Francia Beaufleury, Louis. Histoire de l’Établissement des Juifs à Bordeaux et à Bayonne, depuis 1550.

(FRENCH- JUDAICA).

Year 8 of the French Republic

Paris

(1800)

Identifying himself only as “Citizen LFB, lawyer (admitted to practice) in the Department of the Seine (i. e., Paris),” Louis Francia was a member of a family prominent since the 17th-century in the Portuguese ex-marrano Jewish communities of London and Bordeaux. His “History of Jewish settlement in Bordeaux and Bayonne since 1550” is a classic account of which its author has been called”the first French Jewish historian.” Its motivation, however, is not history for history’s sake. True, the first nine chapters document the history of such topics as: the exercise of internal community discipline “the new privileges that the Portuguese Jews obtained during the reign of Louis XVI” principally, citizenship obtained in 1790, early in the Revolution, before Louis’s decapitation; and polygamy, divorce, and levirate marriage. But all this is by way of background, or supporting evidence, for Francia’s long final chapter,” on the condition of the Jews in in Bordeaux and Bayonne since the Revolution.” That condition has deteriorated so far during the decade since 1790 that they stand in imminent danger of having all their communal property confiscated. Everything now turns on whether these communities constitute religious charitable corporations. For subtle reasons rooted in their peculiar settlement history, “Citizen LFB, lawyer” maintains, this is not and has never been the case in Bordeaux or Bayonne “whatever the case may be in Metz or in Avignon.”