Metadata: Manuscripts
Collection
- Country:
- Austria
- Holding institution:
- Tyrolean Regional Archive
- Holding institution (official language):
- Tiroler Landesarchiv
- Postal address:
- Michael-Gaismair-Straße 1; 6020 Innsbruck
- Phone number:
- 0043 512 508 3502
- Web address:
- https://www.tirol.gv.at/kunst-kultur/landesarchiv/
- Email:
- landesarchiv@tirol.gv.at
- Reference number:
- Mischbestände - Handschriften
- Title:
- Manuscripts
- Title (official language):
- Handschriften
- Creator/accumulator:
- Government of Tyrol; Chancellery; Privy Council; Gubernium
- Date(s):
- 1278/2018
- Date note:
- ca. 1283 to now - accruals continue
- Language:
- German
- Extent:
- ca. 7,000 volumes
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection “Manuscripts” or “Codices” is a non-Jewish collection with a certain number of Jewish-related documents. The “Manuscripts” cover the period from 1283 to now and comprise the most miscellaneous collection of the Tyrolean Regional Archive. It consists of many documents of different administrative institutions which can no longer be classified according to their provenance. This collection is an accumulation of different book-like records which were stored in former archives and registries, such as the Territorial Treasury Archive which was dissolved in the 19th century, the Tyrolean Government and territorial Chancellery as well as the Privy Council, the “Gubernium” and other administrative offices of the County Tyrol. ( Cf. Beimrohr, Das Tiroler Landesarchiv und seine Bestände, 59-60.)
The collection is sorted into different subject groups from A to T. Group A includes cartularies (books of the chancelleries with copies), deeds and records, whereas Group B contains account books of nobilities or aristocracies, offices, cities and communities. Moreover, there are groups which deal for example with financial matters, statistics, military matters, processes and clerical matters. One may find different records like regulations and law codes as well as instructions for the territorial offices of Tyrol, copies of treaties (for example border treaties), constitutional charters, minutes of the Landtag, moving regulations and fief volumes. Occasionally one may find also inventories and rent rolls (“Urbare”), bodies and comments of law, guild regulations, statistics, descriptions of woodlands and process protocols, not to mention pharmacopoeias and cookbooks.
With regards to the Jewish interest in this collection, it contains several books with collected legal records from the administration area, such as concessions of privileges and liberties or documents of protection for Jewish people for the years 1509 to 1600 (1), a manuscript of the story of “Simon of Trent” (2), a book about the destruction of a Jewish house in Burgau around 1700 (3) and references about early settlements in Tyrol (4).
1.) Privileges, liberties and safe conducts: There are transcripts of imperial privileges and liberties for the Jews Salomon from Passau, Simon, Emanuel, Maggius, Josef and Gerson from Bassano (Signature: HS 4389) for their settlement in Austrian territories, for example in Bolzano. Their privileges and rights were reconfirmed by Ferdinand of Khuepach/Ried in 1604. For example, Salomon from Passau got a certificate of protection issued by Emperor Maximilian I, which stated that he and his family were allowed to live in Tyrol along with their property. There are also some safe conducts issued by duke Sigmund in the 15th century granted to Jews in Tyrol because of their trading activity and money lending and two privileges issued by duke Friedrich IV. in the year 1431 which prove the existence of Jewish families in Bolzano. Primarily there are references about the Jewish family Menn(d)lein, who were protected by the territorial Serenity as well as being permitted to stay in Bolzano or other Tyrolean cities and to practise their profession instead of paying a certain annual amount. Moreover, there is a protection deed of 1432, in which a Jewish doctor named Rubein is mentioned. As long as he practised medicine, he was protected by the territorial Serenity, but financial transactions were not supported. (For further information see Albrich (ed.), Jüdisches Leben im historischen Tirol, Vol. 1 Vom Mittelalter bis 1805, 25, 28.)
2.) “Simon of Trent”: The collection includes a short document about the tragedy of Simon of Trent, authored by Johannes Mathias Tiberius, the personal doctor of the bishop of Trent, Johannes Hinderbach. It is one of several anti-Jewish documents authored by Tiberius, which publicised the accusation that Simon of Trent was murdered by the Jewish Community in the course of a blood ritual. The story or myth of Simon of Trent is well known: Simon, a three-year-old boy, went missing on 24 March 1475. His dead body, covered in many wounds, was found in a moat which lead to the river Etsch. Said moat flowed through the cellar of Samuel, a member of the Jewish community. The accused community consisted of three households: Samuel, Tobias and Engel, who first arrived in Trent in 1461 and were thus recent immigrants. The members of the Jewish community had the permission to stay in Trent and to practice their professions, but they were dependent on protection by the authorities of Trent. Because of Simon’s death the entire Jewish community was accused of ritual murder. The members of the community were arrested and forced by torture to confess to the murder. All men of the Community were executed by January 1475, except for the disabled cook Salomon. At the same time, trials of the women of the community were also initiated. They were brutally tortured and some did not survive this cruelty. Simultaneously, the community’s whole property was confiscated by Hinderbach, the bishop of Trent. The fate of the surviving women and children is unknown. This is an instance of “blood libel”, the myth of Jews who killed Christian children to use their blood for their rituals, which was very widespread at the time. (Cf. Albrich (ed.), Jüdisches Leben im historischen Tirol, Vol. 1 Vom Mittelalter bis 1805, 109-129.)
3.) Jewish house: This record is an assessment concerning the destruction and rebuilding of a Jewish house as well as a Jewish cemetery in Kriegshaber, which was a territory of the margravate of Burgau in Further Austria.
4.) Early settlements: There are early references about first settlements of Jewish people in Tyrol in the medieval period. For example, late 13th century records mention a Jewish person named Meisterlin, who was a tenant or pawnbroker of a pawn office near the city of Merano. There are also documents which give details about the Jew Salomon of Munich, who was protected by the count Ludwig for annual payments, references to the first settlements of Jews in Trent in the years 1404 and 1416 (including details about Jewish taxes) and to Jewish life in Merano around the year 1300. (For further information about early settlements see Albrich (ed.), Jüdisches Leben im historischen Tirol, Vol. 1 Vom Mittelalter bis 1805, 25, 28, 39, 41.)
- Archival history:
- This collection was transferred to the Tyrolean Regional Archive as part of the regular document transfer process stipulated by national archival regulations.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The collection “Manuscripts” or “Codices” is the most miscellaneous collection of the Tyrolean Regional Archive. It is structured into different subject groups from A to T and includes many records of different administrative institutions, such as the Tyrolean Government, the territorial Chancellery, the Privy Council, the “Gubernium” and other administrative central authorities. Furthermore, there are other territorial institutions such as the Archive of Görz (disbanded), the mine management offices (“Bergwerksverwaltung”) of Kitzbühel and Lienz, the saltworks management of Hall in Tyrol, the district courts Lienz and Kitzbühel. the forestry office Taufers, the monasteries of Sonnenberg, Schnals, Mariathal, Talbach and St. Anna and the “Jesuitenkolleg” (Jesuit college) of Innsbruck. This collection was created by the Tyrolean Regional Archive because these intermixed documents could no longer be classified according to their provenances. Cf. Beimrohr, Das Tiroler Landesarchiv und seine Bestände, 59-60.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Meisterlin
- Menndlein
- Mennlein
- Rubein
- System of arrangement:
- The collection is arranged into different subject groups from A to T including invoices, cartularies, deeds, records and account books to several administrative matters.
- Access, restrictions:
- Public access
- Finding aids:
- Finding aids: Rep. B 40, Rep. B 40a, Rep. B 41-B43 and a subject and name index (card file) in the reading room. NB: Most of the catalogues of the Tyrolean Regional Archive include not only content registers but also subject indices. These can be searched for terms such as “Juden” (“Jews”), “Judentum” (“Judaism“), “Judenschaft” (“Judaism”), “Israeliten” (Israelites) and “Hebräer” (Hebrews). Usually there are numbers next to the entries concerning Jewish matters, which are needed to find the records in the register. The next step is to look up the number in the content registers to get a first impression of the written sources. Documents of interest can be ordered with their reference number for further consultation.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum Hohenems
- Author of the description:
- Rebecca Muršec, June 2017