Chapter 4 of 90 · 638 words · ~3 min read

IV.

“ESPERANÇA DE ISRAEL,” BY MANASSEH BEN-ISRAEL

מקוה ישראל | _Esto es_, | Esperança | De Israel. |

Obra con suma curiosidad conpuesta | _por_ | Menasseh Ben Israel | Theologo, y Philosopho Hebreo. |

(_sm._ 8º. 7 _ll. _ + 126 _pp._)² [I. S.]

¹ The surname “Ben Israel Soeiro” used by the printer, a son of the author, is a combination of those of his paternal grandparents Joseph Ben-Israel and Rachel Soeiro, who had been _marranos_. Joseph, a victim of the Inquisition, on returning to the Jewish fold, it may be surmised, discarded his gothic patronymic and appropriately assumed that of Ben-Israel. Their son, the author, married Rachel, a great-granddaughter of the famous Bible exegete and statesman Don Isaac Abrabanel, who claimed Davidic descent. In an age when יחוס.‏ was highly prized, we consequently find that in the following year, when Samuel printed his father’s _Nishmath Chayyim_, his surname has become “Abrabanel Soeiro,” and in the Latin addition, “Ben Israel Abrabanel Sueiro.” He was born in Amsterdam in 1625. He accompanied his maternal uncle, David Abrabanel [Manuel Martinez Dormido], to England, on behalf of his father, arriving here on 1st Sep., 1654, to open up negotiations with Cromwell concerning the admission of their co-religionists to this country. It was decided that the presence of Manasseh was incumbent, and a pass to Holland, dated 16 May, 1655, was granted to Samuel, to fetch his father. They arrived in the following October, and resided here close on two years. On Sunday, the second day of _Rosh Hashanah_, 5418 [8 Sep., 1657, N.S.: 29 Aug. O.S.], at the early age of thirty-two, Samuel went to his Eternal rest. He had conjured his father that he would take his body to Amsterdam, where he was born, for burial. Manasseh was then in a precarious state of health, and on arriving at Middleburg in Zealand, where Ephraim Abrabanel, the maternal uncle of the deceased, resided, he was unable to continue the journey. The interment took place at the local _Beth Haim_, and the Rev. Isidore Harris, M.A., a few years ago discovered the tombstone³ in the third _carera_, which has the following inscription:――

Manasseh’s illness was mortal. His son Joseph had died at the age of twenty about eight or nine years before, and the premature death of his last surviving son hastened his end. A few weeks later, on the 11 Kislev (20 Nov.), he passed away in the house of his brother-in-law, but fifty-three years old. He was interred at the _Sephardi Beth Haim_ at Oudekerk, Amsterdam.

² Another issue, with a similar collation, but apparently from other type, was printed in the same year. [I. S.]

It appeared again during the last quarter of the nineteenth century under the following title:――

Origen De Los Americanos. מקוה ישראל.‏ Esto Es Esperanza De Israel ... Reimpresion ... Del Libro De Menasseh Ben Israel ... Publicado En Amsterdam 5410 (1650) ... y la biografia del autor, Por Santiago Perez Junquera.

Madrid.――1881....

8º. xxxvi. _pp._ + 8 _ll._ + 126 _pp._ + 3 _ll._ in printed wrapper as issued. [I. S.]

³ _Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England_, vol. vii., 1911‒1914 ... Edinburgh and London, 1915 ... _p._ 127: “A Dutch Burial-Ground and its English Connections.” By the Rev. Isidore Harris, M.A.