miguel de barrios

7/28/2019 Miguel de Barrios

1/41

Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania

Miguel de Barrios and the Amsterdam Sephardic CommunityAuthor(s): Kenneth R. ScholbergReviewed work(s):Source: The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Oct., 1962), pp. 120-159Published by: University of Pennsylvania PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1453280 .

Accessed: 29/09/2012 10:34

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

University of Pennsylvania Press and Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania are

collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Jewish Quarterly Review.

http://www.jstor.org
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=upennhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/1453280?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/1453280?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=upenn


2/41

MIGUEL DE BARRIOS AND THE AMSTERDAMSEPHARDIC COMMUNITYBY KENNETHR. SCHOLBERG,hio State University

THE BEAUTIFUL nd tolerant city of Amsterdam was inthe seventeenth century the veritable second Jerusalem forthe unfortunate and persecuted Marranos of the IberianPeninsula. The Sephardic settlement that was founded theresome time around the close of the sixteenth century grewrapidly and became one of the wealthiest as well as the mostcultured Jewish centers in Europe. I Among the people whowere attracted to the Dutch city by the opportunity topractice their religion openly was Miguel, alias Daniel Levi,de Barrios, a native of the little town of Montilla in theprovince of Cordoba, Spain. Barrios led a checkered life,fairly typical of the secret Judaizers who found it expedientto leave their native country, although he was probablyplagued more than most both by poverty and misfortuneand by his own volatile temperament. Born in i635, he livedin Italy for a short period and then, in i66o, traveled to theWest Indies, where his first wife, Deborah Vaez, died. Hereturned at once to Europe, accepted a commission in theSpanish army and served as captain in Brussels until I674.He married Abigail de Pina of Amsterdam in I662. His bestknown works, Flor de A polo (I665) and Coro de las Musas(I672), were published in Brussels, as were three plays, PedirFavor al Contrario, El Canto junto al Encanto and El Espaiol

1 The colony produced a number of scholars and rabbis of note,among them Menasseh ben Israel, the prime mover of the resettlementof the Jews in England. It also withstood some severe shocks, thescepticism of Uriel Acosta and the excommunication of BenedictSpinoza, and even weathered the mad fever of messianic hope causedby the Sabbatai Zevi affair. In the last decades of the century thecommunity seemed to have settied down to a somewhat more placid,although no less intensely Jewish, existence.


3/41

MIGUEL DE BARRIOS-SCHOLBERG I2I

de Oran. Around I674 Barrios renounced his commission andfrom that year until his death in February, I70I he livedopenly in Amsterdam as a professing Jew, using the nameDaniel Levi de Barrios, although he continued also to usehis full Spanish name, as well as his military title. 2

During his residence in Amsterdam the poet managed topour forth large quantities of verse and prose in his nativeSpanish tongue. H-e continued to write panegyrics to all theroyalty, nobility and powerful Christians he thought mightassist him financially, as he had previously done in Brussels.These are, for the most part, of little interest, either as lite-rature or history. However, he also directed his talents intoother channels. On the one hand he produced some religiouspoems, both original and translations from Hebrew, which,because of their sincerity of feeling and elegance of expression,may be compared favorably with his best productions inBrussels, although they are as yet virtually unknown. On theother hand, a considerable body of his work was concernedwith the life of the Amsterdam Sephardic community. Hewrote about the early history and founding of the group(his facts and, especially, his dates for events before his owntime have to be treated with considerable caution), he des-cribed the communal government and the many organizationsthat existed in his time and he wrote about his wealthy,powerful, learned and talented friends, acquaintances andhoped-for protectors. His writings provide the fullest con-temporary account of life in the Spanish-Portuguese Jewishcommunity in Amsterdam in the i68o's. The greatest obstacleto an appreciation of Barrios' historic worth is caused by

2 The life of Barrios has been dealt with by Meyer Kayserling,"Une Histoire de la Litterature Juive de Daniel Levi de Barrios," inRevue des Etudes Juives (I889), Vol. i8, pp. 276-28i, and in his Sephar-dim: Romanische Poesien der Juden in Spanien (Leipzig, i859), pp.265 ff.; by Henry V. Besso, Dramatic Literature of the Sephardic Jewsof Amsterdam in the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries (New York, 1947),pp. 73-75; and in Encyclopaedia Sephardica Neerlandica (Amsterdam,5709), Deel I, pp. 48-50.


4/41

I22 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW

his diffuseness. The material of interest is scattered, interspers-ed with irrelevant subjects and quite unordered. Moreover,copies of his works are not too numerous. What follows is anattempt to make more accessible the information that Miguelde Barrios set down about the milieu in which he lived forthe last twenty-six years of his life. 3

The center of the community was, of course, the synagogue.The congregation of Talmud Torah, which had been formedby the unification of the three existing synagogues of BethJa'acob, Neveh Shalom and Beth Israel on April 3, I639,outgrew its quarters 4 and in I670 plans were made for theconstruction of a new building. 5 The political government,as Barrios calls it, was urged on to this course by the zealand persuasion of Ishac de Pinto, and the people were incitedto support the construction by the eloquent sermon whichthe Haham Ishac Aboab preached on November 23, I670.With the consent of the magistrates of the city and afterpromises of funds had been forthcoming from the community,building got under way on April I7, I67I. Because of theirgenerous donations of money, the honor of laying the fourcorner-stones went to Mosseh Curiel, Joseph Israel Nunfiez,Imanuel de Pinto and David de Pinto. The latter's contribu-tion, for example, was 500 florins. Construction was inter-rupted by the war which Louis XIV of France waged againstthe United Provinces, but with the return of peace workprogressed and the new synagogue was inaugurated on Shabbatnahamu in the year I675. 6 Barrios says that there appeared

3 Research on Miguel de Barrios was made possible by GrantNo. 2473 of the Penrose Fund of the American Philosophical Society.

4 According to Cecil Roth, A Life of Menasseh ben Israel (Philadel-phia, 1934), p. 49, the synagogue of Beth Israel had been retained asthe place of worship for the entire community.5 Barrios discussed the construction of the new temple in theTriunmpho del Govierno Popular (n.p.n.d.), pp. 539-545. Unless other-wise noted, references to this opuscular collection are always basedon copy i9G12 in the Rosenthal Library in Amsterdam, which has apagination inr pencil. Abbreviated hereafter as TGP.

6 The wardens of the community were then Ishac Levi Ximenes,


5/41

MIGUEL DE BARRIOS-SCHOLBERG I23

in print a collection of the sermons that were delivered onthe occasion of the opening of the synagogue and on sub-sequent sabbaths by Ishac Aboab, Selomoh de Olivera, IshacSacuto, Ishac Neto, Eliahu Lopez and Doctor David Sar-phati. I In addition a copper engraving was made of the divinehouse. 8 Barrios himself wrote a description of this worldfamous Jewish center; the passages, given below in transla-tion, are representative of the high-flown, baroque tendenciesof the literature of the community, which reflected currentpractices in the literature of the Hispanic Peninsula. Theconceptual approach, it should be pointed out, depends on thefact that the Spanish word nave of tlhe original means both"nave, aisle" and "ship", and allows for a series of word-plays.To this basically Spanish style Barrios adds at the conclusiona feature from the symbolical Kabbalah, namely, the explana-tion of hidden meanings according to the rules of the Gematria,an exposition based on the numerical value of each letter ofthe Hebrew alphabet. His description of the synagoguefollows.

On the south it is separated from the synagogue of thePolish and German Jews by a branch of the River Amstel;on the west it faces the opulent Casa de los lazaros (hospicefor the poor); on the north it opens upon the large street ofthe Jewish district; and on the east it touches the site of thehouses that are on another branch of the Amstel River.president, Mosseh Curiel, David de Pinto, Abraham Jessurun Espinosa,Mosseh Pereira, Joseph de Azevedo and Abraham Zagate, the gabay.The Beth Din had as its members Ishac Aboab, Mosseh Raphael deAguilar and Mordojay de Castro. Ishac de Pinto was the treasurer ofthe building fund and his deputies were Samuel Vas, David Salomde Azevedo, Abraham de Vega, Jacob Osorio, Jacob Israel Pereiraand Ishac Henriques Cuitifno (TGP, p. 545).I The sermons were edited and published by David de Castro Tartaz,Amsterdam, I675.

8 This is evidently a reference to the engraving by Romeyn deHooghe, with laudatory poems in several languages, including Spanishverses by Barrios. It is still on display in the offices of the Portugees-Israelietische Gemeente te Amsterdam,


6/41


It is very spacious and well lighted, with three inner doorswhich open on the court yard and three outer doors whichlead to three streets on the west, south and north, corres-ponding to the three inner doors.

Through the seventh door, an inner one to the east, thedevout Jewish women go up to two internal lofts or galleriesof the sacred palace, which with lattices allow them to viewthe books of devout orations and to hear the preacher andthe Hazan or Cantor.... To the west is the general exteriordoor and the interior one, through which the congregationenters the court yard and the temple, morning, afternoonand at night-fall for saying their accustomed prayers...The middle vault is supported on four great alabastrine pillars,and the two outer ones are canopies for the two galleries,raised on twelve marble columns, which serve with theirisolated seats the devout Hebrew womnen.

The synagogal nave (= ship) has as a prow to the eastthe costly hechal, depository of the five books of Moses indifferent and perfect examples, garbed with rich cloths andcrowned with precious metal.

As a main mast stands the valuable Teba or pulpit, whereits learned captain preaches with the renown of Haham,and its two pilots pray under the term Hazanim, with theirfaces to the east, guiding their assembled seamen in their holyorations.The stern of this great ship is a chancel before the westinner door; and on the side within the north inner door,which is always closed, rises the high seat of the seven vigilantwardens, with a railing which covers half of their bodies.At its sides are the steps by which they mount to their seats.At its base sit two ministers, who are called shammashim, tobe sent to the quarters that occasion demands in the goodgoverning of the divine ship, which is illuminated with thelight of eight hundred candles in diverse candelabra, being I30feet long, ioo wide and 70 high.

Its portholes are seventy glass windows.... The fourteen


7/41


western windows represent the bountiful hand of the eternalCreator, who maintains His chosen people with plenty ofsustenance in the desert of expulsions, because the word yad,which is interpreted "hand", equals fourteen, and in Chapter59 Isaiah says: "Behold the Lord's hand is not shortened,that it cannot save."The number thirteen is devised in the Hebrewcomputationfrom the letters that mean "one" and "love", and the thirteenwindows on each of the sides of the synagogue symbolize,God in His undivided power and in the love which He hasab eternofor Israel.... The twelve eastern windows, on thewallwhich onits innersidetreasuresthe sacredbooks, representthe twelve angelic guardiansof the twelve tribes; and the twohigh skylights to the west and the east denote the two letterswith which is formedthe abbrevationYah of the holy ineffablename....In the court yard to the west, frequented by the Hebrewfamilieswho come to prayers, arefound the seat of the politicalgovernment, six schools, the two houses of the Hazanim orCantors, and that of the watchman. 9

Such was and, disregarding minor alterations, is eventoday the synagogue of the Portuguese-Spanish-Jewish Com-munity of Amsterdam. 10

The administration of community affairs was divided,according to Barrios, into four governments, political, rabbin-ical, charitable and academic. 11The real power was in thehands of the political government, i.e. the members of theMalamad. These seven officials, six of whom were calledparnasim and the seventh gabay, or treasurer, held officefor a year and received no pay for their services. Elections

9 TGP, pp. 546-550.10 It was only because the German conquerors intended to convertit to an anti-Jewish museum that this venerable synagogue escapedthe destruction that befell Amsterdam's other Jewish houses ofworship in the Second World War.11 Details about the governmental establishment are in TGP,PP. 550-555-

9


8/41


were held twice yearly; three parnasim were chosen on RoshHashanah and three others and the gabay were elected onShabbat haGadol. 12 The parnasim chose their own chairmanand the post changed hands every two months. As the con-vocation of the Sanhedrin, the Mahamad sat in a semicirclewhen it met as a tribunal. The political government exercisedgreat control over the internal affairs of the community andspecifically had authority over the rabbinical government inthe synagogue and treasury. One of the powers that theywielded was the censorship of new publications. Barrios himselfhad felt this power, for in a letter dated (in another hand)Shebat IO, 5439 (January 23, I679) he complained thatpublication of two of his works had been held up for twoyears and that it was causing him great hardship. 13 Thegovernment also named the administrators of the moreimportant charitable organizations, such as the brotherhoodsof Etz Haim and Bikur Holim, 14 and appointed two deputiesto represent the community in cases before the Dutch authori-ties of the city. 15

The rabbinical government consisted of three sages withmastery of the Din Torah whose function was to guide thefaithful in religious matters. Barrios thought that theirauthority was definitely less than that of the secular arm ofgovernment. Charity was handled by ten organizations,each with its own administrators. Under the heading of

12 Barrios says nothing as to what members of the communityconstituted the electorate, but it was probably limited to those whopaid a fixed amount of taxes, as was the case in the community ofVenice. (See Roth, V/enice, Philadelphia, 1930, p. 128).13 The letter was published by J. S. da Silva Rosa, "Een Eigen-handige Brief van Daniel Levi de Barrios," in Festskrift i Anledningaf Prof. David Simonsen... (Kobenhavn, 1923), pp. io6-iii.14 For the Hebrew names of Amsterdam organizations I havestayed close to the transliteration used by Barrios himself.15 At the time Barrios was writing, I684, the representatives weretwo of the most important members of the community, Ishac NidfiezBelmonte, alias Manuel de Belmonte, resident minister in the LowCountries for his Catholic Majesty the King of Spain, and GeronimoNuniez de Acosta, agent of the King of Portugal.


9/41


"academic government" the poet grouped the school ofTorah Or, that of the Pinto family, Meirat Yenaim andTipheret Bahurim. In addition to these fourteen charitableand learned societies there were the very important Hermandadde las Hutrfanas and the yeshiva entitled Keter Torah.16These divisions, charitable and academic, can be consideredfunctions of government in the sense that they attendedimportant and necessary matters in the social, rather thanpolitical, life of the community.

The number of synagogue members, we are told, reachedmore than four thousand. 17 The synagogue treasury wasmade up of the cash resulting from "voluntary promises,forced taxes, legacies, duties on meat, returns on stocks inthe East and West Indies Companies, the sale of graves andgifts offered on the Holidays." 18 The whole amounted eachyear to an income of more than 42,000 florins and was dis-tributed by the gabay, with the agreement of the othermembers of the Mahamad, through seven main agencies.The first, called simply the zedaca 'charity', with a principalof over 30,000 florins, provided alms for the sustenance ofthe general poor and took care of the salaries of the doctors,surgeons, bloodletters and apothecaries who attended theneedy ill. Also from this fund were paid the salaries of thetwo beadles or shammashim. The second outlay of moneywas to provide for the expenses incurred in the upkeep andrepair of the synagogue building. The third, designated likethe congregation itself, Talmud Torah, maintained the schoolsystem of the same name and provided the salaries of theHahamim, Iazanim and Rabbanim. The fourth fund was forthe confraternity of Bikyr Holim. The four agencies togetherdistributed a little more than 34,000 florins per year. The

16 TGP, pp. 550-551.17 This seems like an accurate figure; about the middle of thecentury, Menasseh ben Israel in his Humble Addresses to Cromwellhad written that there were no less than 400 Jewish families in Amster-dam, and the number of people there was constantly increasing.18 TGP, p. 551.


10/41


fifth agency was called Etz Haim 'Tree of Life' and providedhelp for needy students of the Talmud. The sixth disbursed8oo florins annually to the people of Jerusalem and the seventhprovided more than 300 florins for the redemption of captives.The first three agencies were administered directly by themembers of the political government. Bikur Holim and EtzHaim each had six administrators, appointed by the govern-ment, who handled their affairs. The lesser agencies. TierraSanta 'Holy Land' and Captivos, were each administered byone appointee of the Mahamad. In addition to these sevenagencies there was also the charity of Abodad-hesed, whichformerly had been distributed among the poor of the Germanand Polish congregation, but in I684 was given to the needyof the Sephardic community itself. The aid was limited to 6oflorins a month and was handled by the person who had servedthe previous year as synagogue treasurer. The Vesterta de losTalmidim, as the name indicates, provided clothing for poorstudents. Its administrator was also chosen by the politicalgovernment. Finally, there was the Monte de Piedad or publicpawnshop which loaned money without interest. 19 Thisconfraternity had had its beginnings in the Montes de Piedad,existent as early as i625, of the three original synagogues.When the latter united in I639, so did the pawnshops. In I684the institution was supported by more than 700 members.Barrios indicates that the brotherhood was also called HonenDalim, but if so, it should not be confused with the othergroup of that name which he listed as the fourth charitableacademy. 20

Study and learning have always been important featuresof the Jewish religion and of Jewish life and in this respect

19 It seems anomalous that this institution, which originated in theMiddle Ages in the attempt of the church to do away with the necessityfor its adherents to deal with Jewish money-lenders, should appearunder the same name in the Amsterdam community. The explanation,of course, is that it was merely taking over a name already familiarto it in Spain and Italy.

20 TGP, pp- 449-450.


11/41

MIGUEL DE BARRIOS SCHOLBERG I29

the Amsterdam community shone brilliantly in the seven-teenth century. It is known that a school system was func-tioning as early as i6i6, 21 although Barrios considered it onlyfrom the time of the consolidation of the three congregations.Then the school was set up in seven classes. In the first thestudents learned the Hebrew alphabet and began their rea-dings in the prayer book and primer. In the second they weretaught to read the Pentateuch with its cantillation. In thethird class they learned to translate the Pentateuch fromHebrew into Spanish. They were taught translation of theProphets and Hagiographa in the fourth. In the fifth classthe students had primary lessons in the Law. They weregiven instruction in the Gemara and in Hebrew grammar,composition, rhetoric and poetry in the sixth class. At thehighest level they continued with the study of the Gemara,the commentaries of Rashi and the Tosephot. Such was theorganization in I639. 22 Sometime before I684 the numberof classes was reduced to six, the previous fourth and fifthhaving been consolidated into one. 23 The upper divisions ofthis Talmud Torah are best known under the name of EtzHaim, which was also the name of the hermandad that hadas its function the support of needy students. This organiza-tion had been founded by Saul Levi Morteira and the poetRehuel Jesurun, alias Pablo de Pina, in I637. 24 As alreadystated, the fifth division of the treasury was devoted to theneeds of Etz Haim. Its administrators were chosen by the

21 Roth, Menasseh ben Israel, p. 26.22 TGP, pp. 63-64. In I639 the teachers of the seven classes were,in ascending order, Rabbi Mordojay de Castro, Rabbi Joseph Pharo,Rabbi Jacob G6mez, Hazan Abraham Baruch, Rabbi Selomoh Salom,Haham Ishac Aboab and Haham Saul Levi Morteira. When Aboabwent to Brazil in I642 Menasseh ben Israel became the teacher of thesixth class.23 TGP, p. 65. In I684 the teachers were Rabbi Samuel Abrabanel,Rabbi Jehosua Cohen Pharo, Rabbi Daniel Belillos, Rabbi JosephFranco, Haham Selomoh de Olivera and Haham Jacob Sasportas.24 Barrios gives the history of the brotherhood in a playlet, "Arbo]de las Vidas," in TGP, pp. 594-630.


12/41

I30 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW'gentlemen of the Mahamad who made the appointments eachyear at Shavuothl.25 Membership in the brotherhood wasopen to anyone who wished to help the cause of scholarship.The only requirement was an entrance fee of six florins andwhatever charitable donations the person wanted to make.The wealth of the organization amounted to over 30,000florins. 26 The entrance fees, together with legacies that wereleft by deceased members, served to increase the basic in-vestment fund. The interest on this money and the othergifts that members made were applied to the maintenanceof students on the advanced level who needed and deservedhelp, as proven by their ability. Each year the treasurerdistributed about 2,000 florins for this worthy cause.

In addition to the Talmud Toralh-EtzHlaim, which in truthcould be called a public school system, there existed somefive private or semi-private academies devoted to learning.These were more in the nature of adult discussion groups,or at least, somewhat affiliated with them. Participatingmembership was more limited, but intellectual leaders of thecommunity were included. The first was the academy namedKeter Torah 'Crown of the Law'. 27 Like so many othergroups, it had been founded, Barrios says, by Saul LeviMorteira, the famous head of the Kalhal Kadosh. There was amantenedor or leader of the discussion, together with thelearned participants who "competed" against him and againsteach other. 28 Keter Torah met in the home of Ishac Penso

25 In I684 the treasurer was Abraham Telles and the other ad-ministrators were Jacob Telles de Acosta, Jacob Prieto Henriquez,Abraham del Soto, Jacob Belmonte and Benjamin Espinosa Catela(TGP, p. 449).26 TGP, p. 593 says 32,000 florins; p. 552 says 34,000 florins.27 Described in TGP, pp. 341-356.

28 Famous members of Keter Torah, living and dead, were IshacNaar, composer of a compendium of Dinim who went to Italy in i666to become Haham in Leghorn; Benjamin Musaphia, commentatorof the Jerusalem Talmud, who died in I675; Mosseh Raphael deAguilar, author of a Hebrew grammar and teacher of the second classof Talmud Torah until his death; Haham Abraham Cohen Pimentel,


13/41

MIGUEL DE BARRIOS-SCHOLBERG I3Iuntil his death in I683; from then on it met in the home ofhis son, Abraham Penso, who devoted two hours every dayto religious study. 29

The second yeshiva or academy was TorahOr. 30 Foundedtwenty-seven years previously in I656 by Efraim Buenoand Abraham Pereira it had in Barrios' day only fifteenmembers. Its rosh was Ishac Aboab, who was also the "worthyfather of the Beth Din, Hahsam of the Kahal Kadosh anddoctrinal president of the Academy of the Pintos." 31 Themembers of Torah Or met for half an hour every day to studyMaimonides and then engaged upon hour long discussions onfestive occasions and holidays.

The best known of these scholarly groups is undoubtedlythe "Academy of the Pintos." It had been founded by thebrothers Abraham and David de Pinto in Rotterdam in I650.After the death of Abraham, his sons Ishac and Jacob trans-ferred the yeshivato Amsterdam in I669. 32 In I683 the acade-my had eleven members, presided over by Ishac Aboab.Simon Levi Caniso, the only son of the author, was a memberof this group. Another was Rabbi Joseph bar Eliezer, a PolishJew and one of the very few non-Sephardim mentioned ashaving any connection with the Spanish-Jewish community.The academicians met an hour every day for the study ofauthor of Minhat Cohen and later a resident of Hamburg; Samuel deCaceres, compiler of Hebrew calendars which were republished manytimes; and Selomoh de Olivera, the successor of Mosseh de Aguilarin the second class of the school. TGP, p. 343.29 TGP, p. 349-

30 Described in TGP, pp. 357-392.31 TGP, p. 376. An interesting detail of Barrios' description of thegroup, written in the form of a play and called a "Mosaic auto,"is that it incorporates a number of sonnets written by the members. Thegroup was probably flattered to have its efforts printed. Those whocontributed Spanish poems were Doctor Abraham Michael Cardoso,Abraham de Paiva, Jacob Israel Moreno and Samuel Levi Rodrigues.Abraham Lopez Arias supplied a Hebrew acrostic poem.32 The widespread fame of the family is indicated by the fact thatin I678 Ishac Cardoso of Verona dedicated his Excelencias de losHebreos to Jacob de Pinto.


14/41


sacred literature and on Sabbath afternoons gathered todebate propositions that had been set forth the previous day.Outstanding in the discussions, we are told, were Doctor IshacCohen de Lara and Ishac de Leon Crato. 3

Other than the usual listing of names of the competidores,little definite information is given about Tipheret Bahurim,the fourth academy. Barrios says that the name meansHermosura de mozos 'Beauty of Youth' and that the preceptorwas Halam Jacob Sasportas. It was evidently a study groupcomposed of some of the younger members of the community.34On one occasion, at least, the author addressed them on thesubject of divine mercy. 35 Meirat Yenaim 'Light to theEyes' was begun in I643. Abraham Senior Coronel andIshac Serug (a descendant of the famous Rabbi ben Serugof Spain) were the teachers of the thirteen (or fourteen,both figures are used) members and were paid for theirservices. 31

The primary function of the organizations mentioned abovewas that of study, although they did not neglect charity.The ten brotherhoods were formed for the specific purposeof carrying out various charitable acts, although scholarlyinterests were also a part of their program.

A bi Yetomim 'Father of Orphans' dated from July 7, i648. 37In I639 Mosseh Belmonte had founded the society of GemilutHassadim, with forty-two members. He died in I647 and thefollowing year the synagogue government decided to takeover its direction. Since this was not agreeable to its membersthey withdrew and, under the leadership of Jehosua Daviddel Soto, David Naamias Torres and others, founded the

3 TGP, pp. 393-396.34 TGP, p. 87.35 Barrios, Metros Nobles (COPY2FIoa of Montezinos Library.

Amsterdam), pp. 203 ff.36 TGP, pp. 397-409, has a prose description of the academy; pp.412-436 give a poetic praise of the members in the form of a play.37 The description of A bi Yetomim, divided into a poem and 6 prosechapters, is in TGP, pp. 65-80.


15/41

MIGUEL DE BARRIOS-SCHOLBERG I33new brotherhood. In the i68o's Abi Yetomimhad I25 mem-bers, each of whom contributed twenty florins upon enteringthe confraternity. Gifts and legacies were also made, so thatthe wealth of the group amounted to some IO,OOO florins.Society business was handled by six administrators and atreasurer. The money was used to board out orphans andprovide them with an education. The society supported theorphan for three years, giving him religious training andproviding him with food and buying him a suit of clothingeach year; it also paid for his medical care. At the end of thethree years if he no longer needed the protection of thebrotherhood and could follow a trade of his choice he leftthe institution. Otherwise he received another threeyears of instruction. 38 The brotherhood offered other formsof help; even Barrios himself was one of the recipients of itscharity. 39 If a brother or sister died, the other membersaccompanied the body to the cemetery and offered prayersfor the repose of the departed. Some members met every nightto study theological problems and on Saturdays held adiscussion group in which they gave answers to a questionthat had previously been propounded.

Since it is a pious duty of Jews to accompany a body tothe cemetery, Amsterdam, like other Jewish communities,had its Hebrat Gemilut Hassadim 'Society for the Perform-ance of Charitable Acts.' In his description of this organiza-tion Barrios considers the history of the cemetery at Ouder-kerk. 40 Formerly the deceased of the Amsterdam JewishCommunity were buried in the cemetery of "Grutencamp"i.e. Groede. The charity of burying the dead dated from I6o2

38 Studious orphans who had been helped by A bi Yetomim wereIshac Neto, who became Hahamnn Surinam; Eliahu Lopez, who wasteaching in Barbados; Joseph Franco Serrano, who became a rabbi;and Selomoh Marques, who occupied the post of hazan at the Hague.(TGP, pp. 73-74.)39 TGP, p. 67.

40 TGP, pp. i69-i8i; see also the description of Bikur Holim, pp.479-486.


16/41


and the first person to be buried there was Garcia Pimentel,identified as the brother of a Manuel Pimentel. On Jyar I3,5374 (April 22, I6I4) the two congregations of Beth Ja'acoband Nevek Shalom signed an agreement for the purchase ofthe Beth Haim at Ouderkerk, one and a half leagues fromAmsterdam. Four years later, when Beth Israel was founded,it joined the other synagogues in the cemetery agreementand in I6I9 Jacob Barux began keeping a record of thoseinterred. Originally poor men did the work of burying thedead as a means of livelihood, but in I639 Mosseh Belmontefounded Gemilut Hassadim, completing its formation in I645.In order not to be subject to the Sehores of the Mahamadthe brotherhood annually chose their own administrators togovern their affairs. Belmonte's death served as a pretextfor the political government to take over control, and theypublished an edict to this effect on July 7, i648 from thepulpit of the temple. The original members withdrew andthe government replaced them with those who "obedient toits orders have each year the administrators whom theGentlemen of the Mahamad choose on the Paschal day." 41Actually there were several functionaries; for Gemilut Hassa-dim itself there were two administrators and a treasurer,and there were separate administrators for the cemetery andfor the grave diggers. 42 Gemilut Hassadim had a dual function.The first duty, of course, was to provide burial service. Itwas the duty of the administrador de sepultureros to draw bylot the names of five members to do the work of digging thegrave. If one of the brothers of this part of the society died,twenty-five fellow members accompanied his body to itsresting place. It rested upon the administrator of the cemeteryto give permission for a burial, to keep the records and totake care of the graves. There was also a hired watchman to

41 TGP, p. I72.42 In I683 the wardens of Gemilut Hassadim were Abraham de JacobLevi and Samuel Curiel, and the treasurer was Abenacar Pimentel.Menasseh Gaon was administrator of the cemetery and Jacob Mendesde Silva was administrator of the gravediggers (TGP, p. I69).


17/41


guard the burial places against vandalism and defilement.In I683 this part of Gemilut Hassadim had some seventyliving and sixty-three deceased members. The other part ofthe society, devoted to the encouragement of study, wasstarted in I665. The two sections had a combined member-ship of a hundred and twenty-five. Each brother gave amonthly or yearly gift, and the society was the recipient ofseventeen legacies. Since I674 the rosh had been the famousscholar Selomoh de Olivera. In the yeshiva which the groupsupported, the students studied the Pentateuch for the firstfour years, sacred history for the next four and rabbinicaldecisions in the ninth year. The members of the scholarlydivision of Gemilut Hassadim met for an hour each day.On the first three days of the week they studied the Gemaraand devoted the other three days to Maimonides. On Sabbathsand Holidays they held the usual discussion sessions, whichseem to have played such an important part in the life of thebrotherhoods. In their case, one member proposed a problem,another argued it and the rosh delivered the decision.43

Temime Darex (Los perfectos de carrera or 'The Perfect ofthe Way') was founded in I665 as a mutual-aid society. 4It gave its sick members the services of a doctor and medi-cines, and provided them with sustenance during convalescen-ce. If a member died, his associates accompanied his bodyin the funeral and said the Hashcaba for his repose. Theacademic brothers gathered daily for an hour of study; onSunday and Monday they listened to the discourse of amember of the Beth Din and on Tuesday, Wednesday andThursday they participated in the study of the Talmud.In discussions on Sabbaths and Holidays,while consideringsome recondite point of the Law they found an opportunity

43 TGP, pp. i83-I92.44 Its first rosh was Ishac Neto, who later went to Surinam, andthe preacher was Eliahu Lopez, later Haham in Barbados. Both weregraduates of Abi Yetomim. The governors of Temime Darex in I864were David Yehuda Leon, Ishac Carrillo, Aaron Curiel, Jacob FrancoDiego and Abraham de Jacob Bueno de Mesquita.


18/41

I36 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEWto display not only their scholarship but also their agudeza,i.e. their wit or sharpness. 4

Honen Dalim (Apiada al pobre or 'He who pities the poor')was composed of seventy male and ninety female memberswho assisted the sick, and received their orders from the gabay.46The society also made a weekly distribution of bread towidows. As in the other groups, the body of a member whodied was accompanied to the Beth Haim, and the rosh offeredthe prayers for his memory on the month and year of hisdeath. The administrators of Honen Dalim were chosen atbi-annual elections. 4 The academic family met in the homeof the widow Abigail Dias de Fonseca, where on the first ofeach month they discussed some biblical commentary and onSaturdays and Pesach gathered to listen to a debate in whichsix of the most eloquent members and the preceptor took part.48

Maskil el Dal 'Enlightener of the Poor' was the name oftwo different organizations, or more accurately, of one brother-hood which became divided.49 The original Maskil el Dalhad been started by thirty people of the community in i673,with Daniel Belillos, teacher of the fourth class of TalmudTorah, as their rosh. The emblem of the brotherhood was alighted torch with two tablets and its motto the verse "Candelaencomendanza y Ley Luz." The society paid salaries to threepeople, the rosh, the teniente de rosh 'teacher's assistant' and

45 TGP, pp. 193-208.46 Honen Dalim was founded in I667 by a group of discontentedpersons who broke away from Temime Darex. Its first preceptor wasthe Haham Josiahu Pardo, who in I674 went to America to becomethe first rabbi of Willemstad in Cura9ao. He was succeeded in thepost by Selomoh de Olivera.47 On Rosh Hashanah of 5443 Jacob Lopes Salzedo and Eliahu Gaonwere elected to succeed Joseph Lobo and Abraham Gabay Mendes,and on the following Shabbat haGadolIshac Bueno de Mora and IshacAbenacar were replaced by Uri Levi and Ishac Abrabanel, while

Jacob Lopez Albin took the place of Benjamin Jessurun Lobo asgabay.48 TGP,pp. 209-240.49 The original Maskil el Dal and the part that continued under]Belillos are described in TGP, pp. 245-275.


19/41


the shammash. According to Barrios, the society had someI25 brothers and i5o sisters, but this number probablyincluded all members, living and dead. 50 Eight years afterits founding, discord broke out and the society split into twofactions. The cause of the disunity is not stated, but it mayhave been concerned with their meeting place. Barrios saysthat he tried to reconcile the factions but failed, and thatsince the break, the yeshiva (that is, the part under Belillos)no longer met at private homes, but in a rented hall. The othergroup, under the guidance of Daniel Jesurun, continued tomeet in the homes of its members.

The Maskil el Dal of which Belillos continued to be thepreceptor had four administrators, a treasurer and an assistanttreasurer. Two of the administrators were chosen on RoshHashanahl; the other officers were elected on the seventh dayof Passover. The society furnished a doctor, and providedmedicine and even food for a member who fell sick and wasin need. 51 If a member died, the organization attended tothe funeral ceremonies. The sexton and fourteen brothers,chosen by lot by the gabay, accompanied the coffin and therosh or his lieutenant recited the service. The treasurer alsonamed ten members to offer prayers for the departed and therosh recited the memorial prayers every Sabbath and Holidayduring the first year after his demise. The brotherhood receivedtwo types of gifts. One was used to increase the treasury fund;the other was applied directly to eleemosynary purposes.

50 Among the latter he included his father, Jacob de Abraham Levide Barrios, his uncle, David Coen de Sosa, and his first wife, Debora(TGP, p. 274). Since none of them had ever lived in Amsterdam it isprobable that they were members in the sense that their names werelisted among those for whom memorial prayers were regularly said.51 In I683 the administrators were Ishac Heskiahu Navarro, Abra-ham de los Rios, David Drago and Selomoh Curiel. Jacob Muno6n

was treasurer and was aided by Jacob Gomez Neto. The doctors ofMaskil el Dal were Ishac de Rocamora, Abraham Frois, Daniel SemahAboab and Mosseh Orobio de Castro. Samuel de Benavente andJacob Rodriguez Mota were the surgeons and the druggist was NeptaliAsser (TGP, p. 257).


20/41

I38 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEWOne of the latter was providing help to destitute Jewishrefugees from Poland who found their way to Amsterdam.The society had the customary Sabbath discussion group, un-der the guidance of Belillos or his lieutenant, Mosseh MorenoHenriquez. Barrios' son, Simon Levi Caniso, was also a mem-ber of this group.

The development of the second Maskil el Dal and itscharitable purpose were identical with those of the group justdiscussed. 52 Members contributed monthly dues, from whichwere paid the salaries of the preceptor and the sexton. Theyalso gave books to the society's library. The money was collec-ted by the sexton and distributed by the treasurer with theadvice of the administrators. The person who became sickand needed aid had to submit a petition in order to receivehelp. In I682 Abraham de Fonseca and others set up thecolegio, or school, of Maskil el Dal with Daniel Jessurun asthe rosh yeshiva. The membership of the second Maskil elDal was divided into hermanos politicos (not "brothers-in-law"as this normally means in Spanish, but rather "associate, orsupporting members") and h,ermanos eruditos (those whotook part in the discussions). The 'erudite brothers" -Barriosincludes himself in the list-would meet for a half hour eachSunday and an hour each festive day to discuss and resolvea problem proposed by the youths who were being instructedby the rosh,.53

The remaining charitable academies of which Barrioswrote were Sahare Sedek, Keter Sem Tob, Resit Jokma andBaale Tesuba. He referred to them chiefly in a laudatoryroll-call of the membership. Sah,are Sedek had as its preceptorRabbi Joseph Franco Serrano, the teacher of the third classof the synagogue school and a Hebrew poet. 54 The academy

52 The directors were Eliahu Gaon, president, Abraham Levi,Samuel Semah and Jacob Gabay Isidro. Ishac Carrillo was the gabayand Daniel Lopez Arias the shammash.

53 The second Maskil el Dal is treated in a "Dialogo harmonico,"TGP, pp. 277-3I2.54 TGP, pp. 3I3-32I.


21/41


of Keter Sem Tob, called also by its Spanish name Corona debuena fama 'Crown of Good Fame', was a recently formedgroup, founded in I679 by Abraham Orobio de Castro andother youths. The twenty young men and seventeen girls whomade up the membership were presided over by DavidNunfies Torres in the hour long Sabbath meditation. Theyelected two wardens and a treasurer. The specific type ofcharity they maintained is not mentioned; we are told onlythat they were youthful religious persons who helped the poor.The author's son was a member of this group too. 55 ResitJokma (Principio de sapiencia 'Beginning of Wisdom') wasfounded in i682 and was the youngest of the charity organiza-tions. Like Temime Darex and others, it was a society to helpits members in time of illness. And like the others it had astudy group, with a discussion session on the Sabbath, presidedover by Rabbi Ishac Meatob. 56 The members of Baale Tesuba(Dueitos de la Penitencia 'Masters of Penitence') performedthe charity of burying paupers. The, thirty brothers weregoverned by two administrators and a treasurer. 57

The ten confraternities just described provided care fororphans, burial of the dead and aid to the sick. Probablythere were other, similar organizations about which Barriosdid not write. Those he did describe show in varying degreethe great interest in religious study and debate that wascharacteristic of the community. Moreover, membership wasnot mutually exclusive. To take but one example; the brilliantyoung Simon Levi Caniso was a member of Maskil el Daland of Keter Sem Tob as well as of the academic group thatthe Pinto family founded and supported.

Not included in the above brotherhoods were two of themost important societies then in existence in the Amsterdamcommunity. The hermandad of Bikur Holim was the oldestof the city's Sephardic organizations, having been inaugurated

55 TGP, pp. 323-338.56 TGP (British Museum copy, 4033aa43), p. i59. Pag. irregular.57 TGP (British Museum copy, 4033aa43), no page no.


22/41

140 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEWon Kislev 24, 5370 (December20, I609) by eighteen membersof the Beth Ja'acob congregation. BikmyrHolim was the com-munity hospital organization and its first purpose was tovisit the sick and supply medicines. It also set itself the taskof washing and clothing the dead and accompanying mournersat funerals. It was this latter function that Barrios stressedin his description of the society. As previously stated, thefourth division of the synagogue treasury was devoted toBikur Holim, whose administrators were appointed by themembers of the Mahamad. 58Two of the six parnasim attendedthe mourners at funerals and also accompanied them to thesynagogue on the following Sabbath. Each of the administra-tors took it upon himself, for a period of two months, tosupply the first meal to the house of mourning. 59

The Hermandad de las Hitrfanas (better known by itsPortuguese name of Santa comrpanhiade dotar orphas e don-zellas) was the most venerable of the many charitable es-tablishments. 60 It was founded on February I2, i6I5 bythe Haham Joseph Pardo with twenty members, each ofwhom contributed I20 florins. By I683 the membership hadgrown to more than 4oo and the society had a wealth of morethan 50,000 florins. Four wardens and three treasurers handledtheir affairs. 61 The income derived from the treasury fundwas used to furnish dowries for girls of the Spanish-PortugueseNation each year on the second day of Purim. The names

58 In i684 the ,arnasiYv were Mosseh de Daniel Pinto, Jacob de losRios, Abraham Jessurun Henriquez, Simon Abrabanel Souza, JacobMuno6n and Abraham Gomez Guti6rrez, who acted as treasurer.(TGP, p. 449).5 TGP, pp. 479-486.

60 Described in TGP (British Museum copy, 4033aa43), no pagina-tion.61 In i683 the administrators were Ishac Mendes de Silva, MossehPereira, Ishac de Mesa and Jacob Aboab Osorio, and the treasurers

were Ishac de Prado, Ishac Belmonte and Ishac Penso. (TGP, BritishMuseum copy, 4033aa43, no p.) In i684 Batrios listed MordojayFranco Mendes as an administrator and said that his grandfather,also named Mordojay Franco Meildes, bad been one of the original20 founders. (TGP, p. 459.)


23/41


of those receiving this favor were drawn by lot by childrennot over the age of seven. The amount of the dowry dependedon the girl's situation in life and relation to a member of thesociety. Four degrees or classifications were recognized:(i) an orphan girl, relative of a member, (2) a girl with a livingfather, relative of a member, (3) an orphan girl and (4) a girlwith a living father. 62 The largest dowry given was i,200florins. The girl who was a relative of a member, but had aparent living received two hundred florins less and so on down.Usually to these dowries were added promises of money byprivate individuals, either from within the brotherhood orfrom Jewry in general. 63

The people of the Amsterdam community were a gregariousgroup and nothing pleased them more, apparently, thanjoining societies. Not only were there charitable organizationsand learned circles for religious study; those with literaryinclinations gathered together in poetic academies to readtheir creative efforts or discuss those of their fellow authors.Such a group was formed as early as I676 by don Manuel deBelmonte. Its name, Academia de los Sitibutdos ('Academyof the Thirsty' i.e. those thirsting after knowledge), was thesame as that of an academy established in Leghorn about thesame time. 64 Both, of course, followed the practices of the

62 According to the rules of the society, reproduced in EncyclopaediaSephardica Neerlandica, Deel II, p. ii, it was necessary for a girl tohave her name admitted to the drawing that "she be poor and needthe help to get married, and that she confess the unity of the Lordof the World and recognize the truth of His most holy Law; that shebe of our Hebrew Hispanic Nation, of good life and customs, withoutany trace of baseness."

63 Most likely this Santa Hermandad was set up on the model ofthe similar confraternity that had been established in Venice twoyears earlier (see Roth, Venice, p. 157).64 Joseph Penso Vega, writing to Doctor Orobio de Castro from the

Italian city on December I4, I676, said that his group had been inexistence for a year. Thus it would appear to be the earlier of the two.See Barrios, "Respuesta panegirica a la carta que escribio JosephPenso Vega..." in Mediar Estremos (Montezinos Library, vol. 2G35),PP. 79 ff.

I0


24/41


literary circles of Madrid and other cities of the HispanicPeninsula. The Amsterdam group had as an emblem theburning bush of Moses with the verse from Proverbs 20.27:"Es el alma candela del Sefior." for its motto. The judgesof the poetic tournaments were the founder Belmonte,Doctor Ishac de Rocamora and Ishac Gomez de Sosa. Roca-mora, a native of Valencia, had at one time been a memberof the Dominican Order and had served as preacher to theInfanta Maria, later Empress of Austria. Gomez de Sosa, anephew of Doctor Samuel Serra, enjoyed a certain amountof fame as a poet who wrote in Latin. Barrios himself wasthe mattetedor, or presiding officer, of the competitions, aposition of which he was very proud. The aventureros, thosewho took the major part in the discussions, were AbrahamHenrlques, Mosseh Rosa, Mosseh Dias and Abraham GomezSilveira. 65

This earliest society must have been relatively short-lived,for in the beginning of I685 Manuel de Belmonte startedanother, called the Academia de los floridos (there is a doublemeaning here: floridos means 'flowery' and also 'select').In his memoria of the same name 66 Barrios furnished a listof the officers and members, some forty in number. Thejudges were Belmonte, Doctor Ishac Orobio de Castro (aliasdon Balthasar Orobio) and Joseph Athias. Ishac Orobio deCastro had been at various times professor of medicine inSpain, doctor to the Duke of Medina Celi, professor at theUniversity of Toulouse and physician and counsellor to theKing of France. Joseph Athias was the son of the martyrAbraham Athias who was burned to deaht in an auto-da-feat Cordoba on July 9, I667. In Amsterdam Joseph was aprinter, famous especially for his editions of English bibles.

65 "Relacion de los Poetas" in TGP (Montezinos Library, vol9E43), pp. 458-460. (Published by M. Kayserling in Revue des At?,desJuives XVIII (I889), pp. 276-289.)

66 "Academia de los Floridos. Memoria plausible de sus Juezes yAcademicos" in Metros Nobles (Montezinos Library, copy 2FIoa),Pp. 253-256.


25/41


The mantenedores were the author, his son Sim6n, a youthof twenty, Doctor Abraham Gutierez, the poet Mosseh Rosaand Manuel de Lara. The well known writer Joseph PensoVega was the secretary of the Floridos. The post of fiscal oradvocate went to Mosseh Orobio de Castro, the son of DoctorIshac. The members were representative of the upper classesof Amsterdam Jewry; besides those named, some of the morefamous were Geronimo Nunfiez, the agent of the King ofPortugal, Joseph Nuniez Marchena, a businessman and patronof literature, his son Mosseh Nunfiez Marchena, Francisco deLis (alias Abraham Lopez Berahel), who acted as a maecenas toBarrios, for several of his works; Abraham Penso, the father ofJoseph, famous for his charity, Mosseh Machado, the purveyorto the army, and Abraham Frois, a leading doctor. The emblemof the academy was an almond tree in bloom with the motto:"Fructum suum edet in tempore suo." Although the Amster-dam academies followed in the paths of the literary clubsof Madrid, they had their own characteristics. For one thing,women were not permitted in the Academia de los floridos.Penso Vega, in the fifth of the Discursos acade'micoswhich hewrote for the group, commented in humorous fashion that theladies were excluded, for which he was grateful, because"these elegant Tullys, seeking the accustomed silence withwhich the benevolent audience is wont to favor them, wouldhave difficulty finding silence, if there were women." 67Moreover, while levity and witticisms abounded, there wasalso a marked tendency to discuss problems of a moral orreligious import. Some of the weekly topics were: Does loveoutweigh vengeance? Which is the noblest of the senses?If man is born of woman, why did God create man first?If all the other senses anger God, why do the eyes alwaysmake payment with tears? Which is worse, a spendthrift or amiser? Which is preferable, poverty with children or riches

67 Joseph de la Vega, Discursos acadermicos, morales, rhetho'yicos,y sagrados. Que recito en la florida Academia de los Floridos (Amberes,I685), p. 89.


26/41

I44 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEWwithout them ? 68 Barrios wrote on these subjects, usually inverse. In the case of the debate about love and vengeance,for example, he defended the power of love. 69 Of course, thediscussions were not always so weighty. A little dialogue,with music, between Cupid and Hymen was Barrios' way oftreating the problem of "Which is more painful to a lover,seeing the lady who scorns hini or not seeing the one wholoves him ?" It was produced before the academy andwas dedicated to the younger Nu'fiez Marchena in the absenceof his fiancee, Ribca Henrlquez Nufifez.70 For anothermeeting Barrios wrote an Enigma del Principio, which wasproduced in honor of David B]3eno de Mesquita, who hadrecently been chosen Hjatan Bereshith. The enigma itself was apicture, together with a poetic explanation or guide, of "a rosein the mouth of a Hebrew and the head of the giant Goliathin the hand of David." Three members of the academy,Samuel Salom, Joseph Penso Vega and Samuel de Leon, under-took to clarify the meaning, which had to be worked outwith suitably complicated explanations. The enigma meantPrincipio 'Beginning', standing for Bereshith, the first wordin the Bible, because it was meant to honor the Hatan Bere-shith. Since Penso Vega came closest to the meaning he wasawarded a beaver hat as a prize. 71

Barrios, as one of the leading literary figures of the commu-nity, was the friend, and sometimes the opponent, of all thewriters or those who aspired to be writers among Amster-dam's sephardim in the second half of the seventeenth century.Besides his descriptions of the poetic academies, he wrotea Relacio'nde los Poetas y Escritores de la Nacion JudaycaAmstelodama 72 which gives much information on both earlier

"8 See Penso Vega, Discursos acade'micos for the subjects discussed.69 Bellomonte de Helicona (Bruselas, I686), P. 347.70 "Ansias de Epitalamio" in Alegrias o Pinturas Lucientes deHymeneo, (n.p.n.d.), pp. 63-70.71 "Enigma del Principio," in Estrella de Jacob (Amsterdam, I686).

(Madrid, Bibl. Nac. copy, R5214.) No pagination.72 "Relacion de los Poetas" in TGP (Montezinos Library, vol.

9E43), pp. 451-458. Referred to hereafter as "Relacion."


27/41


and contemporary writers. In addition, he makes numerousreferences to his literary compatriots in his voluminouswritings. Some of his friendships dated from his earlier daysin the Spanish army, when he was stationed in Brussels.It was customary for writers in the seventeenth century tocontribute prefatory poems of praise to the works of theirfriends. Verses by Barrios may be found in such diverseworks as Abraham Pereira's Espejo de la vanidad del mundo(Amsterdam 543I), a book of ethical advice, Joseph PensoVega's Rumbos Peligrosos (Amberes, i683), a collection ofnovelettes, or in the edition of sermons composed and publish-ed by Abraham Gomez Silveira (Amsterdam, 5437). OftenBarrios' contribution had greater value than as laudatoryverse. For the Spanlish translation, by Doctor Alonso deBuena Maison, of Esquemeling's Piratas de Ame'rica (ColoniaAgrippina, i68i) he furnished a geography in poetic styleof the islands of the New World. He composed a verse descrip-tion of Hungary for a book on the conquest of Buda thatAntonio Pizarro de Oliveros wrote and dedicated to the Bishopof Salamanca. 73

The friendship of Barrios and Nicolas de Oliver y Fullanalasted over a number of years. As early as i672 the latterwrote an occasional piece for Coro de las musas, as well as aLatin poem to Barrios' patron, Francisco de Melo, the Portu-guese ambassador to England. Barrios, in return, wroteseveral poems to or about Oliver, two of which dealt with thebirth of his son and the death of his first wife, Juana. Hecalled him "a great astrologer [sic] and the erudite authorof a part of the Geographia Blaeuiana." 74 He gave moredetails about him in the later Relacion de los Poetas: Oliver yFullana, whose Jewish name was Daniel Juda, was from theisland of Majorca, had been a sergeant major in Catalonia

73 Barrios, "Triumpho Cesareo en la Descripcion universal dePanonia," in Antonio Pizarro de Oliveros, Cesareo Carro Triumphal(Amsterdam, I687), fols. 8r ff.7 See Coro de las musas (Bruselas, i672), fol. 6v; p. 226.


28/41

I46 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEWand served as the "circumcised colonel" of the infantryinthe wars against France in the Low Countries. 75 In the i68o'she held the position of cosmographer to the King of Spain.His second wife, Rebecca, alias dofia Isabel Correa, was wellknown in the literary life of Amsterdam, where she translatedGiambattista Guarini's Pastor Fido from Italian into Spanishand, according to Barrios, was also the author of a volumeof various poems. 76

Manuel de Pina was another friend of Barrios of long stand-ing. In the Flor de Apolo and Coro de las musas the twoexchanged ornate poetic compliments in the form of decimas,and Barrios called Pina an "excellent poet and musician." 77In I656 Pina published a collection of verse in Portugueseand Spanish under the title of Juguetes de la nintez y travessurasdel genio. 78 Barrios mentioned the work, although not byname, in the Relacion de los Poetas, where he also tells thatPina wrote a rara canciodnon the death of Haham Saul LeviMortera. 9

75 Oliver y Fullana must still have been maintaining relations withthe Brussels military establishment in the I670's, for in I679 hepublished a Triumpho del Tuson, about the conferral of the Spanishorder of the Tuson on two noblemen, at a ceremony which he wit-nessed in the Belgian city. Nothing in the work would indicate theauthor's Jewishness; on the contrary, it is conceived and expressedin terms of the utmost Catholic orthodoxy and the mass that wascelebrated as part of the ceremony is described in detail.76 "Relacion," pp. 456-457.77 FPor de Apolo, fol. 6v; Coro de las musas, p. 505.78 Although Kayserling, Sephardim, p. 254, stated that it waspublished in Lisbon, the only copy I have seen, that of the Bibl. Nac.of Madrid, gives no place of publication, stating only that it wvaswritten by Manuel de Pina, natural de Lisboa 'a native of Lisbon.'The fact that the work was dedicated to Geronimo Nlufiezde Acosta,Portuguese agent in Amsterdam, leads me to regard the UnitedProvinces or Belgium as the country of publication.79 "Relacion," p. 45I. This Portuguese funeral poem was published

in Amsterdam under the name of Jacob de Pina. Two Portugueseand two Spanish poems by Jacob de Pina appear in the Elogios quezelosos dedicarona la felice memoria de Abraham NP,iiezBernal (Amster-dam, i655), a collection of verses by various Amsterdam writersdedicated to the memory of the martyr of that name who was killed


29/41

MIGUEL DE BARRIOS-SCHOLBERG I47Barrios frequently mentioned a fellow member of the

Academiade los floridos, Doctor Ishac Orobio de Castro, inhis writings. Besides the usual eulogistic poems in Flor deApolo and Corode las musas, he spoke highly of the doctorin his gloss of Penso Vega'sletter to Orobioand in his Relacionde los Poetas. In the latter work, in an evident referenceto the CertamenPhiloso'phico, e praisedhim forhis oppositionto "the atheist Spinoza." This is one of the few occasions onwhich Barrios ever mentioned the excommunicated philoso-pher. He also quoted favorably from Orobio's works in hislittle known Realsedela Prophezia,a refutationof anti-Jewishcharges made by a decree of don Pedro, Prince Regent ofPortugal,of August 5, I683. 80 On the otherhand, the undatedDesembozosde la verdad contra las mascaras del mundo isviolently anti-Orobio. The work is a defense of the Divineunity and against a proposition by Orobiothat if there were aplurality of concepts in the Divine Being there would not beunity of essences. Barrios argued that there is a plurality ofconcepts, but that they exist in time and not in God. Theinteresting feature of the work, however, is not the theologicaldebate, but ratherthe light it sheds on the author. His mentalequilibrium was delicately balanced. It is known that abouti674 his enthusiasm for the pseudo-Messiah, Sabbatai Zevi,seriously affected his sanity, and in I682 he claimed to havehad a divinely inspired vision. In Desembozosde la verdadheblamedhis troubleson Orobio: "The discreditandthe extremeneed in which I am held by the rumor that Orobio s spreadingthat I am out of my mind obligedme to use ingenuity, tellinghim that I was trying to be cured, but that I could recoverin Cordoba on May 3, I655, and to that of his nephew, Ishac de AlmeidaBernal, executed in March of the same year at Santiago de Compostela.Almeida was from Barrios' native town of Montilla and in the "Rela-cio6n"he proudly mentioned that he had been a relative of his.80 For the friendship of Barrios and Orobio see Flor de Apolo, p. 254;Coro de las musas, p. 5I3; "Respuesta Panegyrica" in TGP, pp. 72 ff;"Relaci6n," p. 45I; "Realse de la Prophezia y Caida del Atheismo,"in Metros Nobles (Amsterdam, n.d.), pp. 231-252.


30/41

I48 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEWonly if he proposed difficult matters to me that I could notunderstand." 81 He was further dismayed that some peopleattributed the first octave of his long philosophical poem,Harymonia del mundo, to Orobio, maintaining that he himselfdid not have the learning to produce it. The explanation, hesaid, was that he had translated for Orobio a book that thelatter had composed against Alonso de Cepeda, and that hecondensed "the whole discourse of the book" into the oneoctave. 82 Other than on this one occasion, caused probablyby that same mental instability that he was trying to deny,Barrios always expressed the greatest admiration for Orobiode Castro.

The friendship between Barrios and Joseph Penso Vegaapparently dated from I677, the year in which the poetglossed and published Vega's letter to Orobio de Castro,although he had dedicated an earlier allegorical play to hisfather, Ishac Penso. 83 Later Barrios lauded several com-positions of Vega, and in I683 Vega asked him to furnishthe poetic insertions for the collection of Italianate novelsthat he was bringing out under the title of Rumbos Peligrosos.84The friendship continued and was fostered by their coopera-tion and amicable rivalry in the Academia de los floridos.But in I687 an event happened that was to arouse greatanimosity between them. In that year Manuel Telles de Silva,Count of Vilar Mayor, travelled to Heidelberg to arrange thebetrothal of Pedro II of Portugal to Maria Sophia, daughterof the Palatine Elector. The ceremony took place on July 2and then the bride-to-be and the nuptial ambassador begantheir trip to Rotterdam, from where they were to be accom-

11 Desembozos de la Verdadcontralas Mascaras del Mundo (n.p.n.d.),P. 9.

82 Ibid. p. 8.83 The play is Contra la Verdad no hay Fuerza (Amsterdam, n.d,but before the publication of Coro de las musas).84 In the prologue to the Rumbos Peligrosos Penso Vega wrote:"I also point out to you that the verses (because in me there is moreof the orator than the poet) are by my great friend, the worthv captaindon Miguel de Barrios...."


31/41


panied to Lisbon by the English fleet. The King's agent inAmsterdam, Geronimo Nunfiezde Acosta, and his two sonswere kept busy arranging the details of the route. In theDutch metropolis Sephardic poets grasped at the oppor-tunity of writing verses commemorating the happy event,hoping to win the royal favor. Barrios and Vega collaboratedto produce an Epitalamio Regio, in Spanish verse and Portu-guese prose, which they presented to the Count, asking himto bring it to the attention of their Majesties. Vega also wrotea separate prose Alientos de 1 verdad en los clarines de la famaon the route taken by the bridal party, which he dedicatedto the ambassador. What ensued or who was to blame is noteasily ascertained. The following year Barrios wrote a poeticdescription of the travels and the receptions given to thePorttiguese party which he called Dios con nosotros. In ithe sought the protection of the Count and stated that PedroII had sent 500 cruzados by way of his agent Acosta as apayment for the Epitalamio Regio. Acosta had handed theentire sum over to Vega, who refused to share it with hiscollaborator, denying that the King had sent the moneyfor their combined work. Barrios was very indignant at Vega,and accused him of inordinate greed and went so far as tohope he would die. 85 This, of course, was Barrios' version ofihe difficulty. It should be considered with due caution, forhe was a man of volatile temperament and had clashes with anumber of his friends.

No such troubles marred his friendship with Tomas dePinedo, although they disagreed at times on matters oflearning.86 After the death of Pinedo on November I3, I679,

85 Dios con nosotros (n.p., i688), p. i8.86 Tomas de Pinedo was one of the most erudite of the Sephardicwriters, famous especially for his Latin translation with commentaryof Stephanus of Byzantium's De Urbibus (Amsterdam, I678). In thiswork he wrote of Barrios as "familiaris noster, optimus poeta Hispanus6 Boetica." Barrios in return praised the translation highly. Bothwriters corresponded with Francisco de Mascarefias, Conde de Cocoll.Mascarefias in a letter to Pinedo wrote favorably about Barrioswho then published with a translation a Latin epigram by Mascarefias


32/41


a curious exchange of letters took place between Barrios andthe Spanish savant Gaspar de Mendoza Ibanfiez de Segovia,Marques de Mondejar. Mondejar was a scholar of note,remembered even today for his pioneer work on medievalSpanish chronicles. He had defrayed the expenses of publish-ing Pinedo's major work on Stephanus of Byzantium, butwas apparently unaware of his religious beliefs, for he wroteto Barrios that he had been saddened to learn about Pinedo'sdeath, and more so to learn that he had died in the Jewishfaith, "having been reared among Catholics" (Pinedo had beeneducated in Madrid by the Jesuits). This brought forth a replyfrom Barrios in the form of two sonnets. In both he denouncedMondejar for his attitude and proclaimed his own adherenceto the Law of Moses. In the first he wrote (11. and io):"And lamenting his sad death, / I extol the Holy Law thathe observed." 87 The second ends with the lines: "You judgedPinedo other than he was, / and I am other than you judgeme, since you say / you regret his religion more than hisdeath. / In the Law in which he died, I remain constant, / forit is the Tree of Life, and its roots / bring forth on a field ofblue a glorious destiny." 88 Only in the safety of the UnitedProvinces could Barrios so openly and proudly declare hisfaith.

Of the great number of religious leaders and scholars whosenames appear in the writings of the indefatigable montillano,the most prominent in his own day were Ishac Aboab, Selomohde Olivera and Jacob Sasportas, who constituted the rabbinicalin praise of Pinedo. The two were also on friendly terms with thePortuguese ambassador to Madrid, Duarte Ribero de Macedo. In aletter dated June 5, I679, Barrios sought the judgment of the am-bassador in a dispute he was having with Pinedo as to whether theElysian Fields were located in the Iberian Peninsula. He himself,with more enthusiasm than learning, maintained that they were whilePinedo denied this idea. The debate was never settled because of thedeath of Pinedo. (See Coro de las musas, pp. 224-225; Arbol floridode noche (n.p.n.d), p. 27; Bellomonte de Helicona, pp. II7-I20.)87 TGP, p. io6.

88 TGP, p. 735.


33/41

MIGUEL DE BARRIOS-SCHOLBERG I5Igovernmentof the city in the i68o's. Aboab89died on April 4,I693 at the age of eighty-eight, and Barrios wrote an accountof his funeral. It was attended by all the leaders of the com-munity, the members and treasurersof the Hermandadde lasHuirfanas, the parnasim of Etz Haim and of Bikyr Holiomand the members of the academies of which Aboab had beenthe head. Jaim Toledano, the ambassador of Morocco to theUnited Provinces, honored the departed Haham with hispresence. The grave-side sermon was delivered by his friendand colleague Selomoh de Olivera. The crowd that attendedwas impressive: "What coaches, carriages and berlins didnot wheel along the shores of the Amstel River with thosewho could not leave their beloved Haham until the earthof his grave covered him! What boats were not filled by theSpanish-JewishNation who went to see him interred, togetherwith those of the attentive German-Polish synagogue."Sermons in praise of Aboab were delivered by Ishac Serugon the following Monday, by Selomoh Yehuda Leon onTuesday, by David NuniezTorres on Wednesday, by Selomohde Mesaon Thursday and by Barrios on Friday. 90Selomoh de Olivera was the successor of Mosseh Raphaelde Aguilar in the fifth class of the Talmud Torah school, aposition to which he was appointed in i68o. He was theauthor of several books in Hebrew, Spanish and Portuguese.Barrios mentions his Ets Haim, "in which he declares thewords of the Holy Scriptures in Spanish," and a Hebrew-Portuguese vocabulary. He was also a poet who wrote

89 Aboab was born in Castrodayre, Portugal and came to Amsterdamat the age of seven with his mother. He served the Hispanic Jewishgroup there in various capacities for more than sixty years, with theexception of a period beginning in I64I when he went to Brazil totake the post of Haham in Pernambuco. He returned to Holland inI654. He also held the posts of Rosh yeshiva of Torah Or and of theAcademy of the Pintos. He was head of the Beth Din and hence ChiefRabbi of the community, and had also been one of the moving forcesin the construction of the new synagogue.90 "Honores fuinebres al ... Jaxam Ishac Aboab," in Metros Nobles(Montezinos Library, vol. 2FIoa), pp. 30I-3I4.


34/41


in Hebrew; an example of his verse was printed in thedescription of Honen Dalim. 91Besides being the head of thisacademy, he was also the president of Gemilut Hassadiin fromI674 to at least I684. 92

One of Barrios' closest friends was the revered JacobSasportas, some twenty-five years his senior. 93 Either beforeor soon after Barrios moved' to Amsterdam, Sasportas triedto help him publish his long poem Imperio de Dios, and itwas to the rabbi that the poet's wife turned for help whenher husband was sick. 94 Barrios was ever grateful to him.In his work on Meirat Henaim he took pleasure in recordingthat the Haham was a descendent of'the famous AragoneseRamban, and he wrote glowingly of his work in jurisprudence,his virtue and his Talmudic learning. 95 When Sasportas diedBarrios preached the funeral sermon. When he asserted, in theprologue to the printed version, that he studied the Law forthirty years, "to make it the foundation and light of a bookentitled Imperio de Dios en la Harmonia del Mundo," he musthave gone back in thought to those earlier days when Sas-portas offered him support. Barrios used the occasion of thesermon to expound some of his own ideas as to how someHebrew words in the Bible should be translated. It may nothave been appropriate to do so on this sad occasion, but

91 TGP, pp. 227 ff.92 Barrios says nothing of his later life, but for a period dating from

I693 Olivera was the head of the rabbinical college of Amsterdam.He died on May 23, I708, seven years after Barrios.93 Sasportas, who was born in Oran in i6io, travelled widely duringhis lifetime. He served as rabbi in several North African cities andapparently went to Amsterdam as early as I653. In I659 he was sentby the Moroccan king on a diplomatic mission to the court of Spain.In I664 he moved to London, but because of the plague there wentthe following year to Hamburg where he served as rabbi. He spentthe years from I673 to I678 in Amsterdam. In the latter year he wasappointed head of the yeshiva in Leghorn, but two years later was

recalled to Amsterdam to head the school system, and after the deathof Aboab he became chief of the rabbinate. He died on April I5, I698.94 See M. Kayserling, "Une Histoire de la Litterature Juive,"in Revue des Etudes Juives, XVIII, pp. 279-280.95 TGP, pp- 423-424


35/41


perhaps it was the most suitable memorial to the man hecalled "my great champion and friend, the learned HahamJacob Sasportas." 96

Barrios was a professional writer since he supported hisfamily by his pen. He produced occasional poems for thehappy or sad events that took place in the community.Whether it was a wedding or a funeral, the election of newofficials, quarrels in the synagogue or honors to be paid a"bridegroom of the Law," he recorded the event in verse.When one of the powerful or rich members of the congregationdied, he composed a lament, a sermon or an elegy and dedica-ted it to the mourners. Members of the Gaon, the Pinto, thePenso Vega, the Curiel and the Salom Moreno families wereso honored by him. 97 We catch a glimpse of difficulties inthe congregation in the poems he wrote to people askingthem to return to the synagogue. In a prose and poeticepistle dated Tisri I5, 5443 (I683) he asked Jacob Pereirato follow his learned father and return to the fold. 98 Hedirected similar exhortation to a certain Francisco de Silvaaround i686. 99 Sometimes a poem gives information on theactivities of people in the community of which little or nothingwas said in formal records. He dedicated a decima to AbrahamMachorro, a flautist, Ishac Mendez, who played the guitar,and Manuel Pimentel, whom he characterized as proficientboth in playing the harp and dancing. 100Another poem tellsthat Manuel de Lara, one of the mantenedores of the Academiade los floridos, had a fencing school in Amsterdam. Barrioscredited Lara with having won over to Judaism more thanthree hundred people from Spain. One of his converts wasCaptain Jorge Pimentel, who in his turn converted an addi-

96 Monte Hermoso de la Ley Divina, Sermo6n exemplar en las HonrasFunerales de ... Jacob Sasportas (Amsterdam, 5459), pp. 3-4.97 Various funeral poems are scattered throughout the MetrosNobles and the Estrella de Jacob.98 TGP (Montezinos Library, copy 2oE6i), p. 69I.99 Ibid., p. 699.

100 Ibid., p. 764.


36/41


tional sixty. The Captain lived in Amsterdam under the nameof David Pimentel. 101

The congratulatory poems that Barrios wrote for weddingcelebrations furnish information both on marriage customsand on the genealogies of the upper families. 102 A weddingthen, as now, could cost the bride's family a small fortune.At the marriage in I683 of Aaron de Pinto and Gracia Nunfiez,costly gifts were exchanged and the guests were entertainedwith comic plays, songs, instrumental music and dancing.Barrios wrote a short play "Gozo Epitalamico," for thecelebration, in which his purpose seems to have been topraise as many brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, in-lawsand other relatives of the couple as possible. This is true ofall of his wedding poetry. One can easily imagine the guestsin an expansive mood after the wedding feast, listening tothe poet read his verses and waiting to hear their own namesmentioned. The poems had to be brilliant; little witticismsabout each person were admired and word-plays on the namesof the bride and groom were common. Often they werecompared to famous biblical couples. The artistic worth ofsuch endeavours is about what one would expect. GraciaNunfiez, incidentally, was from Rouen, France, and theintended groom had sent her as a betrothal gift a portraitof himself set in diamonds. Gentile guests were sometimesinvited to a wedding. In the account of the marriage of Davidand Sara Bueno de Mesquita in I684, it is stated that "theexcellencies of the House of Nassau and the nobility of Amster-dam attended the splendid banquet." Gifts were popular;when Raphael del Castillo got married, his friends sent himtokens of esteem. Barrios' brother-in-law, Samuel de Rosa,sent him some sugar cakes and the poet supplied a decimato accompany the gift. An interesting and, from a modern

101 Ibid., p. 764.102 All of the following examples are taken from a collection ofBarrios' wedding Foetry, A legrias o pinturas lucientes de Hymeneo(Amsterdam, i686).


37/41


point of view, somewhat amusing marriage was that ofMosseh de Abraham Mocata, son of Abraham Gabriel Nunfiez.Mosseh (whose alias was Antonio Gabriel Niifiez) contractedpneumonia and made a solemn vow that if he escaped deathhe would marry an orphan without any dowry. Upon recoveryhe stuck to his promise and married Esther Coen Camifiawho, it is true, was an orphan, but was of a family muchadmired for its orthodoxy and learning. The affair evidentlycreated quite a stir. Barrios composed poems to him, to herand about the wedding, in his own name and on behalf ofthe friends of the groom. In all the tone is one of exaggeratedpraise for Mocata's self-abnegation in scorning large dowriesto carry out his promise. One wonders what the bride thoughtabout this.

Often sons and daughters of Amsterdam families contractedmarriage with members of Sephardic communities in Franceand Germany. It has already been stated that the wife ofAaron de Pinto was from Rouen. Similarly the bride ofRaphael Athlas, Beatriz Gomez Moreno, came from thesephardic community in Bayonne, although her family hadbranches in several countries. Three of her brothers werestill in France, one was in London and another in Amsterdam.The latter was probably the Gabriel, alias David, GomezMoreno who married Ribca de Lima in the Dutch city. Anuncle of the bride, Selomoh de Lima, conducted the marriageceremony. Several family alliances were contracted withresidents of Hamburg, especially if the families were in thesame fields of endeavour. Nathan Curiel, the son of DavidCuriel, Portuguese agent in the German city, married hiscousin Sara, the daughter of Geronimo Nuniez de Acosta,who performed the same function for the King of Portugalin Amsterdam. The sister and brother of the preceding couple,Lea Curiel and Abraham de Acosta, also married each other.In their case, Barrios says, the union was arranged by stillanother of the diplomatic representatives, Manuel de Belmonte.Mosseh Orobio de Castro, the son of Doctor Balthasar Orobio


38/41


de Castro, took as his wife Sara Abas of Hamburg. Her fatherwas Jacob Abas and she was related to the Curieles. Mosseh'ssister, Ribca, became the wife of Ishac Milano of the Germancity. Some of Barrios' poems celebrated alliances of richfamilies outside of Amsterdam. Francisco Lopez Suasso, theson of the Baron of Avernas, married Judith, the daughterof Ishac Senior Teixeira, agent of Queen Christina of Swedenin Hamburg. (The Suassos were residents of the Hague,although they took their title from the name of their estate,Avernas de Gras, in Brabant.) Another son of Ishac Suasso,Abraham, married Sara Senior Teixeira, the sister of Judith.In the case of Mosseh Curiel and Raquel Telles de Acosta wehave a case of an alliance between the Hamburg family andthe English branch of the Acostas (or Da Costas) commemora-ted by Barrios.

It is evident from these wedding poems that there was atendency to marry within the family. There were numerousinstances of marriage between cousins or between uncle andniece. In fact, the later decline of the community has beenattributed, in part, to such inbreeding. 103 The tendency tomarry within a restricted circle was probably due to theSephardic preoccupation--one is tempted to say obsession-with "purity of blood." Throughout Barrios' poems there isa recurrence of such terms as "pure blood," "illustriousfamily" and particularly "lineage." He wrote about the"noble Sosas," the "pure Sarfatines" and praised the Curiel

103 One example should suffice to show the close family ties. DonMiguel wrote verses on the marriages of different members of thePesoa and Cohen Camini'a families which give the genealogies of bothsides. The resultant family tree is quite complicated. Abraham Pesoa,the son of Ishac and Sara Pesoa, married Jana Cohen Camnifia. Hisbrother Mosseh at the same time married Jana Pesoa. The brideswere cousins of the grooms and of each other. The wife of Abrahamwas the daughter of his aunt Ribca Pesoa, widow of Ishac CohenCamifina, while the wife of Mosseh was the daughter of his uncle,also named Mosseh Pesoa. The latter, deceased, had married his nieceSara, daughter of his sister Abigail and her husband, Diego AlvarezPenso.


39/41


family by saying that they resembled the children of Menassesin the care they took to mingle their blood only with thoseof their own stock. The Sephardic Jews of Amsterdam seemvery Spanish in this respect. One of the most characteristicfeatures of Hispanic life for centuries was the desire, indeedthe necessity, if a person aspired to certain positions, toestablish the purity of his ancestry. Of course in the Peninsulathe need was to prove that all of one's grandparents were ofundiluted "Old Christian" stock and that there was no traceof conversoancestry in the family. 104 The Amsterdam Sephar-dic community and those in other western European citieswere formed in large part from people whose families hadbeen living in Spain and Portugal as secret Judaizers longafter the expulsion. Infiltration for more than a century ofideas of family purity prevalent in the Peninsula may havehad an influence on their attitudes. The Sephardim displayedan exaggerated sense of superiority over other Jews. As amatter of fact they were superior culturally to the Germanand Polish Jews who were also finding their way to Amsterdam.Polished and urbane, able to hold their own on the highestintellectual levels, they considered themselves the elite ofJudaism. Except in matters of mutual interest, there waslittle contact between the two communities in Amsterdam.Marriage between Sephardic and Askenazic Jews was unthink-able. But it is evident that even among the Sephardim somefamilies considered themselves of nobler lineage than otherfamilies and hence they would not enter into marital alliance

104 Am6rico Castro, the erudite critic and historian of Spain,suggested that the concern with limpieza de sangre in Spain was aJewish concept which was transferred to the Christian populationin the fifteenth century as a result of the many conversions that tookplace in that period. He held that there is little or no trace of theconcept in Christian writings prior to the fifteenth century, but thatit may be found in the Responsa literature of the Spanish Jews (seehis Realidad histo6yica e Espaia, Mexico, I954, pp. 496 f). The theoryis disputable. But whatever the origin of the concept, it was commonto both the Christian Spaniards within the Peninsula and the JewishSpaniards who lived in exile from it.

TII


40/41

I58 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEWwith them. Naturally, economic considerations also played apart in the determination of suitable unions.Something finally should be said about Barrios' attitudetowards his adopted city. Even though we must accept hisstatements with caution (he was often seeking money fromhis protectors and may have exaggerated his situation) it isevident that he was in poverty much of the time. He had agreat dislike for the stockmarket.105 He apparently had lostmoney on the market judging by reflections on the honestyof traders in shares.106 In I683-I685 he contemplated goingto England and dedicated poetic religious worksto the KahalKadosof Londonin the hope of obtaining funds to move there.When they were not forthcoming he had to give up hisintention.107He never wrote of himself as a Dutch subjectnor did he learn the Dutch language. At least he never wrotein that language; he may have acquired some knowledge ofit, however, for every day use. He continued to considerhimself a Spaniard and to sign his works with the formula"a loyal subject of the King of Spain." In a long poem whichhe addressed to don Antonio de Heredia he spoke of hisdissatisfaction with life in Amsterdam.Herediawas a cavalrycaptain who had been stationed in America and was returningto Spain by way of the North. He had heard of Barrios andtook the opportunity to meet him. The poet was flatteredand pleased that his fame had reached the young officerandhe sounds frankly boastful in the poem. But one may sensehis nostalgia for his sunny homeland when he congratulatesHeredia on his forthcoming return to la patiria EspaiRa.For himself, he says, everywhere he goes in Amsterdam heis in veritable darkness, and he feels like a blind man without

105 His one-time colleague and friend, Joseph Penso Vega, foundthe bourse interesting enough to write the first book detailing itsoperations and theory, the well known Confusion de confusiones(Amsterdam, i688).106 See, for example, stanzas 103-IO6 of the poem "Gineta de Laurel."107 TGP, p. 123.


41/41

MIGUEL DE BARRIOS-SCHOLBERG 159

a cane or a criminal with no place of refuge.108 He was,however, grateful for the shelter the city affordedhim, andhe was fully aware of the debt that the Jews owed to theattitude towards them. "In no place in the world, he wrote,"do (the Jews) have less fear than in Amsterdam, as muchbecause of the liberty of conscience of the Seven UnitedProvinces as because of the kindness of its talented inhabi-tants."109Hisvariedand at times modifieddescriptionsof thecity in a number of his works were a tribute Amsterdamrichly deserved. The city, he wrote, was "as much a babelof learned tournies as an Athens of different tongues... .And its greatest glory is that, having such diverse peoples,of different religions, it maintains them in peace with fewofficers, but with much justice. It shines like the moon andsheds the light of rectitude and charity, which sustains thepeace of the inhabitants and illumines the lives of the needy.The city benignly shelters the people of Moses who learnfrom the Sacred Prophecies that those who try to destroythem will be destroyed, and that the Nations that protectthem will be rewardedby the Divine Hand." 110

108 "Gineta de Laurel," in Bellomonte de Helicona, p. i i6.109 TGP, p. 476.110 TGP, p. 535.

miguel de barrios

Documents