Official document dating from the earliest beginnings of the Jewish community of Mantua, granting the community's administration permission to establish a kosher slaughterhouse, and detailing the conditions for its maintenance. Written in brown ink on vellum; signed. With large wax seal (broken) of Federico II, Duke of Mantua. Mantua, September 5, 1532. Latin.
Charter bestowed to the Jewish community of Mantua by Duke Federico II of Gonzaga. Grants permission to establish and maintain a separate (kosher) slaughterhouse, with a Jewish ritual slaughterer, and supply the city's Jews with meat, to be slaughtered in accordance with their religious requirements. This manuscript contains important documentation concerning the composition of the community's governing bodies during its early years: a six-member Jewish council consisting of three moneylenders and three elected officials (according to the historian Shlomo Simonsohn, these councils were the Jewish community's earliest governing bodies, predating the establishment of more formal committees).
The Jewish community of Mantua gained formal recognition from the authorities in 1511, in a charter issued in the name of Duke Federico II. The present charter was issued some twenty years after the Jewish community was formally recognized, and it is among the earliest extant documents to refer to the community by name.
See: Shlomo Simonsohn, "History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua." Tel Aviv and Jerusalem: Tel Aviv University and the Ben-Zvi Institute, 1963-63, Hebrew. pp. 246, 368, and 569-70.
Approx. 33X43.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Fold lines. Small holes and open tears to edges and fold lines (with minor damage to date listing), mostly repaired with paper. Long tear (8.5 cm) to bottom right corner, sewn (contemporary repair; no damage to text). Wax seal deteriorated, with large missing piece. Handwritten notation to back.