Financial Records and Social History: Pinkassei Gabbaim

During the early modern period, Jewish communities began to document their daily transactions in ledgers called pinkassim. Along with the general communal ledger, the pinkas kahal, Jewish communities in Germany had additional logbooks that were used by various officials. These logbooks, often financial in nature, documented some of the daily transactions in Jewish communities. Their size and format demonstrates the way accounting was conducted in early modern Europe.

This presentation will examine one such pinkas, which has been miscataloged as a charity ledger. In fact, it is a ledger that records the sale of safe conducts, a type of early modern passport that allowed travelers to travel within a given region. The information contained in this ledger indicates how Jewish communities were linked to one another financially and institutionally. At the same time, it provides scholars with a unique glimpse of the range of Jewish travel that took place on a daily basis during the early modern period. While most of our information about travel derives from personal accounts and letters, the pinkas, as a financial document, tracks broader patterns in given regions, thereby adding to what we know about mobility.

In addition, the presentation will focus on the methodology required to read a financial ledger such as this one as a source for social history. As part of the panel on the Pinkassim Project, it will demonstrate how additional types of pinkassim, particularly financial ledgers, can also serve as importance sources for uncovering the daily lives of Ashkenazic Jews.