Der Juden zu Franckfurt Stättigkeit und Ordnung (Legal Status of the Jews of Frankfurt and Ordinances) Frankfurt am Main: Johann Saurn: 1614

24 pages (12 x 7 ½ in.; 305 x 190 mm). Text in German. Title page with decorated initial word panel and illustration of a "Jews' circle;" p. 6 with two woodcut illustrations, p.3 with decorative headpiece, p. 24, decorative tailpiece. Lightly browned. Ex libris on front pastedown. Three quarter vellum.

FIRST OFFICIAL EDITION OF THE STATUTES IMPOSED UPON THE JEWS OF FRANKFURT

For as long as Jews had been present in the German city of Frankfurt, their legal status was a potent political issue that revolved around the constant tension between ecclesiastical and imperial authorities and which, on a more local level was a frequent bone of contention in the power struggle between the patrician elements of the Frankfurt town council and the powerful merchant guilds within the city. In 1462 the Jews of Frankfort were transferred to a ghetto consisting of a specially constructed street (Judengasse), enclosed within walls and gates. At around the same time, relations between the city and its Jews were spelled out in regulations called Stättigkeiten. Among these was the requirement for that Jews wear a yellow circle on their clothing whenever they left the ghetto. Jewish men were required to wear special yellow hats with a distinctive conical shape.  

The present lot is a rare first official printing of these statutes which were published in 1614 by the city fathers of Frankfurt.  Though an unauthorized smaller format edition had been published in 1613 by the guilds, it was the publication of this 1614 edition which carried the full weight and authority of the city council, and which fueled the events of August 5, 1614, when a mob led by Vincent Fettmilch, attacked the ghetto and forced the Jews to flee from Frankfurt.  After the public insurrection was put down by the Emperor, Fettmilch was executed, an event celebrated by the Jews of Frankfurt for the next 300 years.

In Frankfurt, all homes and buildings were known by names according to their distinguishing features. This volume contains a listing of all of the names of the houses in which the Jews resided along the Judengasse. Listed here are several houses with familiar names, most notably, the house of the Red Shield, where the eponymous Rothschild family would live until they moved up the block and across the Judengasse to the famous house of the Green Shield from which they would launch an empire.