OrderBackgroundSpanish and Portuguese Printing in the Northern Netherlands, 1584-1825 |
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Wealth of Jewish learning
This dimension was, above all, Jewish. By far the majority of the Spanish and Portuguese editions from the Netherlands were published by, or on behalf of, Iberian Jews of Amsterdam. The principal feature of these Jews lies in the fact that - as descendants of Jews who had either willingly converted to Christianity, or been forced to do so - they had a Catholic background. Once they had left the Iberian peninsula, either fleeing from the Inquisition or for economic reasons, and made their way to a Jewish community, such as that in Amsterdam, they felt the need to reconnect with their ancestral faith. As they did not know Hebrew, and were largely unaware of traditional Judaism, they felt the need to write, translate, and print Bibles, prayer books, and a whole range of works in Spanish and Portuguese on the essentials of Judaism and the duties of a Jew. The re-encounter with Judaism and the tolerance experienced in the Dutch Republic also engendered new reflections on the old faith, lively debates with Christian scholars, and even a challenge to traditional Judaism.
The present bibliography discloses the wealth of Jewish learning which was made available in the Spanish or Portuguese tongue, covering the whole specter of Bible editions, liturgical and homiletic works, classical Sephardi religio-ethical treatises, and the more original works by Menasseh ben Israel and Isaac Aboab da Fonseca. It also contains the only surviving copy of a forbidden book written by Uriel da Costa, the precursor of Spinoza.
Unknown editions Although many Sephardi intellectuals and printers had books published for the Iberian market without any religious or polemic intention, they often used a false address to avoid censorship by Crown and Inquisition. This bibliography discloses many of those hitherto unknown editions. However, Jews were not the only Iberian immigrants to seek refuge in the Low Countries. Protestants like Cipriano de Valera, Miguel de Monserrate, and Joao Ferreira d'Almeida published Bible translations - which were forbidden in the Iberian Peninsula - and attacks against Catholicism, with the intention of clandestinely introducing them into the territories of Catholic Spain and Portugal. Most of these extremely rare works have now been located, and are described for the first time in the present bibliography. Major extension of Iberian culture Finally, the editions devoid of any conflictive nature should be mentioned. The high quality of seventeenth-century Dutch printing and the situation of the Netherlands at the crossroads of commerce and politics, originated publications, such as the Gazeta de Amsterdam (1667-1699) - one of the first newspapers to be printed in Spanish - and the splendid volumes Nuevo Atlas and Atlas Mayor by Janssonius and Blaeu. The Netherlands also contributed to the Golden Age of Iberian literature with handsome editions of the works of Fernando de Rojas, Antonio de Guevara, Baltasar Gracián, and Miguel de Cervantes. In the eighteenth century, Spanish and Portuguese diplomats and scholars residing in Holland contributed to the Iberian Enlightenment by providing political or scientific works produced on a Dutch printing press. In brief, the Spanish and Portuguese editions described in the present bibliography, represent a major extension of Iberian culture, one which is now accessible to a broad scholarly audience. Harm den Boer University of Amsterdam |
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