Metadata: Series of deeds - Series I; Series II
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 - Urkundenreihe I; Urkundenreihe II
- Title:
- Series of deeds - Series I; Series II
- Title (official language):
- Urkundenreihen - Urkundenreihe I; Urkundenreihe II
- Creator/accumulator:
- Territorial Treasury Archive
- Date(s):
- 1004/1850
- Date note:
- Deed series I: 1004-1780; Deed series II: 1188-1850
- Language:
- German
- Extent:
- 620 boxes
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection “Deed series I and Deed series II” is a non-Jewish collection with a certain number of Jewish-related documents. The collection “Deed series” is divided into “Large documents” (“Großlibelle”), “Customer letters” (“Parteibriefe”) and “Deed series I” and “Deed series II”. “Deed series I” covers the period from 1004 to 1780 and “Deed series II” from 1188 to 1850. ( Cf. Beimrohr, Das Tiroler Landesarchiv und seine Bestände, 44-48.) In general, they deal with different legal and financial matters including controversies between individuals and loans. They cover, for example, regulations, feudal grants, invoices, mandates, imprisonment and verdicts. The documents concerning Jewish people date from the 14th to the early 16th century. Especially “Deed series II” contains deeds and records about financial and tax matters, such as debts, financial damages or obligations of individuals as well as conflicts of private citizens caused by obligations.
In this collection, there are references for early Jewish settlements in the 14th and at the beginning of the 15th century in Hall in Tyrol and in Innsbruck, because in documents of 1341 and 1405 Jewish alleys in both cities are mentioned. It can be assumed that early settlements were already established in the 13th century in Hall in Tyrol. Regarding, Innsbruck two Jews are mentioned who stayed in Innsbruck in 1434, whereby it is assumed that one of them was the Jew Mendelin, who was the father of Salomon, the disabled cook of Trent and only survivor of the execution process against the Jewish Community of Trent after the alleged murder of the Christian child Simon. (Cf. Albrich (ed.), Jüdisches Leben im historischen Tirol, Vol. 1 Vom Mittelalter bis 1805, 29, 43.)
Jewish people or businessmen in these records mostly appear as creditors who were involved in financial transactions and were trying to get their money or valuables back from their debtors. There is a document of 1313 about regulations referring to financial transactions of Jewish bankers or financiers, in which it is determined that in matters of default the interest incurred has to be paid by the debtors. (Cf. Albrich (ed.), Jüdisches Leben im historischen Tirol, Vol. 1 Vom Mittelalter bis 1805, 67.) These documents show some detail about the economic life of Jews and how indispensable they were for the financial system, especially as pawnbrokers or financiers. As a matter of fact, such business was prohibited for Christians and only Jews were allowed to deal with money, grant loans and charge interest. For the authorities, the Jewish-dominated loan business was essential, therefore they were often protected by their noble customers.
For example, one may find references concerning Jewish businessmen in a document issued in 1464, which mentions “Mosse” (Moses) who was a businessman in Hall in Tyrol and under duke Sigmund responsible for the collecting of Jewish taxes, which were listed in a document of 1451. Especially in “Deed series I” one may find different records of protection, grants of privileges issued by kings and dukes for settled Jewish communities and transients, for example in Alsace, Lungau, Breisgau, Thurgau, Aargau and Swabia. On the other hand, there are special tax regulations issued for Jews as well as imprisonments of Jews.
- 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 accumulator of the collection “Deed series I” and “Deed series II” is the Treasury Archive, which was the central territorial archive in Tyrol and Further Austria as well as the precursor archive to the Tyrolean Regional Archive. Most of the documents of the territorial Treasury Archive were documents of the central authorities of Innsbruck or of the Tyrolean sovereigns. Beside these records, one may find other documents, such as deeds and records of confiscated archives of nobles. In the 17th and 18th century, the Treasury Archive was thinned out and numerous records were transferred to Vienna, Constance and Freiburg. In the 19th century, the strong depleted Treasury Archive was dissolved. The remaining records of this archive were numbered and short summaries of their content were created. Thus the collection “Deed series I” came into being, into which further documents of the archive of Görz were integrated. However, the second part of the collection, “Deed series II”, was created from documents of the so-called “Statthaltereiarchiv” (Archive of the Governor’s Office) and documents which were bought by or donated to the Tyrolean Regional Archive. Furthermore, documents of other collections were added, such as one part of the “Pest Archive Documents” as well as records from smaller regional archives. Because of these various provenances, the partial collection “Deed series II” is more miscellaneous than “Deed series I”. (Cf. Beimrohr, Das Tiroler Landesarchiv und seine Bestände, 44-46.)
- Access points: persons/families:
- Mendelin
- System of arrangement:
- The collection “Deed series” is divided into “Large documents” (“Großlibelle”), “Customer letters” (“Parteibriefe”), “Deed series I” and “Deed-series II”.
- Access, restrictions:
- Public access
- Finding aids:
- Finding aid: Rep. B 351-355 (Index). 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
