Research Catalog

The long journey of Gracia Mendes / by Marianna D. Birnbaum.

Title
The long journey of Gracia Mendes / by Marianna D. Birnbaum.
Author
Birnbaum, Marianna D.
Publication
Budapest ; New York : Central European University Press, 2003.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextRequest in advance DS135.P8 N373 2003XOff-site

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Details

Description
147, 16 p. of plates : ill. (some col.); 24 cm.
Summary
"Gracia Mendes was a sixteenth-century entrepreneur and one of the wealthiest women in Europe, who, while a practicing Christian, remained for much of her life a secret Jew." "The biography examines her rise to power in the face of immense obstacles - political, religious, economic, and social." "Gracia was born in 1510 in Portugal. At the age of eighteen, she married Francisco Mendes, a successful Jewish spice trader. After her husband's death in 1536 and in response to the religious persecutions of the day, she moved her family from Portugal. Her travels led her through Antwerp, Venice, Ferrara, Ragusa and finally to Constantinople, from where the Ottoman Empire dominated the territories of former Byzantium and offered shelter for the battered Conversos (converted Jews)." "After her arrival in 1553, she became the most prominent businesswoman of the community and a patron of Jewish causes. Her life exemplifies the perseverance of the Jewish culture to survive and triumph even in extremely adverse conditions."--Jacket.
Subject
  • Nasi, Gracia, approximately 1510-1569
  • 1500-1599
  • Crypto-Jews > Portugal > Biography
  • Jews > Portugal > Biography
  • Sephardim > Portugal > Biography
  • Jewish women > Portugal > Biography
  • Jews > Europe > Social conditions > 16th century
  • Jews > Europe > Economic conditions > 16th century
  • Europe > Ethnic relations
Genre/Form
Biographies
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. [128]-140) and indexes.
Processing Action (note)
  • committed to retain
Contents
Introducing the family -- A short history of the conversos -- Life in sixteenth-century Antwerp -- Gracia in Venice -- Gracia and Jewish patronage in sixteenth-century Ferrara -- In business with Ragusa -- The Ottoman Empire and the Jews.
ISBN
9639241679 (cloth)
LCCN
^^2003009770
OCLC
  • 52153987
  • SCSB-11415117
Owning Institutions
Harvard Library