Manoel Lopez Bichacho, a XVIth Century Leader of the Portuguese Nation in Antwerp and in Pesaro

Abstract

According to Samuel Usque's Consolaçam as Tribulações de Israel, in 1551, Manuel Bichacho, a Portuguese Jew living in Pesaro, entreated the Duke of Urbino to accept in his States a group of his countrymen who had been expelled from Ferrara, where they had been accused of having brought the plague. However, the desterro from Ferrara took place in the autumn of 1549 and not in 1551. Research carried out in Italian and Belgian Archives allowed us to identify Manuel Bichacho, the Jewish Portuguese banker in Pesaro, with the former Emanuel Lopez, a rich Marrano merchant of Antwerp who played an important role as one of the leaders of the Portuguese Nation in that city, and a member of the Rescue Committee which organised and financed the escape of Marranos from Portugal to Flanders and thence towards Ferrara and the Levant.