HISPANIA JUDAICA BULLETIN
Articles, Reviews, Bibliography and Manuscripts on Sefarad
Editors: Yom Tov Assis and Raquel Ibáñez-Sperber
No 8 5771/2011
Hispania Judaica
The Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Contents
Editorial
1
English and Spanish Section
Articles
YOM TOV ASSIS, The Jewish World after the Expulsion: From Destruction
to Revival
5
ELEAZAR GUTWIRTH, Acutissima patria: Locating Texts before and after the
Expulsions
19
SCHULAMITH C. HALEVY, Blood in the Church: The Inquisition against
Hernando Alonso
39
RAQUEL IBÁÑEZ-SPERBER, Joan Lluis Vives y los suyos: apuntes para una
psicohistoria
57
RENÉE LEVINE MELAMMED, Adapting and Adopting: Conversos and the
Sephardi Diaspora
85
JOSÉ RAMÓN MAGDALENA NOM DE DÉU & MERITXELL BLASCO ORELLANA, De
judaica y sefardica en el Retrato de la Loçana andaluza de Francisco
Delicado
95
VESNA M,29,û, Jewish Life in Sixteenth-Century Dubrovnik
111
GÉRARD NAHON, Saudade: Portuguese Testimony to Jewish Nostalgia in
Jerusalem and the Galilee in the Sixteenth Century
125
JAMES W. NELSON NOVOA, The Peninsula Hither and Thither: Philosophical
Texts in Vernacular Languages by Sephardic Jews before and after the
Expulsion
149
ELIEZER PAPO, Filling Lexical Gaps: Spanish as Ibn Verga’s First Language
of Reference
167
HILARY POMEROY, The Sephardi Romancero: Its First Century
181
* The articles in this volume are based on lectures delivered at a conference on “Expulsion and
Forcible Conversion: Their Aftermath in the Life of the Sefardi Refugees and their Children”, held
in January 2009, under the auspices of the Israel National Fund of the Israel Academy of Sciences
and Humanities
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DORA ZSOM, “But the Name of the Wicked will Rot” (Prov. 10:7): Names
Used by Conversos in the Responsa Literature
193
Bibliography and Manuscripts
BIBLIOGRAPHY
217
NITAI SHINAN, Spanish Manuscripts of Works by Authors Expelled
from Spain
259
NADIA ZELDES & ABRAHAM DAVID, The Literary Legacy of the Sefardi
Refugees: Manuscripts and Early Print Editions. Exhibition Catalogue 269
Author’s Guidelines and Transliteration
285
Contributors
287
Hebrew Section
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YARON BEN-NAEH, Jewish Congregations, Communities and Communal
Organization in Sixteenth Century Ottoman Empire
Ą
ABRAHAM DAVID, Don Yitshaq Abravanel and his Family in Southern Italy
at the Turn of the 16th Century
ĊĐ
Saudade: Portuguese Testimony to Jewish Nostalgia in
Jerusalem and the Galilee in the Sixteenth Century
Gérard Nahon
Among the 16th century’s Portuguese travelers to the Holy Land,
the Franciscan monk Pantaleão de Aveiro wrote the most detailed
testimony about the Jews coming there from the Iberian Peninsula.
From the second edition of his Itinerario da Terra Sancta, e suas
SDUWLFXODULGDGHVIRUJRWWHQVLQFHZH¿QGWKDWKHKHOGVSHFLDO
links with Christians who stayed in Portugal after the forced
conversion of 1497. To them he brought informations about their
near relations living in the Holy Land, in Egypt, in Syria and other
places. As an Appendix to this paper, we publish excepts of the
second edition of his Itinerario.
Introduction
Between 1500 and 1596 twelve Portuguese pilgrims are known to have visited
the Holy Land: Frei António, a hermit from Serra de Ossa in 1500, Don Frei
João Soares bishop of Coimbra in 1545, Mécia Pimenta de Alverca in 1546, Frei
António Soares, a Cistercien monk, in 1555, Jorge Henriques, the canon of Viseu,
author of Itinerario da Jornada que fez de Viseu a Jerusalém até se restituir à sua
Pâtria in 1561-1562, the Franciscan Pantaleão de Aveiro author of Itinerario da
Terra Sancta, e suas particularidades, in 1563, Maria Portuguesa from Coimbra
in 1575, the Jesuits Jerónimo Rodrigues and Baltasar Dias in 1581, Isabel de San
Pedro de Guimarães in 1599, Antonio Soares de Albergaria, author of Itinerario à
Casa Santa de Jerusalém in 1592 and the Dominican Frei Nicolau Dias, author of
Jornada da Terra Santa in 1596.1
These pilgrims met Jews along their way and at their stages of their journeys.
1
Some of these travel accounts were printed, and others have remained in manuscripts,
such as that of Antonio Soares de Albergari, Itinerario da Casa sancta de padre Frey
Antonio Soarez mõge professo de Alcobaça dirigido ao Cardeal Ifante dom Anrique
seu prelado e nosso sõr. On this literature, cf. Luis Graça, A visão do Oriente na
literatura portuguesa de viagens: os viajantes portugueses e os itinerarios terrestres
( 1560-1670), Lisbon, Imprensa Nacional / Casa de Moeda 1983. See also José Nunes
Carreira, ‘A Terra Santa em relatos portugueses de viagem ( séculos DCVI-DCVII)’,
Cadmo, Revista do Institut Oriental Universidade de Lisboa 13 (2003), pp. 55-78. The
[Hispania Judaica௑@
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Gérard Nahon
They also sought out Jews, who provided lodging, guided them, and supplied
information in Spanish or Portuguese. The best known of these pilgrims, Pantaleão
d’Aveiro, spoke no Arabic, Greek, or Turkish, and he systematically searched for
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because of the length of his stay (twenty months) and of his account (559 pages
in the edition of Antonio Baião), as well as because of his interest in the Eastern
Christians, the Ethiopians, and the Jews. Michael Ish-Shalom has translated long
selections of his Itinerario into Hebrew, those dealing with the Jews. Christophe
Gonzales has produced an abridged French version in the collection edited by Jean
Luc Nardone, La représentation de Jérusalem et de la Terre Sainte dans les récits
de pèlerins européens au XVIe siècle. With respect to the Jews, in addition to the
abundant information that he transmits about them, in the Holy Land he also met
several people whom he had known personally in Portugal.2
How much credence should we lend to this testimony, viewing the Jews from
a Christian perspective? These Jews, met by chance, individuals from the working
classes, are they representative of the Jewish population of the Holy Land? In
the absence of a true critical edition of the Itinerario da Terra Sancta, e suas
particularidades, to what degree may we assume that the available edition is
reliable? The account has been published seven times, and the most accessible
HGLWLRQLVWKDWRI$QWRQLR%DLmRZKLFKLVEDVHGVROHO\RQWKH¿UVWHGLWLRQ
However, in 1979 the late Charles Fraser Beckingham showed how much the
DXWKRU UHYLVHG DQG H[SDQGHG KLV ZRUN EHWZHHQ WKH ¿UVW DQG VHFRQG HGLWLRQ
Beckingham did not, however, prove the point that he emphasized in his 1987
lecture entitled ‘A Jewish Franciscan in the Ottoman Empire’, in which he took
the Judaism of Pantaleão d’Aveiro as an established fact. Indeed, he asserted (p.
2
travel account by Pantaleão d’Aveiro, printed in Lisbon in 1593 by Simão Lopez and
LQE\$QWRQLR$OYDUH]ZDVUHSULQWHGIROORZLQJWKH¿UVWHGLWLRQ.
0UV 0DULD$UOHWWH 'DUERUG ZDV NLQG HQRXJK WR REWDLQ IRU PH D PLFUR¿OP QR
F.R.1040) of the copy of the second edition in the collection of the Biblioteca Nacional
de Lisbonne RES 834 P & RES 4749. It is my pleasure to express my gratitude to her
here as well as to Mmes Isabel Barros and Isabel Jaber who assisted me in consulting
the Library the Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, Centre Culturel Portugais in Paris.
7KLV7LWOHSDJHRIWKDWHGLWLRQLVPLVVLQJLQWKHPLFUR¿OPKHQFHRXUUHSURGXFWLRQLV
taken from the work of Luis Graça cited above, p. 305.
Michaël Ish-Shalom, Christian Travels in the Holy Land: Descriptions and Sources
on the History of the Jews in Palestine, Tel Aviv 1979, pp. 290-300 (Hebrew). JeanLuc Nardone, ed. La représentation de Jérusalem et de la Terre Sainte dans les
récits de pèlerins européens au XVIe siècle. Textes présentés, traduits et annotés par
Jacqueline Malherbe-Galy, et al., Paris, 2007. On the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, cf. N.
Schur, Jerusalem in Pilgrims’ and Travellers’ accounts: A thematic bibliography of
Western Christian Itineraries 1300-1917, Jerusalem 1980.
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Portuguese Testimony to Jewish Nostalgia in Jerusalem and the Galilee
RIWKH¿UVWDUWLFOHFLWHGEHORZ³7KHUHFDQEHOLWWOHGRXEWWKDW3DQWDOHmRZDV
a cristão novo”.3
7KHSUHVHQWDUWLFOHH[DPLQHV¿UVWRIDOOWKHFLUFXPVWDQFHVRIKLVHQFRXQWHUV
with Jews in various localities, at different moments and contacts with individuals
who belonged to different milieus. It questions the reliability of the testimony
of the witness on the social level and on that of mentalities. Finally, it offers a
critical reading of the built-in Portuguese bias in the testimony in confronting the
problematic state of exile in Jewish mentalities in the Holy Land during the second
half of the sixteenth century. In order to attain a global perspective, we have also
considered the episodes in the Itinerario concerning the stages that preceded and
followed his stay in the country, as well as those situated in the Holy Land itself.4
Time, Places, the Language of Meeting with the Jews (and which ones):
Relations with the Witnesses
Little is known about the biography of Pantaleão d’Aveiro. We know only that
he led a pilgrimage that included the Franciscan father Bonifacio d’Araguza
(Dubrovnik)5, the Maronite Georges Basluqiti, and several other monks. He
landed at Jaffo in April 1563 and reembarked at Tripoli to Europe in the month
of November 1564. Before his arrival in the Holy Land, during stopovers for
pilgrims at Venice, Corfu, Paphos, and Rosetta in Egypt, he had long encounters
with Jewish men and women and asked about their personal life histories. After
leaving the Holy Land, properly speaking, he went on to Damascus and Tripoli,
3
4
5
Pantaleam d’Aveyro, Itinerario da Terra Sancta, e suas particulardades, composto
por Fr. Pantaleão de Aveiro. Setima edição conforme à primeira, revista e prefaciada
por António Baião, Coimbra, 1927. Charles Fraser Beckingham, ‘The Itinerario of Fr.
Pantaleao de Aveiro’, Revista da Universidade de Coimbra, 27 (1979), pp. 161-169,
‘A Jewish Franciscan in the Ottoman Empire’, Asian Affairs, Journal of the Royal
Society for Asian Affairs 18, 3 (1987), pp. 257-268.
H.H. Ben Sasson, ‘Exile and Redemption through the Eyes of the Spanish Exiles’, in
S.-W. Baron, B. Dinur, S. Ettinger, I. Halpern eds., Yizhak F. Baer Jubilee Volume on
the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday, Jerusalem, The Historical Society of Israel
(Hebrew), pp. 216-227, 1982. The quotations from the Itinerary in the body of the
article are followed by the pagination of the Antonio Baião’s edition. In an appendix,
I have published large selections from the second edition.
On Bonifacius Stephanus Ragusinus Stagni Episcopus also called Drkolica, last custos
ot Mount Zion and bishop of Ston, author of a guide for the Holy Land, the Liber de
perenni cultu Terrae sanctae et de fructuose ejus peregratione printed in Venise in
1573, see. A. Arce, ‘Bonifacio de Stephanis ( c. 1504-1582), ultimo guardian de monte
Sion y obispo de Ston’, Archivum Franciscanum Historicum Firenze 76, 1-3 (1983),
pp. 296-341.
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Gérard Nahon
where he also met Jews and reported their remarks. In the Land of Israel itself, the
main episodes of the Itinerario concerning Jews took place in Jerusalem, Shilo,
Hebron, Ramatayim, Nablus, Dotayim, Bethesda, and Safed. Indeed, the Jews are
omnipresent in the Itinerario.6
The language factor plays a preponderant role in these encounters. When
Pantaleão de Aveiro heard Jews speaking Spanish and especially Portuguese in
the city streets or on country roads, he immediately began to converse with them.
He recognized them by the yellow turban that the Turks require them to wear:
³Os Judeos trazem o turbão amarello”, he states on p. 455. If he did not happen
WRPHHWD-HZRQWKHURDGKHDVNVZKHUHWKH-HZLVKGLVWULFWLV³Eu a todos os que
passavaõ os perguntava por Judeos, hora por este nome, hora por Hebros, & isto
o melhor que sabia; o que fazia por saber que naquella Cidade havia muytos; &
que todos, ainda que de diversas nações, sabe muito ou pouco fallar Hespanhol
ou Italiano” (p. 492).
At other times the Jews were told in advance of his arrival in their places, and,
knowing his reputation, they approached him directly. In Damascus Pantaleão
UHFRXQWV ³Não teriamos passado vinte casas, quando de huma dellas sahem
cinco, ou seis Judeus Portuguezes, dizendo com grande alvoroço hum delles:
‘Padre Fr. Pantaleão, quem vos trouxe ça, quem havia de cuidar, que havieis de
vir a esta terra?’” (p. 493). His relations with the Jews showed the hospitality they
offered him and his companions in their inns, homes, and also their synagogues
in Venice, Corfu, Jerusalem, Safed, and Tripoli. He gathered information from
the Jews about their life, their beliefs, and their hopes. For their part, the Jews
asked for news of Portugal. Some of them also asked him to go on errands for
themselves or take letters to relatives who had remained in Portugal. Pantaleão de
$YHLURFRQIURQWHGWKH-HZVLQIULHQGO\EXW¿UPIDVKLRQRQWKHVXEMHFWRIUHOLJLRQ
he refused the Jews’ invitation to become a Jew and tried to show them their error.
He did not hesitate to have long conversations with Jewish women. In Jerusalem
he spoke at length with a young Jewish woman at the Spring of Siloam (pp. 283286). With a few exceptions, the Jews he met were not well educated. There was
QRUDEELDPRQJKLVLQWHUORFXWRUV3DQWDOHmRWKHUHIRUHVWDWHG³são ignorantissimos
todos os ou quasi todos os judeos que morão em Palestina” (p. 450).
Pantaleão de Aveiro devoted two long passages to the Senhora – Gracia
6
To the best of my knowledge there is only one, very short biography in A. Gomes
Pereira, ‘Gramatica e Vocabulario de Frei Pantaleão de Aveiro precedido dum breve
estudo sobre o autor e a sua obra’, Revista Lusitana, vol. XVI. In the edition of Antonio
Baião (which has no index), cf. pp. 16-18, 54-57, 59, 60, 65, 92, 105, 119-201, 208,
210, 259-261, 283-286, 297, 305, 309-310, 336-337, 356, 358, 363, 385-386, 424,434,
446, 449-450, 454, 455, 467, 471, 478, 480, 482, 492-494, 496-501, 503, 514, 515,
531-533.
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Portuguese Testimony to Jewish Nostalgia in Jerusalem and the Galilee
Mendes – who had acquired the district of Tiberias from the Sultan (pp. 471474). When Pantaleão left Jerusalem, several Portuguese Jews told him that
a Portuguese woman from Porto – information that should be added in Gracia
0HQGHV¶VWLOOLQFRPSOHWH¿OH±KDGÀHGWKHNLQJGRPRI3RUWXJDOZLWKJUHDWZHDOWK
that she had purchased the city of Tiberias for a high price, and in addition she paid
to the Sultan an annual tribute of tone housand cruzados. Her arrival had aroused
the messianic hopes of the Jews again:
& o verão seguinte, se vinha de Constantinopla onde estava dassento, a
viver nella, com toda sua casa, familia, & povoada de todos os Judeus,
que a quisessem seguir, da qual nova todos os Judeus, que moravão em
Palestina, andavão muyto alegres, com esperanças, que morando alli avia
de vir o seu Mexias, por quem ha tantos annos esperão sem quererem
entender sua cegueyra7.
Later on Pantaleão received further details from a Jew from Lisbon who was
associated with the Lady. His informant told Pantaleão that the woman’s name
was Branca de Luna, and that another widow had accompanied her to Venice.
Once settled in Constantinople, she engaged in sea-borne trade on a large scale.
The other sister who had become a Christian, had a beautiful daughter, whom she
married of to a man named Micas, who had offered to accompany the Marquis of
Villa Real to the Holy Land. Clearly his informant was right about Brianda: Indeed
she, Branca-Beatrice, Gracia’s sister, the wife of Diogo Mendes (died in 1542) had
betrayed her in Venice. 8
However that may be, both the mistaken information and the correct facts show
that by 1564 the Senhora was still alive in the Holy Land and already became a
legend in her own time.
Regarding the Senhora¶V DUULYDO LQ WKH +RO\ /DQG &HFLO 5RWK ZURWH ³,W LV
impossible to be dogmatic about this. The last time we hear about Doña Gracia
(1565) is that she was expected in Palestine, and, although there is no actual record
that she arrived, the possibility must not be ruled out”.
Indeed, all the verbs used by Pantaleão are in the past tense, and his account
dates from before 1565. The hypothesis according to which the Senhora did
actually come to the Holy Land, that she might have lived her life out there, is
7
8
³7KHIROORZLQJVXPPHU>WKDWLVWRVD\DIWHUOHDYLQJ&RQVWDQWLQRSOHZKHUHVKHZDVVWLOO
OLYLQJLQ@VKHZHQWWRVHWWOHLQ7LEHULDVZLWKKHUHQWLUHKRXVHKROGKHUIDPLO\DQG
followed by all the Jews who wanted to follow her. Upon hearing this, all the Jews
living in Palestine were extremely glad, hoping that by remaining there, she would
bring the Messiah”.
1596 edition, f° 262-263, see Appendix 3: Tiberiade and the Senhora.
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Gérard Nahon
WKHUHIRUHFRQ¿UPHGE\WKHItinerario. As for the burial in Jerusalem of her husband,
Francisco Mendes, who died in Lisbon in January 1535, a burial attested by the
German traveler in the service of the Fuggers, Hans Dernschwam, our Franciscan
breathed not a word: according to Dernschwam it took place in 1554, before the
Senhora’s arrival in Tiberias.9
Testimony
Throughout the Itinerario, one trait dominates: the importance of the Portuguese
component of the Jewish communities in the Holy Land. Nevertheless, Pantaleão
de Aveiro estimates the number of Portuguese Jews in Jerusalem at only thirty.
With the exception of three individuals, one from Rome, one from Toledo
(p. 285), and the third from Salamanca (p. 260), all the Jews whose place of origin
KH PHQWLRQV FDPH IURP 3RUWXJDO VSHFL¿FDOO\ IURP %UDJD S &RLPEUD
(p. 54), Evora (p. 260), Lagos (p. 493), Lisbon (pp. 65, 501), Porto (p. 65), Santarem
(p. 531), Setubal, and Tavira (p. 500). If Pantaleão de Aveiro actually came from
the city of that name, the Jewish fellow student whom he found in Safed, and
whose guest he was – em casa de hum Judeo meu natural (482), algumas Judias,
minhas naturaes (483), hum Judeo Velho, meu natural, o qual por sua mansidão
chamavão Job ( 498) – would also have come from Aveiro. The presence of these
individuals implies that a family or several families left those places in Portugal
to reach the Holy Land. One of them states that he had come twelve years earlier
S(OVHZKHUHWKH)UDQFLVFDQLQGLFDWHVWKDWDQXQLQWHUUXSWHGÀRZRI-HZV
from Spain and Portugal was pouring into the Holy Land: algum Judeo Hespanhol,
dos que de continuo vão de Hespanhia fugidos aquellas partes (p. 467). This
immigration has been well described in a number of recent studies. Pantaleão de
Aveiro heard an explanation of this migration from some young people: the father
of one of them had been burned, and his mother had been imprisoned by the Holy
9
Cf. Cecil Roth, Doña Gracia of the House of NasiSQSQ
22, Franz Babinger, Hans Dernschwam’s Tagebuch einer Reise nach Konstantinopel
und Kleinasien (1553-55), Munich, 1923, pp. 106-117 quoted according to the English
translation by Jacob Rader Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World: A Source Book
315-1791, New York-Philadelphia 1960, p. 415. Only when my paper was yet under
press, I got the opportunity of reading the innovating article by José Alberto Rodrigues
GD 6LOYD 7DYLP µ/D ³PDWHULD 2ULHQWDO´ HQ HO WUD\HFWR GH GRV SHUVRQDOLGDGHV MXGLDV
del Imperio Otomano: João Micas/D. Yosef Nasi, Alvaro Mendes/D. Shelomo Ibn
Ya‘ish’, Hispania Judaica Bulletin 7 (5770/2010), pp. 211-232, but I, was unable
to insert the results of his fresh research in my own paper. Some mistakes of mine, I
WULHGWRFRUUHFWZLWKWKHKHOSRIP\JRRGIULHQGV3URI5REHUW%RQ¿ODQG'U5DTXHO
Ibáñez-Sperber.
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Portuguese Testimony to Jewish Nostalgia in Jerusalem and the Galilee
2I¿FHVRKHWRRNWRÀLJKWhum moço de bem pouca idade, que por me dizer, não
haver dous annos que sahira de Portugal, lhe perguntey donde era, & porque se
ausentara. Disseme ser natural de Braga & que fugira, porque queymarão seu
pay, & tenhão presa sua may (p. 494). As we know, the Portuguese Inquisition was
established in 1536 and grew in oppressive strength with the growth of barbarities
that characterized the procedures of the Inquisition between 1542 and 1544.10
If we are to believe Pantaleão d’Aveiro, the social status of the Portuguese Jews
was generally low, and most of them lived in poverty. Thus, on the road he found
hum Judeo que, a minha partida de Lisboa, deyxe na misma cidade vendendo
cominhos, & outras cousas deste sorte na tendas, que estão na ribeyra abayxo dos
açougues (p. 497). Nevertheless he mentioned the presence in Jerusalem of hum
de Evora, por nome Barbosa, grande Medico, o qual depois de se apartar da Fé
Catholica, em tempo de Paulo IV, se tornou depois a ella, sometandose a penitencia
publica, que lhe foi dada, mas depois tronando como cão ao vomito se embarcou
em Ancona & se passou a Turquia (p. 260). Again in Jerusalem, Pantaleão d’Aveiro
held a theological debate with hum judeo castelhano, encõntrandonos em hua rua:
& segundo elle dizia fora cathedratico de leys em Salamanca (p. 260).
The Jews in the Holy Land had an ambiguous religious attitude. On the one
hand, they attacked the Christian religion and tried to convince our Franciscan
– whom they appeared to have taken for a New Christian – to become Jewish. On
the other hand, some of them regret having left their homeland and express great
sorrow for being in exile. The women in particular spoke of their nostalgia and
hoped to have news from Portugal. During a conversation with a young woman
in Jerusalem, who was in fact born in Egypt of parents from Toledo, Pantaleão
d’Aveiro pointed out her misery and made her weep. She confessed that her
parents also were sorry to have left their homeland: Ouvindo a misera Judia estas
palavras, começou a chorar, & dizer, que sue pay, & sua may lhe dizião muytas
vezes estas, & semelhantes cousas, não sem muyto arrepentimento, de haverem
deyxado sua patria, & natureza (p. 286).11
In Safed our Franciscan was especially impressed by the low morale of the
10 Alexandre Herculano, History of the Origin and Establishment of the Inquisition
in Portugal, trad. John-C. Branner, Prolegomenon by Yosef-Hayim Yerushalmi,
New York 1972, pp. 353-393. Cf. Francisco Bethencourt, L’Inquisition à l’époque
moderne: Espagne, Portugal, Italie, XVe-XIXe siècle Paris 1995: História das
inquisições Portugal, Espanha e Itália, São Paulo 2000.
11 Cf. Abraham David, The Immigration and Settlement in the Land of Israel in the 16 th
Century-HUXVDOHP+HEUHZVSHFLDOO\WKHHQWU\³3RUWXJDOLP´SS
99, 115-118, 125-126, 143, 149, 203. On Jewish women in Egypt and the Holy Land,
cf. Joel L. Kramer, ‘Spanish ladies from the Cairo Geniza’, in Alisa Meyuhas-Ginio,
ed. Jews, Christians and Muslims in the Mediterranean World after 1492, Portland,
1992 pp. 237-241. Kramer quotes our Franciscan abundantly. On p. 241 he writes:
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Gérard Nahon
Jews, who FRPODJULPDVPH¿]HUmRDIHVWDODPHQWDQGRVHGL]HQGRPHTXHVHXV
peccados as avião tirado de Portugal, não pera a terra de promissão como ellas
cuidavão, mas pera a terra da desesperação, onde se vião & com suas miserias
espermentavão (f° 268).
These themes were stated explicitly from the beginning of the sixteenth century
in a number of sermons, including those of Yosef b. Meir Garson, Ben Porat Yosef,
edited by Meir Benayahu and brought to wider attention by Moshe Idel’s studies
RI.DEDODK<RVHIE0HLU*DUVRQZULWHV³,IWKH.LQJRI6SDLQKDGVHQWXVWRRXU
SURYLQFHVKHZRXOGQRWKDYHLQÀLFWHGH[SXOVLRQRQXV%XWKHH[SHOOHGXVIURP
our country, and each of us has gone to a foreign land”.
Jewish nostalgia for the lost homeland was felt intensely in Safed and has been
studied at length.12 In a profound analysis of Jewish mentalities in the Ottoman
Empire and especially in sixteenth century Safed, Joseph Hacker brought to
OLJKWWKHLQÀX[VRRQWREHFRPHWKHKHJHPRQ\RI6SDQLVKDQG3RUWXJXHVH-HZV
including a number of conversos who had returned to Judaism. He also reveals
the distress and despair before life that pervades the writings of their rabbis,
an attitude that he compares to that of Holocaust survivors. This sadness in the
Orient is shared by the rabbis and by the ordinary people frequented by Pantaleão
d’Aveiro.13
A Critical Reading
Beyond the apologetic studies that bring out the tolerance and sympathy for the
Jews as a praiseworthy characteristic of our Franciscan, his contacts with the
Jews are problematic. His reference to the Jewish school that he claims to have
³3DQWDOHmRGH$YHLUR¶V Itinerario is a rich source for knowledge of Iberian Jewesses
in the post-Expulsion era”.
12 Meir Benayahu, ‘The Sermons of Joseph b. Meir Garçon, a Major Source for the
History of the Expulsion from Spain and the Dispersion of the Exiles in the Ottoman
Empire’, Michael VII, 1982, pp. 42-205 (Hebrew) and my remarks, ‘Safed et
Jérusalem au XVIe siècle: la durée de l'exil’, École Pratique des Hautes Études.
Section des Sciences religieuses, Annuaire, Résumé des Conférences et Travaux , t.
CIII, 1994-1995, pp. 190-194, Carlos Carrete Parrondo, ‘Nostalgia for the past (and
for the Future?) among Castilian Judeoconversos’, in A. Meyuhas-Ginio, ed., Jews,
Christians and Muslims, pp. 25ff.
13 Joseph R. Hacker, ‘Pride and Depression: Polarity of the Spiritual and Social
Experience of the Iberian Exiles in the Ottoman Empire’, in Menahem Ben-Sasson,
5REHUW%RQ¿O-RVHSK5+DFNHUHGV&ulture and Society in Medieval Jewry: Studies
Dedicated to the Memory of Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson, Jerusalem 1989, pp. 541-586,
especially pp. 568-586 (Hebrew).
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Portuguese Testimony to Jewish Nostalgia in Jerusalem and the Galilee
attended as a child – most likely in Aveiro – remains surprising. The expulsion of
the Jews of Portugal in 1496 made the existence of any Jewish school impossible.
Though we do not know his date of birth, Pantaleão d’Aveiro would have been an
extremely old man in 1563 if he had attended such a school before the expulsion.
,WDSSHDUVOLNHO\WKDWWKHVFKRROZDVUXQE\D1HZ&KULVWLDQGXULQJWKH¿UVW\HDUV
of the sixteenth century.14
The young Jewish woman from Siloam said that her parents came from Toledo.
In 1563 she might have been twenty years old, thus born around 1543. How could
her parents have come from Toledo following the expulsion in 1492? Must we
assume that they themselves were the children of converted Jews who left Spain
late?
The major remaining problem is that of Pantaleão de Aveiro’s former
acquaintance in Portugal with several Jews. A striking example of this acquaintance
appears in the account of his passage to Damascus:
Não teriamos passado vinte casas, quando de huma dellas sahem cinco, ou
VHLV-XGHXV3RUWXJXH]HVGL]HQGRFRPJUDQGHDOYRURoRKXPGHOOHV³3DGUH
Fr. Pantaleão, quem vos trouxe ça, quem havia de cuidar, que havieis
de vir a esta terra?”. Forão-se todos comnosco ate o caõ, que alli estava
perto, & aquelle que me fallou por me conhecer de outra parte, & todos
os mais me abraçarão & festejarão muyto: ao que acudirão logo outros
das suas logeas com muyta alegria, & com elles hum moço de bem pouca
idade, que por me dizer, não haver dous annos que sahira de Portugal,
lhe perguntey donde era, & porque se ausentara. Disseme ser natural de
Braga & que fugira, porque queymarão seu pay, & tenhão presa sua may.
Da mesma maneyra outro mancebo muyto be disposto, sem lhe perguntar
cousa alguma, me dice que era natural de Lagos, Cidade de Algarve, & que
sempre fora muyto bom Christão mas que vendo seu pay preso & depois
SRU-XGHRTXH\PDGRORJRVH¿]HUD-XGHRIXJLUDSDUD7XUTXLDSRUYLYHU
livremente na ley de Moysés. Perguntey-lhe, porque seu pay o não tinha
ensinado a ser Judeo, antes que o prendessemUHVSRQGHRPHTXHRVSD\V
14 N. Slousch, ‘The population of Palestine and Syria in the 16th century according to
a Portugal Source’, Bulletin of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society 1934-1935
SS1DWDOLD1XQHVµ)UHL3DQWDOHmRGH$YHLURHRV-XGHXV¶Vertice 18 (1958),
pp. 390-397. Comparison with other Portuguese travelers shows that none of them
shows the interest in the Jews that is so conspicuous in Pantaleão, cf. Maria José
Pimenta Ferro Tavares, ‘Judeus, Cristãos novos e o Oriente no século XVI’, in Estudos
Orientais III O Occidente no Oriente: a traves dos descombrimentos portugueses,
Lisbon 1992, pp. 49-63, José Nunes Carreira, ‘A Terra Santa em relatos portugueses
de viagem ( séculos CVI-XVII)’, Cadmo, Revista de Institut Oriental Universidade de
Lisboa 13 (2003), pp. 55-78.
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HPWHUUDVGH&KULVWmRVQXQFDVH¿DYmRGRV¿OKRVVHQmRGHSRLVTXHRVYLmR
ir chegando aos vinte & cinco annos (p. 494).
The local Jews had known Pantaleão de Aveiro and received him with open arms.
A young boy told him that he had left Portugal ten years earlier, and that his father
had been burned there, and his mother imprisoned. Another young boy told him
that he had always been a good Christian, until his father was burned at the stake.
Our Franciscan knew that the New Christians secretly taught Judaism to their
children and was astonished that the young boy’s father had failed in this duty.
As noted, in 1979, Beckingham advanced the hypothesis that Pantaleão de Aveiro
ZDV KLPVHOI D 1HZ &KULVWLDQ ³7KHUH FDQ EH OLWWOH GRXEW WKDW 3DQWDOHmR ZDV D
cristão novo”. By 1987 the late professor from Manchester had promoted this
FRQMHFWXUHWRDFHUWDLQW\:KLOHWKLVLVGLI¿FXOWWRSURYHFHUWDLQLQGLFDWLRQVZKLFK
Beckingham did not in fact invoke) could support it. Like the New Christians,
3DQWDOHmR³FDQRQL]HG´¿JXUHVIURPWKH+HEUHZ%LEOH)RUH[DPSOHKHPHQWLRQV
an event that happened em vida do santo Moyses (2ème éd. f° 216). Arriving at
Rachel’s Tomb near Bethlehem, he carved his name on the wall: achandome nesta
sepultura da fermosa Raquel no alto della, de letra grossa & legivel ecrevi: Hic
adfuit Frater Pantaleon Lusitanus, quer dizer, aqui esteve o Padre Fr. Pantaleão
Portuguez (p. 310).
His repeated professions of Catholic faith, his immense patristic and liturgical
erudition, that fact that his New Christian origins is never mentioned, neither
E\ KLPVHOI QRU E\ KLV UHODWLYHV DQG WKH DEVROXWH FRQ¿GHQFH WKDW KLV FROOHDJXHV
bestowed on him contradict the hypothesis. However, these Christian traits could
also be interpreted as suspicious insistence – frequent among New Christians – in
demonstrating perfect Catholicism.
Basing myself on a declaration by Pantaleão de Aveiro that appears in the
second edition of the Itinerario, explicitly addressed to the gente de nação, that
is, the New Christians of Portugal, I offer another hypothesis.15 New Christians
might have given Pantaleão de Aveiro the mission of collecting information and
making contact: he could thus have been the emissary and postal courier for New
Christians in Portugal who wished to contact Portuguese Jewish refugees in the
Holy Land. He performed this mission as much by writing the Itinerario as in
bearing the letters given to him spontaneously, or so he said, by Jews in the Holy
Land, to be delivered to their relatives, who had remained New Christians in
Portugal. In Argana, not far from Salinas (Larnaca) in Cyprus, a wealthy lady,
the wife of Dom Joseph Janalveres, who came from Porto, asked him to contact
her brother, who had stayed in Portugal. Pantaleão de Aveiro found him upon
15 Appendix 1, Advice to the New Christians in Portugal. See also Appendix 2, end.
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Portuguese Testimony to Jewish Nostalgia in Jerusalem and the Galilee
returning home: he was a rich merchant and a good Christian, who showed no
enthusiasm for renewing contact with his sister
Achamos aly huma judia Portugueza casada com hum judeo Portuguez
médico, tido em toda aquella terra em conta de muyto bom homem.
Chamava-se Dom Joseph, & em Portugal Janalveres, natural de Porto de
Portugal. A mulher havia sido casada com outro marido, com o qual fugio
de Lisboa, & forão ter a estas partes, & elle morto, se casou com este Dom
-RVHSK3HUJXQWRXPHHVWD-XGLDPX\DI¿QFDGDPHQWHSRUKXPVHXLUPD}
nomeando-o por seu nome, & dandome delle alguns sinaes, & rogandome com muyta importunaçaõ, quizesse tomar à minha conta, tornandome
Deos a Portugal, inquirir delle, & mandar-lle novas suas, porque o amava
muyto: & que muy bem lhe podia eu negocear esta consolaçaõ pela via de
Veneza, pois as naos Venesianas, todos os annos hiaõ a Lisboa, & aquellas
partes. Achey eu depois que me nosso Senhor tornou ao Reyno, ao irmaõ
desta Judia, mercador rico, & tido em foro de bom Christaõ, dey-lhe as
encomendas da irmaã, que elle naõ negou ser sua, mas mostrou recebellas
de ma vontade ( p. 65).16
In support of my hypothesis, I mention once more the insistence with which he
described his meetings with Portuguese Jews, asked about the course of their lives,
discussed questions of belief with them. Some of the Jews knew him well and
SODFHGIXOOFRQ¿GHQFHLQKLPZKLFKVXSSRUWVP\K\SRWKHVLV7KHPDMRUDUJXPHQW
resides in his contacts with Jews in Portugal before his departure on the pilgrimage
and the after his return to the country. As mentioned above, Pantaleão de Aveiro
SUHFHGHVWKHQDPHVRIELEOLFDO¿JXUHVZLWKWKHHSLWKHWsanto: o santo Patriarca
Jacob, Santa Raquel, Santo Moyses, Santo Samuel, S. Hieremias profeta. This
ZDVDVSHFL¿FWUDLWRIWKHSUD\HUVRI1HZ&KULVWLDQVZKLFKFRXOGEHLQWHUSUHWHG
as a sign of Pantaleão de Aveiro’s secret Judaism. Moreover, our pilgrim seasons
his remarks with Hebrew words, citing a verse from Deuteronomy: e no Hebreo
chamado elle hadebraim (p. 379). However, according to my hypothesis, these
would have been signals for New Christian readers or for those who had sent
KLP 7KH YLVLW WR 6DIHG ZKLFK KDG QR &KULVWLDQ VLJQL¿FDQFH FDQ EH H[SODLQHG
only by his wish to meet Portuguese Jews there. According to the Ottoman
¿VFDOUHFRUGVDURXQG6DIHGKDGWZRKXQGUHG3RUWXJXHVHDQGWZRKXQGUHG
Castilian residents 17. Rather curiously, moreover, the Franciscan states that only
16 The second edition, f° 39 v° reads musico instead of medico and adds after bom
homem: & por tal de todos amado & favorecido. As for her brother, whom he located
in Lisbon, he is called muito bom Christão.
17 Alex Carmel, Peter Schafer, Yossi Ben-Artzi eds., The Jewish Settlement in Palestine
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Gérard Nahon
four hundred Jews lived in Safed, whereas a few years previously, Juan Perera
numbered them at eight to ten thousand. Juan Perera wrote:
The city contains many Jews, especially Spanish and Lusitanians. But
it is hardly safe to speak to them in Spanish, because the Turks are very
suspicious of the Spanish. There are also some baptized Lusitanian
Jews who took refuge there for fear of the Inquisition. Throughout these
regions, the Jews have taken refuge because of fear: in Tripoli, in Aleppo,
in Damascus, and in Jerusalem. They are dispersed all over, and in every
place they are the reason why one hears the Spanish language spoken,
HVSHFLDOO\LQ&DSKHW>6DIHG@7KHSODFHZKHUHWKH\OLYHLVDULGDQGGHVRODWH
as is frequently the case in the Holy Land. From eight to ten thousand Jews
live in Caphet and a similar number of Moors and Turks18.
Finally, and mainly in the second edition of the Itinerario, Pantaleão presented an
argument on his own behalf: by insisting on the sincerity of the New Christians
in Portugal, he defended himself against harming their interests by revealing the
return to Judaism of those who were living in the Holy Land or in the Middle
East19. He also refrains from saying in his own defense that he had waited thirty
years before publishing his account: the information about individuals and families
was no longer current. This disclaimer might have been demanded by the New
Christians, who were concerned by the use that the Inquisition might make of the
good father’s revelations. An attentive examination of the passages in the second
edition of the ItinerarioPXVWEHSHUIRUPHGWRFRQ¿UPRUUHIXWHP\K\SRWKHVLV
Conclusion
As a Portuguese witness par excellence regarding the importance of Portuguese
immigration to the Holy Land and the Middle East during the two decades
following the establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal, Pantaleão de Aveiro
DOVRVKHGVOLJKWRQLQGLYLGXDOELRJUDSKLHVDQGFRQ¿UPVWKHLQIRUPDWLRQFRQYH\HG
by sixteenth century Jewish sources about the burden of exile in the mentalities
of the Portuguese refugees in the Near East – a privileged ground for the Lurianic
634-1881, Wiesbaden 190, p. 131.
18 Harry Charles Luke, A Spanish Franciscain’s Narrative of a journey to the Holy Land,
translated from the 16th-Century Latin manuscript in his possession and edited with
notes, London 1927, p. 47, cf. Nathan Schur, Twenty Centuries of Christian Pilgrimage
to the Holy Land, Tel Aviv 1992, pp. 57-58.
19 Appendix 2, end.
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1593 edition
[137@
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1596 edition
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Portuguese Testimony to Jewish Nostalgia in Jerusalem and the Galilee
Kabalah during the sixteenth century and for the Sabatian Movement during the
seventeenth: Sabatai Zvi used the Portuguese synagogue of Smyrna as a theater
when he proclaimed he was the messiah –. Pantaleão de Aveiro’s Itinerario reveals
the complexity of mentalities and the diversity of the personal biographies of the
expatriate Portuguese Jews after 1536: Pantaleão was astonished that a Portuguese
New Christian had not taught Judaism to his son. He made himself the interpreter
of the sorrow and nostalgia of working class individuals exiled in the Holy Land
against their will, a sadness expressed even more strongly in the rabbinical writing
of the age. Above all, the Itinerario sheds light on the relations that existed between
the New Christians in Portugal and those who had returned to Judaism in the Holy
Land and the Middle East, for whom Christian pilgrims from Portugal, and in
particular their emissary, Pantaleão de Aveiro, served as go-betweens.
Appendices20
Appendix 1
Advice to the New Christians in Portugal
Pantaleam d'Aveyro, Itinerario da Terra Sancta e todas suas particularidades.
Lisbonne, Antonio Alvarez 1596, chap. XIII, vol. 27, p. 166 (shortened quotation).
C.-F. BECKINGHAM C. F. , ‘The Itinerario of Fr. Pantaleão de Aveiro’, Revista da
Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, 27 (1979), pp. 161-169.
Advirto aqui aos que lerem este meu Itinerario, que muitas vezes, de
necessidade, ey de falar de Judeus, que destas partes Occidentaes, achey nas
2ULHQWDHV DI¿UPR FRPR &KULVWmR QmR VHU PLQKD LQWHQomR FDO€QLDU SHVVRD
DOJ€DQHPDgente de nação : da qual eu creu aver neste Reyno muitos sanctos
YLUWXRVRVDVPDOGDGHVGRVPDRVQmRSHUMXGLomRDRVE{V2VKRPrQVMXOJmR
RGHIRUDDeus autem intuertur>VLF@cor. Pera si tinha o Propheta Elias, que não
DYLD PDLV JHQWH ¿HO D 'HRV HQWUH RV ¿OKRV GH ,VUDHO TXH VRPHQWH HOOH R TXDO
fugido do Monte Carmelo por temor de impia, & cruel Jezabel, molher del Rey
Acab, que tinha jurado de ao dia seguinte o mandar matar, por elle aver morto no
Torrente , ou Ribeiro Cison, todos os Prophtas do Idolo Baal) estava escondido em
hua cova no monte de Oreb no deserto de Sina, quando aparecendolhe o Senhor
20 ([FHUSWV RI WKH VHFRQG HGLWLRQ $FFRUGLQJ WR D PLFUR¿OP NHSW LQ WKH )RQGDWLRQ
Calouste Gulbenkian, Institut Culturel Portugais, Paris.
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Gérard Nahon
Deos lhe perguntou o que fazia respondeolhe Elias, que o zelo que tinha da honra
GRPHVPR6HQKRU'HRVSRURV¿OKRVGH,VUDHOWHUHPGHL[DGRDVX/H\GHVWUXLGR
VHXV$OWDUHVPRUWRVVHXV3URSKHWDVRDQGDYmREXVFDQGRSHUDRPDWDUHDYHQGR
HOOHVR¿FDGRVHPDYHULGRODWUDGR$RTXHUHVSRQGHRR(WHUQR'HRVDQWUH
outras cousas que com elle falou, & fazer lhe mandou, lhe disse, que ainda tinha
no seu povo de Israel sete mil homes, que não avião idolatrado : como lemos no
terceiro livro dos Reys21$VVLTXHDYHQGRPXLWRV¿HLVHVFRQGLGRVQmRGHYHPRV
DWRGRVWHUSRULQ¿HLVHRVTXHVHWHPSRU&DWKROLFRVQmRPHGHYHPFDOXPQLDU
o que eu singularmente escrevo, que se minha intenção fora outra, dissera muitas
FRXVDVTXHFDORSRUQmRPDJRDUTXHPVHDFKDUFXOSDGRFDOHVHHPHQGHVH
& convertase de coração ao Senhor Deos, que he benigno, & misericordioso, &
prompto pera perdoar culpas a quem tem arrependimento de as aver cometido
contra sua Divina Magestade.
Appendix 2
Jerusalem
f° 146 v° Morão na Sancta cidade, como seiscentos Judeus, pela myor parte pores, por não
(pp. 259-261) aver em que tratar, & ganhar o remedio pera a ia & avia como trinta, nacidos
dentro neste nosso Portugal, & entrelles, hum grande medico natural d’Evora o
qual depois de se apartar da Fe Catholica, que no Baptismo avia professado, se
WRUQRX GHSLRV D HOOD VRPHWHQGRVH D SHQLWHQFLD SXEOLFD TXH OKH IR\ GDGD PDLV
depois tornando como cão ao vomito, se embarcou em Ancona & se passou a
Turquia.
Tem en Hierusalem huma sinagoga antigua & bem velha, a mais triste &
melancolizada que vi em todo Levante: & esta lhe bem ao nosso modo, o nome de
VLQDJRJDPDVQDVVXDVIHVWDVDRUQmRGHULFRVSDQRVGHRXURVHGDGHTXHHVWmR
muy providos em terra Sancta, porque pera os terem daquella maneyra, contribuem
não somente de Portugal & Castella, mas de todas as partes do mundo22. En huma
festa principal que elles celebrão no mes de Septembro, a vi da maneyra que digo,
incitandome a entrar nella hum Cacis do Monte Sion, muyto amigo dos nossos
frades, o qual entrou comigo: mas primeyro se descalçou, deixando os çapatos à
porta. Pergunteylhe porque o fazia: respondeome, que aquella casa era dedicada a
21 According to the Vulgate, 2 Kings 19:18.
22 7KH ³ROG´ V\QDJRJXH FDOOHG WKH 1DKPDQLGHV 6\QDJRJXH LV QH[W WR WKH DO8PDUL
Mosque, and it was closed by the Turkish authorities in 1586. Cf. Amnon Cohen,
Ottoman documents on the Jewish Community of Jerusalem in the Sixteenth Century,
Jerusalem 1976, pp. 13, 14.
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Portuguese Testimony to Jewish Nostalgia in Jerusalem and the Galilee
Deos, & era costume dos Mouros, sempre nos taes lugares entrare descalços por
reverencia, quer sejão de Christãos, quer de Judeus ou Mouros,
Tem por costume muytos Judeus dos que vivem naquellas partes Orientaes,
fazer o possivel por ajustar dineyro, com que se possão sustentar em terra Sancta,
& junto se vão morar a Hierusalem & alli se aposentão & morão todo o tempo que
lhe dura a provisão com grande ociosidade, esperando ao Mexias, que ha de vir no
dia do Juyzo julgar os vivos & mortos.
Hum dia andando eu pola cidade encontrandome em hua rua com hum
Judeu Castelhano, que, segundo elle dizia, avia sido Cathedratico em Salamanca,
querendoseme mostrar Letrado, començou a travar pratica comigo, dizendo,
não ser nosso Redemptor Jesu Christo Deos verdadeyro & que o mostrara bem
claro quando disse aos Discipulos, sendo delies perguntado, se avia de restituyr
naquelle tempo o Reyno de Israel: como o diz Sam Lucas no seu livro dos Actos
$SRVWROLFRV³1mRKHGDGRDPLQHPDYRVVDEHURWHPSRTXHR3DGUHWLQKDSHUD
si guardado”,23 no que se via claro que o pois não sabia o por vir, não era Deos
YHUGDGH\URQRTXHRSHUURIDOVDYDD(VFULSWXUD6DJUDGDHVWDQGRFRPHOOHKXP
Judeu velho Portuguez, cujos parentes ca muy bem conheci que o favorecia: &
GL]HQGROKHHXTXHOKHTXHULDPRVWUDUR7H[WR>IƒYƒ@TXHHOOHGHSUDYDYD
de palavras desconcertadas, quasi ouveramos de vir as portadas, & a nossos
brados, començarão de acudir Mouros, pelo que foy necessario ao Judeu ser mais
agudo dos pès, acolhendose, do que na contenda mostrouselo do entendimento
& ao não ser sem falta os Mouros lhe ouverão de dar o pago de seu atrevimento
porque sofrem muyto mal ouvir alguma palavra injuriosa contra nosso Senhor
-HVX&KULVWRSRUTXHDLQGDTXHQmRFRQIHVVmRVHUHOOH'HRVDI¿UPmRVHU)LOKR
de Deos & baso de Deos & concebido pelo Spiritu Sancto & nascido de Maria
6HPSUH9LUJHPDQWHVGHSRLVGRSDUWRQHOOHRTXHPX\WDVYH]HVDPX\WRV
GOOHVRXYLFRQIHVVDUDI¿UPDU
&HUWRTXHFX\GDQGRPX\WDVYH]HVGXUH]DFHJXH\UDGRV-XGHXV¿FRDWRQLWR
ententendo, procederlhe tudo, de não quererem entender a verdade, entendendoa,
& vendoa, não a quererem ver, por sua maldade & malicia polo mortal odio,
TXHWHPDRPLOOLGXRQRPHGH-HVXQRVVR5HGHPSWRU0X\WDVFRXVDVGHOOHVTXH
vi naquerllas partes, & entendi de suas malicias contra os Christãos & de suas
superstiçoes entre si, podera aqui por, as quaes deixo descrever por não magoar
a muytas pessoas da nação, Sanctas & virtuosas neste Reyno, que sentirão pena
lendoas : porque quanto mais huma pessoa he virtuosa, tanto mais lhe pesa, não o
serem os da sua parentela24.
23 $FWV,DFWXDOO\WKHYHUVHGRHVQRWFRQWDLQ-HVXV¶DGPLVVLRQRIKLVLJQRUDQFHRIWKH
advent of the messiah, but that admission is implicit in Mark III:32.
24 This entire paragraph was added in 1596. It repeats the captatio benevolentiae of the
New Christian reader previously stated above, fol. 40.
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Gérard Nahon
f° 160 v°
Ao presente neste lugar da Natatoria de Siloe ( asi chamado no Evangelho de
(pp. 283-286) Sam João25 por nosso Redemptor Jesu Christo, quando allumiou o que, avia nacido
cego, pondolhe sobre os olhos lodo amastado com o seu cuspinho & dizendolhe,
que se fosse lavar a Natatoria de Siloe) esta huma casa grande com muyta agua,
onde as molheres Christãas, como Judias & Mouras, se lavão lavar & se vão lavar :
da casa por hum cano descuberto vay dar a agua em hum tanque muyto grande,
feyto ao modo dos que cà no qual no verão, estando chea , nadão os moços & em
WRGRRWHPSRODYmRDVPROKHUHV>«@
Indo eu hum dia a este lugar com outros dos frades, andando visitando outros
lugares santos, como em terra Sancta costumamos fazer muytas vezes: achamos
naquelle tanque lavando duas molheres, huma velha & huma moça & c& tinhão
consigo huma minina de sete annos: & não fazendo caso dellas, fomos para entrar
na casa d'agua, por ver o que là hia, por não termos nunca visto aquelle lugar,
nem saberemos de que servia. Vendo aquellas molheres, que queriamos entrar,
começarão a bradar & a dizer que não entrassemos, falando em Arabigo, que nos
não entendiamos, & mostrandose muyto agastadas. Ficamos nos algum tanto
turbados, mas caindo na conta do que podia ser, que era estarem là molheres,
tornamos pera tras onde estavão as que nos bradarão. Vendo a molher moça nossa
turbação, começou a falar com nosco palavras meyas Castelhanas, meyas Italianas,
no que logo entendi ser Judia & respondilhe eu em Castelhano, perguntandolhe se
o era & em que terra nacera. Alegrouse muyto a Judia & disseme que si era Judia
& que nacera em Roxeto, cidade do Egypto, junto de Damiata, no qual Roxeto a
mayor parte dos moradores são Judeus fugitivos de Castella & Portugal: & disseme
que seu pay & sua may erão naturaes de Toledo. Vendo a Judia que eu entendia
bem o Castelhano que era a lingua que ella milhor que outra alguma entendia por
se haver nella criada, gostou muyto da pratica & começou de me pregar, que me
¿]HVVH-XGHXGL]HQGRPLOEODVIHPLDVFRQWUDQRVVD/H\6DJUDGDVHJXQGRTXHDV
avia aprendido na escola de seu pay & de sua may: porque os Judeus não ensinão
RXWUDGRFWULQDDVHXV¿OKRVPDLVTXHEODVIHPDUGRPHOOLÀXRQRPHGHQRVVRVHQKRU
Jesu Christo & crialos em mortal odio contra o nome Christão. Depois tornando
com palavras meygas & cheias de lisonja, que não são pera escrever, com mil
¿ODWHULDV-XGD\FDVQmRPDOFRPSRVWDVPHTXLVSHUVXDGLUDPRHVWDUTXHVHPH
¿]HVVH-XGHXSRUTXHPHFDVDULmRRV-XGHXVFRPKXPDMXGLDPX\IHUPRVDULFD
honrada & de primor, & que todos os Judeus me estimarião muyto & darião dos
seus bems.
Com o mayor sofrimento que pude a escutey: & porque me não estava bem
porme em pontos com ella: somente lhe puz diante sua vileza & miseria, pois
sendo moça & tão bem desposta, estava naquelle tanque mea despida & descalça,
lavando roupa, como se fora escrava. Que se estevera em Espanha & fora Christaã,
25 John 9: 7-11.
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Portuguese Testimony to Jewish Nostalgia in Jerusalem and the Galilee
andara como huma Princesa, como andavão as Christas novas & todas as da sua
laya. Ouvindo a misera Judia estas palavras, começou a chorar & dizer que seu
pay & sua may lhe dizião muytas vezes aquellas & outras semelhantes cousas, não
sem muyto arrependimento, de averem deixado sua patria 26 & natureza. Vendo a
velha, que nossa pratica se estendia & que a moça antes das lagrimas não mostrava
gostar pouco della, ou por ter crimes, ou por sospeitar outra cousa, vendoa chorar,
não consentio mais que com a moça falasse, antes com brados que começou a dar,
nos fez ir daquelle lugar27.
Appendix 3
Tiberiade and the Senhora
f° 262 to Abaixo, donde saymos, & somos a ter a este mar, esta quasi mea legua, a cidade
263 v°28 de Tyberia, forte, & bem murada29n, situada no ultimo daquelle mar de Galilea,
28
& tam proprinqua a elle, que lhe bate a agua nos muros. He muyto viçosa, de
grandes laranjaes, toda sorte de arvores despinho em muyta, & grande cantidade,
muytas palmeyras, que todos os annos carregão de tamaras muy grossas, & muyto
milhores, que as de nossa Africa : perto de aquela ribeyra do mar sentiamos a
fragancia do cheyro dos laranjaes, por ser no mes de Março30HVWDUHPÀRULGRV
por ser aquella terra muyto mais temporam que esta nossa.
No tempo que nos partimos de Hierusalem, soube eu dalguns Judeus
Portugueses : como hua Judia Portuguesa natural do Porto, que deste Reyno fugio,
com grandes riquezas : com as quaes se fez muy poderosa, & de grande nome
naquellas partes : tinha comprado ao grão Turco, esta cidade de Tyberia por grande
FDQWLGDGHGHGLQKH\URSHUSHWXRWULEXWRGHPLOFUX]DGRVHPFDGDKXPDQQR
& o verão seguinte, se vinha de Constantinopla31, onde estava dassento, a viver
26 The translation by M. Ish-Shalom, p. 286, im ki lo mi-tokh harata yetera ‘al she-‘azvu
et moladtam, is erroneous.
27 The article by Joel L. Kramer, ‘spanish Ladies’, begins with this episode.
28 See in Antonio Baião’s edition pp. 471-473.
29 7KH EXLOGLQJ RI WKH ZDOO ZRXOG EH ¿QLVKHG LQ HW QRW DW WKH HQG RI WKDW \HDU
according to I. Ben-Zvi, Eretz-Israel under Ottoman Rule: Four Centuries of History,
Jerusalem 1969 p. 198.
30 First edition: era quando por alli passamos na Quaresma.
31 The Hebrew translation by Ish-Shalom, Christian Travels p. 296, ba-qaits ha-ba hi
tavo mi-Qushta is wrong. The Portuguese verb is in the past tense, not in the future,
and siguinte does not refer to the following year but to the year following the purchase
of Tiberias from the Sultan. Our Fransciscan passed through Tiberias in March, 1564.
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nella, com toda sua casa, familia, & povoada32 de todos os Judeus, que a quisessem
seguir, da qual nova todos os Judeus, que moravão em Palestina, andavão muyto
alegres, com esperanças, que morando alli avia de vir o seu Mexias, por quem ha
tantos annos esperão sem quererem entender sua cegueyra33.
No tempo, que estive em Veneza, que forã algums tres meses, ou quasi,
esperando a embarcação & negoceando o que se avia de levar pera terra Sancta,
os mais dos sabados hia por minha curiosidade à sinagoga, por gostar muyto de os
ver cabecear, & guayar, que outra cousa não tem tão propria de Judeus, como me
disse hum mancebo Judeu Portuguez, que eu mediante a graça de nosso Señor, &
ERDVREUDVTXHOKH¿]WURX[HDIpFRPRXWURVGRXVPDQFHERV3RUWXJXHVHVTXH
vierão a este Reyno, hum com o Senor Dom Bertholameu dos Martes, Arcebispo
dignissimo de Braga : & o outro com Dom Fernão Martins, Capitão dos ginetes,
que foy ao Concilio de Trento por Embayxador do nosso bom Rey Dom Sebastião,
como da conversão destes derão testemunho os senhores Portuguees, que no
Concilio se acharão, & o dia de oje o podem dar o Senhor Dom Jorge de Tayde,
Bispo & Capelão Mor, & o muy doucto, & virtuoso Padre Frey Luys de Souto
Mayor, jubilado em Coimbra, que nesta boa obra me favoreceo muyto, os ques
ambos o dia de oje são vivos, & queyra Deos, que vivão muytos annos, & podem
dar testemunho desta verdade : & ainda o podera dar se quisera hum dos mesmos
mancebos, que digo, porque não ha hum mes enteyro, que o vi andar em Lisboa, &
nos conhecemos muy bem ambos & vive como muyto bom Christão.
E tambem me disse aquelle mancebo, no tempo, que tratavamos de sua
conversão : sabey meu Padre Frey Pantalião que os Judeus, que por ca vivem
QmRWHPPDLVGH-XGHXVTXHR¿QDOTXHWUD]HPFRQYHUVDQGRFRPHOOHVQD
sinagoga, como digo, vim a entender que se tratava & se tinha por cousa muy certa
que dalli a sete ou oyto annos avia de vir o Mexias : e depois andado o tempo,
achadome em Hierusalem communicando com algum hum dia em boa pratica,
tratando da misma vinda, eu lhe disse que não era vinda, não podra tardar mais
que té seis ou sete annos dia incododolhe hum da conta, que os de Veneza entre
si trazião & ouvindome elles isto não faltou mais que adorarem me dizendo, que
eu era algum Propheta, ou grande adevinhador. Vendo eu tamaha cegueira, então
os envergonhey e confundi, mostrandolhe claramente quão cegos & enganados
YLYLmRGHPRGRTXHWRGDDTXHOODGHVDYHQWXUDGDJHQWHDQGDYDHPWRGDDWHUUDGH
promissão com aquella cega imaginação.
Tinha aquella Judia Portuguesa grandissimas riquezas, como tenho dito, com
+LVDFFRXQWFRQ¿UPVWKDWla Senhora had arrived in Tiberias several years earlier, one
year after purchasing the district from the Sultan.
32 PovoalaLQWKHWH[W¿UVWHG³FRPWRGDVXDIDPLOLDDYLYHUPRUDUQHOODFRPWRGRV
os Judeus que a quizessem seguir”.
33 This clause is missing in the second edition.
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Portuguese Testimony to Jewish Nostalgia in Jerusalem and the Galilee
as quaes fugio de Portugal com outra sua hirma viuva consigo, & ambas forão ter
a Veneza, onde estando alguns annos, esta de que vou tratando, chamada Branca 34
de Luna, se passou com suas riquezas a Constantinopla, com as quaes por feitores,
seus se meteo a tratar por todas aquellas partes maritimas, com mandar fazer copia
GHQDRVVHJXQGRPHDI¿UPRXHPKXDFHUWDSDUWHKXP-XGHXQDWXUDOGH/LVERD
muyto seu familiar, que de dentro de Constantinopla tinha vindo a Portugal visitar
seus parentes, com os quaes esteve muyto de vagar em Lisboa & em outros lgares
GR5H\QRGHOOHVPX\IDYRUHFLGRDMXGDGRVHWRUQRXVHXFDPLQKRDGDUQRYDV
do que por ca passava35.
A outra irma, entregou suas riquezas à Senhoria de Veneza, pera que com
VHXLQWHUHVVHFRPDVVXDVOKDVJXDUGDVVHPGHVFRQ¿DGDGDYLQGDGR0LVVLDV
por lhe parecer, ser desmasiada sua tardança, deixou de ser Judia, & deu em ser
Gentia36, como em outra parte achey hum Judeu natural de Santarem, que com a
PHVPDGHVHVSHUDomRIH]RPHVPRRTXDOHUD¿VLFRVHPHJDERXTXHHVWDQGR
em Portugal, avia ganhado muyto dineiro ao Senhor Barão Dalvito37.
7LQKDHVWD-XGLDTXHGHXHPVHU*HQWLDKXD¿OKDPX\WRIHUPRVDKHUGHLUDGH
todos seus bems, com a qual se casou a furto hum Christão novo, que se chamava
Micas38, & fora criado do Marques de Villa Real & com treição, querendo a moça
lha tirou escondidamente de casa : & tendo huma Gale prestes, dentro huma
QR\WHGHXFRPHOODHPD&LGDGHGH$QFRQDGRQGHLQGRVHD5RPDVHSRVHP
cobro, com favor do Embayxador deste Reyno, que era o nosso Comendador
Mor, & depois deu consigo em Turquia : donde me disse Dom Andre de Noronha,
que Deos tem na Gloria, sendo Bispo de Portalegre, que Micas lhe escrevera,
pedindolhe, que quisesse ir visitar terra Sancta, por que o sabendo, era com elle,
pera lhe fazer là muytos serviços. A Judia que deu consigo em Constantinopla, &
estava de caminho pera Tiberia, fezse tão poderosa, que os Judeus não a nomeavão
por seu nome propio, mas todos lhe chamavão a Senhora39.
34 7KH ¿UVW QDPH GRHV QRW DSSHDU LQ WKH ¿UVW HGLWLRQ *UDFLD¶V &KULVWLDQ QDPH ZDV
Beatrice de Luna. Her husband, Francisco Mendes, died in Lisbon in 1535.
35 7KLVSDUWRIWKLVVHQWHQFHLVPLVVLQJLQWKH¿UVWHGLWLRQ
36 Grazia’s sister was named Madonna Brianda.
37 7KHSURIHVVLRQDQGWKHSUR¿WVRIWKLVSHUVRQDJHGRQRWDSSHDULQWKH¿UVWHGLWLRQ
38 This refers to Reyna, perhaps baptized as Brianda. Le family name of João Micas,
alias -RVHSK 1DoL GRHV QRW DSSHDU LQ WKH ¿UVW HGLWLRQ 2Q -RVHSK 1DVL FI 3DXO
Grunebaum-Ballin, Joseph Naci, duc de Naxos3DULVWKH+DJXH0RXWRQRQWKH
reconstruction of Tiberias, see pp. 78-79.
39 On the Senhora there is a vast bibliography, from which we have selected, following
the classic work by Cecil Roth, Doña Gracia of the House of Nasi,3KLODGHOSKLD
M. G. Muzarelli, ‘Beatrice de Luna, vedova Mendes, alias Donna Grazia Nassi, un’
HEUHDLQÀXHQWH¶Rinascimento al femminile, pp. 83-226, Ottavia Nicooii (a cura de),
Bari 1991, M. Bracanelli, Grazia Mendes: L’identita marrana al femminile, Ancona
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Caminhando ao lono daquelle sagrado mar, chegamos a Bethsaida, patria dos
bemaventurados Apostolos San Pedro, & Sancto Andre, o qual luar ao presente
não tem mais casas que algumas choupanas, cubrtas de palhiço, & de ramos de
palmas, onde se recolhem os pescadores, que por alli de comtino andão. Tem
muytas palmeiras, que ao tempo que por alli passamos, estavão bem carregadas de
muytas & grossas tamaras. Achey alli hum Iudeu Portuguez pescador, com qual ja
tinha noticia, & e informação doutro Iudeus, que me tinhão advertido, que se por
alli passasse, perguntasse por elle, perguntey, acheyo, faley com elle, festejounos
com muyto peixe, que pera si, & pera os companheiros tinha guisado.
Appendix 4
Safed
f° 265 v°40
Em amanhecendo vierão dous Judeus que moravão em Sapheto, hua povoação
grande, que estava dalli pouco mais de legua, a qual em o livro de Thobias se
chama Sapheth & trouxerãolhe duas carregas de cevada & quatro carneyros muyto
JUDQGHV JRUGRV FRPR VmR RV GD TXHOOD WHUUD HP SDJR GD YLVLWD VHUYLoR
tomarão aos pobres Judeus as bestas, & porque se aquexavão, ameaçarãonos
com pancadas, vedose os tristes, & desconsolados homens, tão agravados, & sem
justiça lastimados, começarão a lamentar, com palavras lastimosas, dizendo hum
ao outro, se não foreis, eu não viera ca, o ou trodizia, vos tendes a culpa de nossa
vinha : com este agastamento, como homens magoados sotarão muytas palavras
desconcertadas contra os Turcos & Mouros, em lingua Portuguesa, chamandolhes
cães & perros, & outros muitos nomes. Vedo eu, que erão Portugueses, chegueyme
a elles, compadecendome de sua miseria & trabalho & disselhe que olhasem como
falavão porque não faltaria quem os entendeste, como a mi me acontece com o
negrinho. Derão me os agradecimentos do bom concelho, & folgarão de os eu
aver entendido pera de sabasarem comigo pedrirãome novas de Portugal, porque
a boa natureza, nunca pode esquecer. Disserãome, que em Sapheto moravão mais
de quatrocentos Portugueses, os mais dellers, em Portugal nacidos, rogandome,
que quisesse la dar hua chegada, porque era muyto perto, não me avia de pesar de
40
2004, Andrée Aelion, 7KH :RPDQ ZKR 'H¿HG .LQJV, St Paul, Minn. 2002. An
excellent survey of this literature can be found in José Alberto Rodrigues da Silva
7DYLPµ3RUWUDLWRIWKH³6HQKRUD´ZLWKPDQLIROGQXDQFHV'*UiFLD1DVFL¶jO¶°XYUH
DQGWKH¿FWLRQDO'*UiFLD¶LQ7DPDU$OH[DQGHUHWDOHGVGender and Identity, (= El
Prezente, Studies in Sephardic Culture>'HFHPEHU@%HHU6KHYD%HQ*XULRQ
University of the Negev pp. 45-61.
40 Ed. Baião, pp. 478-482.
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Portuguese Testimony to Jewish Nostalgia in Jerusalem and the Galilee
ver la ido. Dey lhe os agradecimentos de sua boa vontade, prometendolhe de ir, se
o tempo me desse lugar.
>«@
f° 267 &KHJDPRV D 6DSKHWR RQGH RV -XGHXV QRV ¿]HUmR JUDQGH IHVWD H PH OHYDUmR j
Sinagoga, que tinhão muy bem concertada, & depois de nos recrearemos,
comprando a bom preço o vinho, que me pareceo necessário, nos partimos a
Nazareth, que está dali a menos de légua.
>«@
f° 268 Despedidos daquelle lugar, nos tornamos a Sapheth, onde chegamos em se pondo
o Sol & por ser tarde & iremos cansados, & nos importunarem muyto os Judeus,
TXH QRV ¿FDVVHPRV GL]HQGR TXH EDVWDULD LUPRV KXP SRXFR GH PDGUXJDGD VH
temiamos que a Turca se partiria. Ficamos alli aquella noyte & nos agasalharão
muyto bem em casa de hum Judeu meu natural, que sendo moços andamos ambos
na escola de outro Judeu, que là naquellas partes morrera. Honrouse muyto o judeu
de eu aceytar sua pousada & tratoume nella com muytos mimos & cortesia.
Vierão aquella noyte ter comigo muytos Judeus, dos quaes alguns começarão a
SHU¿DUDOWHUFDUFRPLJRVFRXVDVGDVXDOH\FDQVDGDGDQRVVDEHQGLWDTXHHVWH
KHRVHXFRVWXPHPDVFRPRRXWUDVYH]HVPHWLQKDDFKDGRHPSHU¿DV-XGD\FDV
& sabia muy bem, que nenhum deles pretende saber a verdade, atalheylhe com
lhe dizer, que tinha necessidade de me agasalharem, & recrearem, & não de me
FDQVDUHPFRPSHU¿DVVHPSURYHLWRSRLVQHQKXPVHDYLDGHID]HU&KULVWmRVHR
eu vencesse, por ter pera mi serem todos Judeus de opinião, sem quererem admitir
rezão, & inda que a palavra pera elles foy hum pouco dura, derãome muyto louvor,
GLVVHUmRTXHDLQGDQmRWLQKDQHJDGRRVHU3RUWXJXr]SRLVIDODYDWmRFODUR
que me não respondião, porque todos desejavão mais de me servir, que de me
agravar.
Vierãome tambem aquella noyte agasalhar muitas Judias minhas naturaes
& hua dellas muyto velha, que a conheça eu em Portugalde mais de sessenta
DQQRVFRP¿OOKRV¿OKDVPX\WRKRQUDGRVULFRVDVTXDHVFRPODJULPDVPH
¿]HUmRDIHVWDODPHQWDQGRVHGL]HQGRPHTXHVHXVSHFFDGRVDVDYLmRWLUDGRGH
Portugal, não pera a terra de Promissão como ellas cuidavão, mas pera a terra da
desesperação, onde se vião & com suas miserias espermentavão. Muytas cousas
me contarão, que aqui não escrevo que se as soubessé alguas das que de ca fogé,
arrenegarião da ida & arrepiarião a carreira.
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