Prozess gegen die Juden von Trient

Simon of Trent; his murder in 1475 led to the trial of the Jews of Trent, which the Prozess describes.

The Prozess gegen die Juden von Trient, or Trial against the Jews of Trent, was an unpublished manuscript describing the trial and execution of 18 Jews from Trent, Italy, for the claimed murder of Simon of Trent in 1475. Commissioned in the 1470s, it came into the possession of a convent in Vienna in the 17th century and remained there until 1937, when it was purchased at auction by Lessing J. Rosenwald in order to avoid the document falling into the hands of the Nazis and being used to justify anti-semitism. After being sealed for 50 years, it was auctioned and now resides in Yeshiva University. The book consists of 614 folios and contains specific documents relating to the 1475 trial; it has been used as a source of scholarship in understanding the trial, despite difficulties in identifying the author and the variety of translation problems with the multiple languages used during the interrogation and trial itself, which are reflected in the Prozess.