Lion’s memorandum of May 15th, 1772

(FRENCH JUDAICA)

Esprit David

Aix

1773

Szajkoski, Franco-Judaica no. 392

The town of Carpentras in the Vaucluse Department, fourteen miles North-East of Avignon had a Jewish presence almost without interruption since the 12th century. The present work provides a fascinating history of the Jewish experience in the Comtat-Venaissin (Papal enclave in Southern France). Includes details of the protracted dispute with the Bishop d’Inguimbert beginning in 1725 regarding the height of the walls of the synagogue, which rose unacceptably higher than the Chapel of the Pénitients Blancs, the Palais de la Rectorerie and the l’évéché. Details of an action involving one Isaac Samuel Lion who was forced to demolish his house at his own expense as it over-looked a Church “through which windows the celebration of the holy mysteries, the divine office and the eternal cult would be ceaselessly exposed to ominous looks and the derision of the Jews”