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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Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
---|---|---|---|---|
Text | Request in advance | DS135.P8 N373 2003X | Off-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
- 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