Notification by the Strasbourg Governing Body of the Thirteen (Tredecim Viri) of a public auction...

The Juden Leibzoll was a special toll which Jews had to pay in most European states in the Middle Ages and up to the beginning of the nineteenth century; in Strasbourg it was known as the 'péage corporel' and was the tax payable by all Jews to allow entry into the city; the document mentions earlier negotiations over the toll with Cerf Beer; Cerf Beer (1726-93) was a French Jewish contractor and philanthropist; he supplied forage to the French army during the Seven Years War and at the insistence of the French War Minister, duc de Choiseul, the authorities of the city of Strasbourg were compelled, against their will, to permit Beer to settle in the city; in 1775 he obtained French citizenship and three years after this auction in 1784 he was able to negotiate the abolition of the Judenzoll (Jewish Toll) in return for the payment to the city of the huge sum of 48,000 livres, which was advanced by Beer; Cerf Berr was a key figure in the struggle to win political emancipation for Jews in France, the first European country to achieve this, on September 28, 1791;