Abraham Usque

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Consolacam as tribulacoens de Israel, 1553
Title page of the Hystoria de menina e moça , 1554

Abraham Usque ( Christian name : Duarte Pinhel ) (around 1520 in Lisbon ; † after 1558 in Ferrara ) was a Portuguese - Marran printer and publisher in Ferrara (Italy). The "Ferrara Bible" was printed in his workshop in 1553.

Life

Abraham Usque was born Duarte Pinhel in Portugal in the first half of the 16th century. Usque fled the Inquisition to Italy after 1543 and settled in Ferrara. In Ferrara, where one of the largest Jewish communities in Italy had developed under the liberal policies of the d'Este family , he returned to Judaism. Here he teamed up with the printer Yom-Tov ben Levi Athias (Jeronimo de Vargas), a Spanish ex- Marran .

Based on various previous translations, Usque produced a new translation of the Hebrew Bible into Judaeo Spanish in 1553 . The so-called Ferrara Bible bears the title Bible in Spanish, translated word for word from the true Hebrew by the most famous scholars . It bears the printing privilege of the Duke of Ferrara ( Con Privilegio del Señor Ylustrissimo Duque de Ferrara ) and expressly approved by the Inquisition. The Ferrara Bible has been reprinted twice. The “Christian” edition was dedicated to Duke Ercole II. D'Este , the “Jewish” one to the Marran patroness Gracia Nasi .

In 1553 Abraham Usque printed the Consolacam as tribulacoens de Israel of his namesake Samuel Usque . In 1554 appeared Menina e Moça of Bernardim Ribeiro . These two works are now considered classics in Portuguese literature.

After 1555 only Hebrew prints by Abraham Usque have survived. In 1558 his traces are lost.

Prints

  • Biblia En lengua Española traduzida palabra por palabra de la verdad Hebraica por muy excelentes letrados, vista y examinada por el oficio de la Inquisición . Ferrara 1553.
  • Samuel Usque: Consolacam as tribulacoens de Israel. Composto par Samuel Usque . Ferrara 1553
  • Bernardim Ribeiro: Hystoria de Menina y Moca, por Bernaldim Ribeyro, agora de novo estampada e con summa deligencia emendada . Ferrara 1554
  • Chasdaj Crescas : Or Adonai . Ferrara, 1555

literature

  • Heinrich Graetz : History of the Jews from the oldest times to the present . Volume 9. Leipzig 1917. pp. 195, 334-335, 540-543.
  • Cecil Roth : The Marrano Press at Ferrara, 1552-1555 . In: The Modern Language Review (38/4) 1943, pp. 307-317.
  • Martin A. Cohen:  Usque, Abraham. In: Encyclopaedia Judaica . 2nd Edition. Volume 20, Detroit / New York a. a. 2007, ISBN 978-0-02-865948-0 , p. 433 (English).
  • Meyer Kayserling : Biblioteca Española-Portugueza-Judaica. Dictionnaire Bibliographique . Strasburg 1890.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mariano Delgado: The Spanish Bible Translations in the Early Modern Period. (PDF; 10.73 MB) In: Swiss Journal for Religious and Cultural History. Association for Swiss Church History, 2007, accessed on October 13, 2013 .
  2. ↑ A family connection between the two is not guaranteed.
personal data
SURNAME Usque, Abraham
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pinhel, Duarte
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Portuguese-Jewish publisher and printer
DATE OF BIRTH 16th Century
PLACE OF BIRTH Lisbon
DATE OF DEATH after 1558
Place of death Ferrara