(FRENCH JUDAICA).

I: Collection of c. 161 manuscript letters and other documents pertaining to the business career of Eliahu Levy of Metz. Most documents are dated 1676. The collection is composed of: 1) seventeen letters signed by Eliahu Levy in Hebrew; 2) one letter signed in Hebrew by Gourchau Levy; 3) one undated document signed by Raphael Levy in Hebrew (the same Raphael Levy hanged in Metz in 1670?); 4) four letters signed David Sirad of Metz; 5) nine letters signed Y. Poisson of Paris; 6) 129 letters from Germany and Switzerland. These documents illustrate the economic history of early modern Ashkenazi Jewry, particularly the wide ranging network of Jewish merchants. The authors of these letters constantly refer to each other by name, even though they lived great distances apart. It is amazing that a small-time Jewish businessman in Metz like Eliahu Levy would have such distant contacts as far away as Switzerland. This unique collection represents the only record of this otherwise unknown Jewish entrepreneur. II) Notarial Deed on vellum, dated 1527, confirming the purchase of 12.5 “cargoes--according to the weight of Pernes--of good olive oil” by “the noble Antoine, Count of Pernes,” from Benestruc de Monsellibus (Monteux), “a Jew of Carpentras.” The deed demonstrated how Jews and gentiles continued to interact with one another even after anti-Jewish restrictions were enacted five years earlier by Jacques Sadoleto, the local bishop. For example, the deed attests to the taking of an oath “on the Aquinea according to the custom of the Jews (more Iudoerum)”; this refers to the special oath Jews had to take when dealing with gentiles. The importance of this particular transaction is attested to by the unusually large size of the document. Benestruc is known to have been active as a merchant from 1521 to 1546. His ancestors originally lived in Monteux and moved to nearby Carpentras by the mid-fourteenth century. Later members of this prominent family include a seventeenth-century liturgical poet (Saul b. Joseph), an eighteenth-century shtadlan (Abraham de Monteux) and a twentieth-century composer/conductor (Pierre Monteux). III) Twenty-eight documents of various sizes from different Alsatian cities dealing with diverse subjects. Twenty-five are in Hebrew. One document signed by the rabbi of Bouxwiller (dated 1783) deals with a legal ruling he issued concerning a dispute between two local residents. Another document from Balbronn describes how a wealthy man circumvented Jewish law in order to leave one son a larger inheritance than another. A Yiddish contract between a community and its hazzan is signed by four parnasim. A few documents pertain to the fundraising activities of the yeshivah in Bouxwiller. . IV) Kethubah on parchment for the marriage of Uri b. Alexander Hacohen to Miriam b. Eliezer from Hirsenheim. 1711. Further details pertaining to this lot may be furnished upon request