Isaac of Norwich or Isaac ben Eliav was a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish-

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

financier An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...

of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. He was among the Jews imprisoned by

King John of England King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

in 1210. It is possible that at this time a house of his in London fell into the hands of the king and was afterward (1214) transferred to the

Earl of Derby Earl of Derby ( ) is a title in the Peerage of England. The title was first adopted by Robert de Ferrers, 1st Earl of Derby, under a creation of 1139. It continued with the Ferrers family until the 6th Earl forfeited his property toward the end ...

. He was by far the most important Jewish money-lender at

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

in the early years of Henry III, the majority of the items of a day-book of that place now preserved at

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

referring to his transactions. In the "Shetarot" Isaac is referred to as "''Nadib''" or "''Mæcenas''". He appears to have died before 1247. A caricature of him appears in an issue of the

Exchequer In the civil service of the United Kingdom, His Majesty’s Exchequer, or just the Exchequer, is the accounting process of central government and the government's ''current account'' (i.e., money held from taxation and other government reven ...

, 17, Hen. III. (1233), which represents him as being tortured by a

demon A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, ani ...

and expresses the contemporary Christian view of his rapaciousness. The accompanying caricature represents Isaac as three-faced, probably in allusion to the wide extent of his dealings. He is crowned with a coronet, and surveys a scene in which two other Jews, Mosse Mok and a woman named Abigail, are being tortured by demons, seemingly under his direction. The scene appears to be taken from a miracle-play, the drapery representing the stage, and the architectural adornment the

cloister A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...

of a church, such plays generally being performed in churches. The document, which was on display in the 2019 museum exhibition

Jews, Money, Myth Jews, Money, Myth is an exhibition held at the Jewish Museum London in 2019. It was made in collaboration with the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism at Birkbeck, University of London with the academic collaboration from David Feldman, A ...

, is said to be the world's oldest antisemitic caricature.

Notes

# "Select Pleas of the Jewish Exchequer," ed. Riggs, p. 3. # "Rotuli Cartarum," p. 3, London, 1837. # Jacobs and Wolf, "Bibl. Anglo-Jud." p. xviii. # Davis, "Shetarot," Nos. 1-2) # ''ibid''. No. 11) # F. Devon, "Issues of the Exchequer," frontispiece, and p. 506, London, 1837)

References

Additional sources

*{{JewishEncyclopedia, url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?letter=I&artid=234, article=Isaac of Norwich English bankers 13th-century English businesspeople 12th-century English Jews Businesspeople from Norwich Medieval bankers Economy of medieval England Christian antisemitism in the Middle Ages 13th-century English Jews