Monaco -celebrating the 400gh anniversary of Montaigne’s Les Essais
Spain 500th anniversary of the birth of Juan Luis Vives
France Portrait of Montaigne . One of six stamps honoring famous Frenchmen of th 16th century.
Two Converso Philosophers
Juan Luis Vives (1492/3?-1540) and Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592) were prominent humanist philosophers of the 16th century (Figure a-c).Vives was born in Valencia to a Converso family. As a child, he saw many family members including his father, grandmother and great grandfather executed by the Inquisitors as Judaizers. His mother was acquitted of the charge, but she died of the plague when he was just 15. Vives left Spain after his mother’s death and moved to Paris to study at the University there. He was appointed professor of humanities at the University of Leuven and also lectured at Oxford. He was a prolific writer on many topics including philosophy, psychology, morals, social policy and education. Ahead of his time, he devoted a work to the education of women. Unfortunately, he died when he was only 48.9
Montaigne was born in the Aquitaine region of France to a wealthy family. His maternal grandfather was from a Converso family. Montaigne’s importance in literature rests with his creation of the essay as the medium of expression for his thoughts on many topics. Like his parents, he was raised as a Catholic, but he was guided by a then unusual sense of tolerance and friendliness towards Jews. Assumedly, he was aware of members of his mother’s Converso family who were burned at the stake. He was among the few writers of his time to protest the use of torture to extract confessions from suspected criminals and heretics alike. Montaigne died at 59 in Bordeaux.10
Spain Celebrating the 500th anniversary of publication of La Celestine by Fernando de Rjas, by depicting a character from the drame
Spain Commemorating the 400th anniversary of the birth of Mateo Aleman
Portugal Illustration of a scene from Antonion Jose da Silva’s play Guerros do Alecrin e Manjaerona.
Conversos’ Contribution to Literature
Three Conversos of literary fame have been honored on stamps. Fernando de Rojas (1465/73?-1541) was a Spanish dramatist and lawyer. He was born in Toledo, but scholars are uncertain about whether he was from a Converso family or he himself converted to Catholicism. Rojas graduated in law from the University of Salamanca about 1498. While a student, he began writing his only surviving work entitled La Celestina, published in 1499 (Figure 6), variously described as a drama, a dramatic poem, a dialogue novel and a novel-drama, describing a love affair with a lot of bawdy and comic detail before a tragic ending.11 Rojas married into a Converso family. His father-in-law was accused of being a Crypto-Jew by the Inquisition, but eventually the charge was dropped.11
Mateo Alemán was born in Seville in 1547 to a Converso family (Figure 7). He graduated from the University of Seville in 1564 and then went on to study medicine at the Universities of Alcolá de Henares and Salalmanca. Alemán was constantly in financial difficulty, serving time in prison for debts at one point. At various times he was employed as an auditor and judge. In 1599, he published the first part of Guszmán de Alfarache, a picaresque novel, which was highly popular and was translated into many languages. Alemán’s experience with criminals while serving as a judge in the quicksilver mines is evident in the novel. The book’s title is the name of the main character, predestined to be a delinquent, having grown up in a cruel environment. In 1608, Alemán immigrated to America where he went into the printing business. In 1609, he published Ortografia Castellana, in which he proposed a method to reform Spanish spelling. Alemán died in Mexico in about 1615.12
Antonió José da Silva, known as The Jew (O Judeu), was born in Rio de Janeiro. The da Silva family members were successful Conversos who secretly remained loyal to Judaism. His father was a prominent poet and lawyer who, until his death, managed to maintain the appearance of a faithful Catholic. His mother was imprisoned in 1713 on a charge of practicing Judaism, to which she confessed after being tortured. The family immigrated to Portugal where da Silva attended law school at the University of Coimbra. In 1726, da Silva and his mother were arrested for Judaizing. After being tortured, he repented his
“sin” of practicing Judaism and was released. His mother remained in prison for three years before being released. Although still practicing law, da Silva turned more to writing. Between 1733 and 1738, he wrote eight successful comic opera plays, all performed by marionettes (Figure 8). He was also a lyric poet. In 1737, the now popular playwright, his wife and his mother were arrested by the Inquisition. The women were later released, but Judaizing charges were pressed against da Silva. In Oct. 1739, da Silva was garroted and burnt at an auto-da-fé. As had often occurred, the Inquisition tragically had destroyed another brilliant Jewish mind.13, 14
Portrait of Captain Arthur Carlos de Barros Basto.
The Portuguese Dreyfus
Artur Carlos de Barros Basto was born in 1887 in Amarante, Portugal. His father was a New Christian whose ancestors had converted to Christianity during the Inquisition, the alternative being expulsion from Portugal. Barros Basto was an energetic individual who chose a career in the army, rising to the rank of captain. He was a hero of the 1910 Portuguese revolution. In WW I, he served with distinction with the British, receiving medals for valor15 (Figure 9). Barros Basto founded the Portuguese Boy Scout movement in 191216 (Figure 10). As a young man, he was intrigued by his Jewish ancestry, revealed to him by his paternal grandfather. Barros Basto began a movement in the 1930’s to introduce Conversos in several Portuguese towns to traditional Judaism. He received financial support from several Jewish organizations, part of which was used to construct a synagogue in Porto. The movement faced several obstacles. First, the Jewish community in Lisbon was divided on the idea of accepting Conversos. Second, the Crypto-Jews had a powerful psychological fear that once exposed as Jews, they would be subjected to severe discrimination. But it was the response of the Catholic Church and the government dictatorship under Salazar that ultimately destroyed the movement. Barros Basto was accused of unfounded allegations of being anti-Catholic and a pervert. In 1937, the Portuguese army, acting on anonymous accusations, stripped him of his captaincy. Although none of the charges was ever proven, he was never formally acquitted. Sadly, he died a broken man in 1961 with the complete failure of his campaign to revive Judaism among the Conversos of Portugal. Like Dreyfus, the National Assembly of Portugal.17 finally cleared Captain Barros Basto of all charges on Feb. 29, 2012
Portugal Issued for the 50th anniversary of the Portuguse Boy Scouts founded by Artur Carlos de Barros Basto and the 18th World Congress fo the Boy Scouts.
References
1Gerber, J.S., 1992. The Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic Experience. Free Press, New York, NY.
2 Hordes, S.M., 2005. To the End of the Earth: A History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico. Columbia University Press, New York, NY.
3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_de_Santángel
4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_de_Torres
5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Nunes
6 Elijah, S.J. and Richter, J.H., 1965. Garcia da Orta. Judaica Philatelic Journal 2:200.
References
7 Roddis, L.H., 1929. Garcia da Orta: The first European writer on topical medicine and a pioneer of pharmacognosy. Ann. Med. History 1:198.
8 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andres_Laguna
9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Luis_Vives
10 Roth, C., 1961. The Jews in the Renaissance. The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, PA.
References
13 http://www.jackwhite.net/iberia/dasilva,html
14 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/António_José_da_Silva
15 Roth, Cecil,1946. A History of the Marranos. The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, PA.
16 Frost, M., 1982. The Jewish connection: the Portuguese Boy Scouts. Judaica Philatelic Journal 18:2297-2299.
17 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artur_Carlos_de_Barros_Basto