Napoleon

Perhaps the most interesting thing I have found so far at the library is a copy of a decree issued by Napoleon. My French is not that great, but it seemed to be summoning Jews to answer the question of why so many Jews were involved in usury and what could be done to encourage more productive occupations.

I am not sure what relation this had to the summoning of Napoleon's Sanhedrin, which answered rather more questions, although it did deal with the usury question. Perhaps they were originally only to deal with that and then more questions were asked.

At any rate, I was excited to have a piece of history in my hands. I read history at university, so I am no stranger to reading original documents, but I usually saw them reprinted in later editions or collections.