Germany, Constance - As a result of the outbreak of plague, Jews were persecuted by terrible pogroms, they were killed or driven out the cities. They came back during the end of the 14th century though. Shortly after their return, Jews were again persecuted and left the city of Constance in 1448.
Interestingly, i got my hands on a source that contains eight documents concerned with a lawsuit of a Jew (Jacob) against an aristocrat (Heinrich von Roggwil) that takes place in 1451! - in a time where, according to other sources, there were no Jews around.
The source is in Middle High German, there's a Pfandbrief (mortgage bond) from 1439, five court decisions from 1451 which have seals, a vidimus (copy), and some other documents. The lawsuit itself is missing, as is Heinrich's appellation to the bishop. Several copies of the documents are mentioned in the text. - Clearly, only the documents which were received by Jacob the Jew still exist. ((The documents can be found in the City archives of Stein am Rhein, Switzerland, copies are in the State archives of Schaffhausen, Switzerland.))
The content is as follows:
1439 Manz von Roggwil and Conrad Zigellin borrow 24 rhenish Gulden from Jacob the Jew who lives in Constance. The interest is 2 Pfennig per week and the debt has to be paid by the heirs of the debtor. The money has to be paid back in seven weeks.
However, the money isn't paid back. By the end of the year 1450, the Jew files a lawsuit against Heinrich von Roggwil, the heir of Manz von Roggwil. Heinrich refuses to pay, by sending a document that confirms an oath that Manz hasn't been part of the loan (from before Manz died) to the bishop.
Anyway, there's a vidimus (copy) of the original contract, which proves that Manz indeed was part of the deal in 1439. Again, Heinrich objects. The bishop confirms that the Jew can assert his claim in secular court.
Then, there's a huge document describing the events in court. Heinrich's lawyer presents a new document which proves that Conrad Zigellin, the other borrower already paid the debt in the form of a silver cup worth 26 rhenisch Gulden.
Jacob the Jew however had never gotten that cup and didn't know a thing about it. So he was allowed to swear a Jewish oath that this was the truth - and that oath was accepted in court!! (which is remarkable, considering that this happened shortly after a pogrom in which all Jews were killed)
After that a few court decisions follow, describing the exact amount of the debt+interest which Heinrich has to pay.
Now - what I want to do is provide an analysis of the Jewish-Christian relations in that time - pretty much only using this source. I'm not a specialist in medieval history but i'd like to do something like a semantic analysis of the phrases describing the jew. (whenever he's mentioned, it says "the modest Jew", "the honest Jew" and sorts)
Has anyone of you ever done that or do you know any literature on how to analyse court documents and especially "court language" and those typical "empty phrases"? ANY ADVICE is highly appreciated!!!!
X-post: I posted this on /r/AskHistory, didn't get any answers though.
If someone's interested, I can upload pictures of the actual source and parts of the transcription, it hasn't been published yet though.
EDIT/UPDATE: I'm currently working on the topic and will post results as soon as possible. Thanks for your help, /u/AshkenazeeYankee! :)
One more thought: Consider messaging /u/peripatos, he's our local expert on the German "Roman Law" system and actually works in the legal profession in Germany, so he might have some insights into how to analyze and understand the court documents.
Again, if you want to do a semantic analysis of how Jacob is described in the court documents, you need to compare him to other Jews mentioned in similar court documents of approximately the same era, to have a baseline for comparison.
This is a really interesting little historical tidbit you've found. Let me know what you find.
I'm far from being an expert in this area, but it's worth trying to figure out if this Jacob was a court Jew to one of the other nobles or princes in the area. Court jews, occasioanlly also called "court factors" (DE: Hofjude, Hoffaktor) occupied a liminal social position in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, where they were often allowed to possess greater civil and property rights than the rest as the Jewish population, and indeed court Jews and their depenedents could in practice occasionally exercise a degree of political and social power that rivaled that of a wealthy burger, although this was strongly conditional on their personal relationship with and patronage from the local ruler, usually a member of the hochadel.
You should also take into account that the expulsions of the Jews were often highly localized. Often merchants would recognize which way the political winds were blowing, and manage to relocate themselves with most of their goods and contacts intact, into a nearby area. Is it possible that Jacob is actually living somewhere nearby in Switzerland during the time the court case takes place?