Marianna D. Birnbaum - The Long Journey of Gracia Mendes

The Long Journey of Gracia Mendes

The Long Journey of

Gracia Mendes

by Marianna D. Birnbaum

Central European University Press

Budapest New York

2003 by Marianna D. Birnbaum

Published in 2003 by

Central European University Press

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ISBN 963 9241 67 9 Cloth

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Birnbaum, Marianna D.

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

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN (cloth)

1. Nasi, Gracia, ca. 1510-1569. 2. MarranosPortugalBiography.

3. JewsPortugalBiography. 4. SephardimPortugalBiography.

5. Jewish womenPortugalBiography. 6. JewsEuropeSocial conditions

16th century. 7. JewsEuropeEconomic conditions16th century.

8. EuropeEthnic relations. I. Title.

DS135.P8N373 2003

946.90049240092dc21

2003009770

Printed in Hungary

by Akaprint Nyomda

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments........................................ Vii Chapter 1 INTRODUCING THE FAMILY...................

Chapter 2 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE CONVERSOS.......

Inquisition in Spain and Portugal....................

The Assimilation of Conversos......................

New Attitudes Toward Conversos...................

The Special Status of the Rich...................... 12

Changing Places Changing Names.................. 13

Chapter 3 LIFE IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY ANTWERP...... 15

Converso Life in Lisbon and Antwerp................ 18

The Family Business............................. 20

Pepper and the Mendes Wealth...................... 24

The Move to Antwerp............................. 26

Gracias Official Entry into the Family Business........ 27

Diogo and the Accusation of Judaizing............... 29

The Emperors Blackmail.......................... 31

The Emperors Matchmaking....................... 32

Chapter 4 GRACIA IN VENICE............................ 36

Conditions in Ferrara and Mantua................... 41

A Sisters Quarrel................................ 42

The Alleged Kidnapping........................... 46

Inquisition by Proxy.............................. 48

Costas Defense................................. 50

Brianda Before the Inquisition...................... 52

IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY FERRARA........... 54

The Ferrara Bible................................ 56

Meeting an Old Friend............................ 62

The Medal Controversy........................... 63

The Growing Intolerance in Ferrara.................. 65

Table of Contents

Chapter 6 IN BUSINESS WITH RAGUSA...................

Jews in Ragusa.................................. 68

The Ragusan Deal................................ 71

Chapter 7 THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND THE JEWS.......

The Legal Status of Jews.......................... 76

Social Life and Customs........................... 81

The Western View of Levantine Jews................. 82

Gracias Arrival in the Ottoman Empire............... 87

Who is a Jew?................................... 89

The Mendes-Nasi Enterprise....................... 90

The Crises in Ancona and Pesaro.................... 93

Leading the Boycott Against Ancona................. 98

New Faces in Constantinople....................... 103

Gracia and the Resettling of Safed................... 106

Jewish Patronage in the Ottoman Empire.............. 108

The Decline of the House of Mendes-Nasi............ 110

Conclusion.............................................. 115

Appendices

Money, Prices, Values............................ 121

From Dubrovnik to Constantinople.................. 125

Select Bibliography....................................... 128

Picture Credits........................................... 141

Index

.............................................. 142

Index of Places.................................. 142

Index of Persons................................. 144

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many years ago, when I was writing about the Fuggers, a famous German banking family, I came across a statement made by one of their business agents, Hans Dernschwam, who traveled widely in the Ottoman Empire (155355). Dernschwam noted that Jews enjoyed a privileged position under Turkish rule; in particular, the head of one family, a Portuguese woman, dared to dress and behave like a European aristocrat, surrounding herself with luxuries and servants.

I made a mental note to return to that passage and look further into the subject, but I forgot all about it until several years later when I attended a lecture on Renaissance medals. The lecturer pointed out that on one medal appeared the profile of an elegant young woman. Encircling her relief were Hebrew letters and her name was transliterated as Gratsia Luna. Could this be the same Portuguese woman whom Hans Dernschwam had mentioned in his diary? Only much later still did I discover that the medal depicts not her, but her niece, who had the same name. The lecturer had erroneously confused the two women and identified the portrait as that of the older one.

By that point, however, I was smitten. Who was that mysterious Seora whom Dernschwam had so viciously disparaged? How did her niece come to have her portrait positioned on the medal? How could the lecturer on medals have made such a major error?

This book is the result of my inquiry into the life and times of that remarkable woman, Seora Gracia Mendes (Luna), who commanded one of the most powerful positions in European trade in the sixteenth century, despite virulent anti-Semitic sentiments that had helped fuel the Spanish Inquisition and that eventually forced her to move with many in her family from Portugal to Turkey.

I am grateful to the Center of Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, for having provided me generously with qualified and enthusiastic research assistants. I also wish to thank my many friends, who patiently listened and thoughtfully commented, when I kept bombarding them with those fascinating details I had unearthed about my heroines long and arduous journey from Lisbon to Constantinople.

I hereby want to thank Professors Sima Cirkovicnd Barisa Krekic for

Acknowledgments

providing me with information on the trade routes frequented by sixteenth-century travelers in the Balkans. I am very grateful to Professor Jascha Kess-ler for his many stylistic improvements and to Professor Gabriel Piterberg for his expert comments regarding the Ottoman Empire.

My special thanks go to Dr. G. Patton Wright who helped shape this volume with his many invaluable suggestions.