Maria Nunes

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Maria Nunes (* 1575 in Lisbon ; † in the 17th century in Seville (uncertain)) was supposedly the first Conversa to openly profess Judaism in Amsterdam .

Life

Maria Nunes was born into a Marran family in Lisbon in 1575 as the daughter of Gaspar Homem Lopes and Maior Rodrigues . To escape the Portuguese Inquisition , she fled to the Netherlands with her parents and other family members in 1593. On the way to Amsterdam, her ship was captured by the English and brought to London. There the beauty of Maria caused such a stir that an English duke wanted to marry her. Maria Nunes refused the request. Even Queen Elizabeth I , who was also impressed by the beauty of the Portuguese woman, could not persuade her to stay. Maria moved on to Amsterdam, where she returned to Judaism and in 1598 married her cousin Manuel Lopes Homem .

The story of the first Jewish bride in Amsterdam was published by the Marran historian Miguel de Barrios in his 1663 pamphlet Triumpho Popolare del govierno . The story has strong legends and is similar to other founding myths . Barrios portrays Maria Nunes as a symbol of heroic Jewish steadfastness. With her marriage, she formed the cradle of the Sephardic community in Amsterdam. Although the description of Barrios has many romanticizing and legendary elements, some details could be historically substantiated. The hijacking of the ship and the marriage in Amsterdam can be proven.

Later the traces of Maria Nunes were lost. Her husband left Amsterdam in 1612 and moved to Seville as a merchant. It can be assumed that his wife accompanied him and that both returned to Catholicism .

The life of the whole family was as varied as Maria's. The mother, a brother and two sisters professed Judaism in Amsterdam. The father and younger brother Manuel remained Catholic. The mother was buried in 1624 as Sara Abendana in the Jewish cemetery of Ouderkerk , the father in the Catholic cemetery of the Nieuwen Kerk (1612).

literature

  • Miguel de Barrios: Triumpho del goviemo popular . Amsterdam 1683, pp. 455–456 (German by Carl Gebhardt: Die Schriften des Uriel da Costa . Amsterdam 1922).
  • Sigmund Seeligmann: Bibliography en historie. Bijdrage tot de divorced is the first Sephardim in Amsterdam . Amsterdam 1927.
  • Robert Cohen: "Memoria Para Os Siglos Futuros": Myth and Memory on the Beginnings of the Amsterdam Sephardi Community . In: Jewish History , 2/1 (1987), pp. 67-72
  • Herman Prins Salomon: Os primeiros portugueses de Amesterdão: documentos do Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo 1595-1606: introdução, leitura, notas e cartas genealógicas . Braga 1983.
  • Herman Prins Salomon: Myth or anti-myth? The oldest account concerning the origin of Portuguese Judaism at Amsterdam . In: Lias 16 (1989), pp. 275-316.
  • Miriam Bodian: Hebrews of the Portuguese nation. Conversos and community in early modern Amsterdam . Bloomington 1997.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cf. Cohen Memoria Para Os Siglos Futuros , 1978 and Salomon: Myth or anti-myth , 1989.
  2. ^ Van Gelder, 2009.
personal data
SURNAME Nunes, Maria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nuñez, Maria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION allegedly the first Sephardic Jewess in Amsterdam
DATE OF BIRTH 1575
PLACE OF BIRTH Lisbon
DATE OF DEATH 17th century
Place of death unsure: Seville