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Description

Fine early map of Chalone-sur-Saone, likely one of the earliest printed maps of the city.

The map is surmounted by a large coat of arms above the title.

Item #17 is Grande rue, anciennement rue des Juifs (Great Street, formerly street of the Jews).

Item #44 is Foffe ou Canal de Gloriette quie s etend depuis la fondtained de la porte de Beaunne, jusqu'au foffe de la basse enceinte. C'est ce foffe, que les Religieux de St. Pierre donnent pour le noue du Reglement du 1270 (Foffe or Canal de Gloriette, which extends from the bottom of the Porte de Beaunne to the base of the lower enclosure. It is this foffe, which the Religious of St. Peter give for the vow of the Regulation of 1270).

Chalone-sur-Saone

Chalon-sur-Saône lies in the south of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of France. It is located on the Saône River, and was once a busy port, acting as a distribution point for local wines which were sent up and down the Saône River and the Canal du Center, opened in 1792.

Though the site (ancient Cabillonum) was a capital of the Aedui and objects of La Tène culture have been retrieved from the bed of the river, the first mention of Cavillonum is found in Commentarii de Bello Gallico (VII, chs. 42 and 90). The Roman city already served as a river port and hub of road communications of the Via Agrippa and side routes.

In 354 AD the Roman Emperor, Constantius II stationed the Roman 7th Army in Chalon (then called Cabyllona) for an invasion against the brother kings, Gundomad and Vadomar of the Alamanni. However, not having received supplies, the Roman troops revolted, and were pacified by the grand chamberlain Eusebius with money. In late Antiquity the city had dwindled so much that a wall round it encircled fifteen hectares.

Saint Marcellus of Chalons (Saint Marcel) is said to have been martyred in 179 AD; his cult was encouraged by Guntram, king of Burgundy from 561 to 592, who died at Chalon.

The bishopric of Chalon-sur-Saône, a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Lyon, was established in the same century, and a Church Council was held here from 644-655. The see was merged into the diocese of Autun shortly after the French Revolution.

Chalon in the 19th century is best known as the birthplace of photography. Its most famous resident, Nicéphore Niépce also has a lycée (secondary school) named after him. Also on display are Niépce's 1807 Pyréolophore which is probably the world's first internal combustion engine, plus his 1818 implementation of a dandy horse, for which he coined the word vélocipède.

Jewish History in Chalone-Sur-Saone

Jews were established in the city at an early period; the council that convened there in 630 forbade them to sell slaves abroad. A mint-master named Priscus, who held office at Châlons in 555, seems to be identical with the Jew of that name who, in the presence of Gregory of Tours, had a theological controversy with the king Chilperic. Among the other Jewish mint-masters of this period mention is made of Jacote of Châlons, Juse of Macon, Jacotus of Orleans, etc. In the second half of the eleventh century R. Eliezer ben Judah, the pupil of R. Isaac ben Menahem of Orleans, lived at Châlons.

Around 820, Agobard , the archbishop of Lyons, tried to convert forcibly the Jewish children in the city to Christianity, and later instructed the bishop of Chalon to enjoin his flock to avoid all association with Jews. From the middle of the tenth century the records mention numerous Jews owning fields and vineyards in the environs of the town, which they cultivated themselves, notably at Sennecey-le-Grand, Fissey, Buxy, and Droux.

The medieval community had numerous communal facilities, including a baking oven (Cartulaire Citeaux, no. 193, folio 62-63), a cemetery on the site of the present Rue des Places (where three tombstones were found in 1957), and a ritual bath in the close of the former Capuchin convent at Saint-Jean-des-Vignes. The vicus Judaeorum ("Street of the Jews") occupied the site of the present Grand'rue.

Around 1306, just before the general expulsion of the Jews from France, the community in Chalon conducted important loan operations with credit amounting to 23,000 livres. In 1384 a certain number of Jewish families were again authorized to settle in Chalon until finally expelled from France in 1394. The scholar Eliezer b. Judah lived there in the second half of the 11th century. Scholars of the town took part in the *synod which met under the presidency of Jacob b. Meir *Tam and Samuel b. Meir. A new community was formed after 1871.

Condition Description
Minor soiling and evidence of old folds.
Reference
Jewish Encyclopedia, 1906.