Table of Contents

Preface to the Hebrew Edition
Preface to the English Edition

List of plates
Maps and Tables
List of Abbreviations

Epilogue

Appendices
A  The Iconography of Isaac Orobio
B  Poetical Account of the Plague of Málaga, 1637, by Baltasar Alvares (Isaac Orobio de Castro)
C  Schedule of Moveable Property of Baltasar (Isaac) Orobio Sequestrated by the Inquisition at Cádiz, August 1654
D  Membership of the Academia de los Floridos
E  Manuscripts of Works by Isaac Orobio de Castro
F  Orobio’s Letters to Prado’s Son: A Textual Comparison
G  Translations of Orobio’s Works in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
H  Works Attributed to Orobio

Bibliography
Name Index
Place Index
Subject Index

About the Author

Yosef Kaplan is Bernard Cherrick Professor of Medieval and Modern Jewish History and Director of the School of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has published extensively on early modern Jewish history and on the western Sephardi diaspora; his most recent book is An Alternative Path to Modernity (2000).

Reviews

'Excellent and even extraordinary ... Kaplan's book is more than a biography, even more than a study of an entire community: it is a treasure-house of information and new source material that will make it one of the most important works of Jewish history published in many years... [a] model study of one of the most compelling figures in the world of early modern Jewry.'
David S. Katz, English Historical Review

'A worthy introduction to this important figure and the times in which he lived.' David Schonberg, Jewish Book News & Reviews 'A most meticulous piece of scholarship, that carefully weighs all the evidence, corrects previous assumptions about dates and identifications, and makes major use of primary sources to present a detailed and reliable reconstruction of Orobio's life and work ... Raphael Loewe's felicitous and contextually suitable translation ...'
Stefan Reif, Jewish Historical Studies

'The translation of Yosef Kaplan's magisterial book is a momentous event, because it makes available the extraordinary story of Isaac Orobio de Castro as told by his extraordinarily gifted biographer.'
Angus Mackay, Journal of Ecclesiastical History

'A superb picture of the intellectual and spiritual life of a Marrano ... Kaplan's book is indispensable for understanding what the Amsterdam Jewish community was like. It is also refreshing and important for bringing back to life a most important intellectual of the time who flourished within the community.'
Richard K. Popkin, Journal of the History of Philosophy

'A definitive presentation and analysis ... comprehensively considers broader intellectual, cultural and psychological issues as [it] probes in depth the spiritual and geographical journey of Orobio from Catholic Spain and its Inquisition to the relative freedom of Amsterdam. In the process he goes far beyond the printed texts ... While all the religious issues of the day ... receive a thorough penetrating analysis, perhaps the most original sights are to be found in Kaplan's discussion of what he terms one of the most prominent features of the history of Judaism in the seventeenth century, namely the objections voiced by individuals in the Sephardic diaspora against some of the main articles of the Jewish faith ... This innovative volume ought to be of major interest to all students of early modern European religion, thought and society, as well as to those involved in Judaica, Christian-Jewish polemics, the history of skepticism, and Iberian and Dutch history.'
Benjamin Ravid, Journal of Religion

'Kaplan's sensitive study enriches our understanding of how this balance was achieved in the life of a gifted crypto-Jew.'
Rachael Kohn, Journal of Religious History

'Erudite work which has been made accessible to English readers by Raphael Loewe to whom we must express a debt of gratitude.'
S. B. Leperer, L'Eylah

'Kaplan's book is of major importance ... with amazing detective work ... Kaplan has pieced together a portrait of people born on the Spanish-Portuguese border, where they or their parents had fled to avoid persecution ... remarkably well documented by Kaplan.'
Richard H. Popkin, New Republic

'Remarquable de finesse et d'erudition, aussi l'aise avec des manuscits qu'avec des concepts, l'A. presente le medecin, le poete, le theologien, le responsable communautaire aux prises avec les sabbateens ou les calvinistes ... Il a enfin un monument qu'il merite.'
Dominique Bourel, Bulletin de Judaisme Moderne/Recherches de Science Religieuse

'This solid historical and theological study belongs in every serious library. Loewe's translation is superb.'
Menachem Kellner, Religious Studies Review

'The life of Orobio de Castro exemplifies the fate of a whole community of crypto-Jews ... [Kaplan] has recreated the world of the Sephardi Jews in seventeenth-century Amsterdam.'
Studia Rosenthaliana