Communities > Loans in Apt
Loan Records.
Manuscript in Latin, on paper.
Apt, Provence, before 1387.
Western MS 41F
Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Although Jews have resided in Provence since at least the first century CE, there is relatively little documentation of their widespread participation in society and commerce until the Middle Ages. A tax register from 1420 records fifteen Jewish families in the town of Apt. Frequently precluded from other means of livelihood, some Jews subsisted by loaning money at interest. Columbia has a collection of twelve notarial documents dealing with loans made by Jews to Christians in Apt during this period.
Each of the sections in this manuscript deals with a different Jew from this small community.
The first section, a continuation from a previous document, references "the said Jew." The second section describes a transaction with "Salomon Astrugui, a Jew of Apt." The third transaction is between Gartus Bonafossi, a Jew of Apt, and a Christian, Iohannes Raymundi. Interestingly, this third transaction was established in an inn owned by another Jew, Salvetus Ysaquus. Salvetus Ysaquus was a moneylender in his own right, and he is listed as the lender of record in another transaction, recorded on the reverse of this document.
Gift of Dr. Samuel Schaefler.