From Spanish court to Italian ghetto; Isaac Cardoso
Subtitle: a study in seventeenth-century marranism and Jewish apologetics.
Series: Columbia University studies in Jewish history, culture, and institutions, no. 1
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 1971
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 524
Subjects: Cardoso, Isaac, 1603 or 4-1683; Jews -- Italy -- Biography; Marranos -- Biography; Judaism -- Apologetic works -- History and criticism; Jewish physicians -- Italy -- Biography; Civilization, Modern -- 17th century
Genres: Biography.
Description: Traces the life of Cardoso, a Portuguese Converso physician and writer who lived for many years in Madrid. Ch. 1 (p. 1-50), "Marranos in the Seventeenth Century", describes the status of Conversos in Spain, Portugal, and other countries, referring to discrimination and persecution by means of the "limpieza de sangre" statutes and to the introduction of the Inquisition in Spain (1478) and Portugal (1536). Ch. 3 relates to the "El Cristo de la Paciencia" case in which Conversos were accused of Judaizing and of beating an image of Christ on the cross, which ended with the execution of six Conversos in Madrid in 1632. 48 years later, Cardoso, after returning to Judaism in Italy, gave his own account of these events. Also describes Cardoso's later polemics with Christianity and his "Las excelencias de los Hebreos", which contains a reply to antisemitic calumnies and stereotypes.
Notes: Bibliography: p. 481-502.
Based on the author's thesis, Columbia University, 1966.