Benvenida Abravanel’s maternal family, birthdate, birthplace and descendants
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/sefarad.024.1223Keywords:
Abravanel, Sarfati, Zarfati, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Portugal, Spain, ItalyAbstract
Among the Jewish women who lived in the past few are as famous as Benvenida Abravanel, as is attested by the many works that have been written about her, some during her lifetime. Those works portray some events in her life and focus on her charitable activities. However, some very basic information about her is still missing, for example the identity of her maternal ancestors. In addition, some of the available information about her is uncertain, for example the place and date of her birth. This study considers the items mentioned in the title of this article and shows that that she was born in Rome around 1500 and that on the maternal side she belonged to the prestigious family of Samuel Sarfati. Thus, her pedigree included two of the most distinguished Jewish families who lived in Italy during the Renaissance. Finally, family trees are presented for the branches of the families to which Benvenida belonged, beginning with their arrival in Portugal at the end of the fourteenth century, and ending in the last third of the sixteenth century.
Downloads
References
Aboab, Imanuel. 1629. Nomologia, 2nd ed. Amsterdam.
Adler, Elkan Nathan, ed. 2005. Jewish Travelers in the Middle Ages. New York: Dover.
Beinart, Haim. 2001. The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Oxford: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization.
Caffiero, Marina. 2022. The History of the Jews in Early Modern Italy: From the Renaissance to the Restoration. New York: Rutledge
Cooperman, Bernard D., and Barbara Garvin, eds. 2000. The Jews of Italy: Memory and Identity. Bethesda: University Press Maryland.
Edelstein, Bruce. 2000. “Nobildonne Napoletane e Committenza: Eleonora D’Aragona ed Eleonora di Toledo. A Confronto.” Quaderni Storici 104/a, XXXV, 2: 295-329.
Leone Leoni, Aron de. 2011. La Nazione Ebraica Spagnola e Portoghese de Ferrara (1492-1559), 2 vols. Firenze: Leo S. Olschki, Editore.
Netanyahu, Benzion. 1988. Don Isaac Abravanel: Statesman & Philosopher. 5th ed. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press.
Roth, Cecil. 1964. The Jews in the Renaissance. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication of America.
Roth, Cecil. 1977. Doña Gracia of the House of Nasi. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America.
Stow, Kenneth R. 1995. “Marriages are made in heaven: Marriage and the individual in the Roman Jewish Ghetto.” Renaissance Quarterly 48, 3: 445-491.
Tavares, Maria José Pimenta Ferro. 1982. Os Judeus em Portugal no século XV. Lisboa: Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
Tavares, Maria José Pimenta Ferro. 2014. “Judeus de Castela em Portugal no final de Idade Media: onomastica familiar, e mobilidade.” Sefarad 74, 1: 89-144.
Usque, Samuel. 1965. Consolation for the Tribulations of Israel. Translated from the Portuguese by Martin A. Cohen. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
© CSIC. Manuscripts published in both the printed and online versions of this Journal are the property of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, and quoting this source is a requirement for any partial or full reproduction.
All contents of this electronic edition, except where otherwise noted, are distributed under a “Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International” (CC BY 4.0) License. You may read the basic information and the legal text of the license. The indication of the CC BY 4.0 License must be expressly stated in this way when necessary.
Self-archiving in repositories, personal webpages or similar, of any version other than the published by the Editor, is not allowed.
