The long journey of Gracia Mendes / / by Marianna D. Birnbaum.

• Author: Birnbaum, Marianna D.
• Year of Publication: 2003
• Language: English
• Series: Hors collection
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (169 p.)
• Notes: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Annotation. "Gracia Mendes was a sixteenth-century entrepreneur and one of the wealthiest women in Europe, who, while a practicing Christian, remained for much of her life a secret Jew." "The biography examines her rise to power in the face of immense obstacles - political, religious, economic, and social." "Gracia was born in 1510 in Portugal. At the age of eighteen, she married Francisco Mendes, a successful Jewish spice trader. After her husband's death in 1536 and in response to the religious persecutions of the day, she moved her family from Portugal. Her travels led her through Antwerp, Venice, Ferrara, Ragusa and finally to Constantinople, from where the Ottoman Empire dominated the territories of former Byzantium and offered shelter for the battered Conversos (converted Jews)." "After her arrival in 1553, she became the most prominent businesswoman of the community and a patron of Jewish causes. Her life exemplifies the perseverance of the Jewish culture to survive and triumph even in extremely adverse conditions."--BOOK JACKET. Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Table of Contents

Introducing the family -- A short history of the conversos -- Life in sixteenth-century Antwerp -- Gracia in Venice -- Gracia and Jewish patronage in sixteenth-century Ferrara -- In business with Ragusa -- The Ottoman Empire and the Jews.