Anti-Jewish Polemics in Business Documents from Late Medieval Austria

Abstract

Anti-Jewish polemics can be found in abundance in medieval theology, literature, and art; yet as for documents that stemmed from economic encounters, little research has been done so far. In late medieval Austrian economic source material, only a few hints at anti-Jewish stances can be found in business documents, most of which stem from either an ecclesiastical or a municipal environment. While these brief references to the Jews’ interest rates, to Jewish counterfeiting and Jewish duplicity might not be categorized as polemical per se, they introduce polemical stereotypes and arguments into scenarios of everyday Jewish-Christian interaction, and thus contribute to making anti-Jewish sentiment part of the Christian mind-set.