Posts by Mark Te Pon
74 posts
REMBRANDT’S ETCHINGS FOR MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL’S PIEDRA GLORIOSA: A MYSTERY SOLVED? In the 'Kroniek van het Rembrandthuis', published today, a very interesting article about the work relation between Menasseh ben Israel and Rembrandt. Based on a interesting new finding in the archive of the P.I.G.
On the left the ketuba of David Drago and Sara Drago in Amsterdam 1682, just before they left for Suriname, would love to know any details. I already found their prenuptial agreements https://archief.amsterdam/indexen/deeds/9d6d21e1-46e3-666d-e053-b784100a1840
Anecdote from daily life in Amsterdam / Maarssen 1748:On the 17th of July 1748 Nathan Levie of Maarssen sold six hundred pounds of 'Portuguese-Jewish cheeses' to Abraham Nunes Ferro. Some of the cheeses had already been made by Maarssen farmer Willem Harmense; the rest had yet to be produced. Two weeks later, however, Abraham Nunes Ferro refused to take delivery of the cheeses, because, as he said...
View from the Blauw Brug over the Binnen-Amstel, yesterday and in 1664. On the right nowadays the 'Stopera' (City Hall and Opera). This used to be Vlooienburg, a island in the city of Amsterdam where many Portuguese Jews and other migrants settled in the 17th century.
Map of the 'Rondehoep', circa 1630, on the left (in the North) Beth Haim in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, attributed to Cornelis Dankertsz de Rij (1561-1631). Collection: Amsterdam City Archives.
The Menasseh Ben Israel institute has published the program of the 15th Symposium on the History and the Culture of the Jews in the Netherlands: The Imperial Turn in Dutch Jewish History.
Two related marriage banns on the same day, Amsterdam, 5 October 1663, all of four wedding candidats born in Antwerp: Doctor Emanuel alias Samuel d'Assera (42) and Joanna alias Judica Spinosa (30), daughter of dr Antonius Spinosa.George Spinosa (27), jewish merchant, son of Doctor Antonius Spinosa, and Isabella Blanca alias Sara [van Antwerpen] (16), daugter of Manuel Mendes D'Avillaer and Rachel...
Not Sara but RicaOn 27 February 1708 Abraham Aboab da Fonseca, son of Rabbi Isaac Aboab da Fonseca makes a statement about a mistake in the marriage book of his father, now in his possession. In the book it said that Sara Alvares married Abraham Penso Felix, this is not true according to Abraham. It was Rica Alvares that married Abraham Penso Felix, her mother's name was Sara Alvares. https://arch...
# Samuel, Mahamet and Hamet. Moroccans in seventeenth century AmsterdamA quick and dirty translation of a short piece I wrote for the popular history magazine Ons Amsterdam https://voetnoot.org/2021/07/02/samuel-mahamet-and-hamet/Dutch original: https://onsamsterdam.nl/samuel-mahamet-en-hamet
List of Jewish doctors active in Amsterdam, with the location and date of their graduation,
Detail from the burned protocols of notary Benedict Baddel:On Monday 2 May 1639 David Pallache from Fez in Morocco, was attacked by Mozes Rosado on Vlooienburg (Waterlooplein). While shouting 'Oh, Turk!', Rosado punches him in the face with a fist and hits him with a stick and a sabre.Rosado is arrested and sentenced to two months of rasping in the Rasphouse. Apparently that is not the end of the ...
Another interesting notary from the Amsterdam City Archives with many Sephardic clients in the 'Alle Amsterdamse Akten' indexing project: Johannes van Vilekens. Most deeds in Dutch, but also some in Spanish and Portuguese. Feel like indexing some of these deeds? See: https://velehanden.nl/transcription/index/control/project/amsterdam_notarieel_2/ Image: Prenuptial agreement between Moses Gomes Cor...
Tombstone with Hebrew inscriptions found in Montjuïc (Spain).
Seventeenth century manuscript maps often have very interesting little details, like the tomb stones of Beth Haim in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel on the right of this map by Johannes Leupenius of farmland owned by the city hospital (gasthuis). Dated 1676.https://archief.amsterdam/beeldbank/detail/d6bf2e4e-c389-17e3-10a9-e91f96ab5859
Fantastic find yesterday in the HTR of notary Dirk van der Groe: On 4 December 1682 Okerike 'general of de Indians living in Suriname' signed two documents in Amsterdam. Okerike or Uquerika as he signed the docs didn't speak Dutch, but did sign with his name. Interpreter was David Drago, a member of the Sephardic Drago-Nassy family in #Suriname, who could speak Dutch and the 'Indian Language". Dav...
Besides the HTR-reader hundreds of volunteers are still working on the index project of the Amsterdam Notarial Deeds (Alle Amsterdamse Akten). Yesterday another very interesting notary was added to the crowdsource project: Mathijs van Son. Working from 1730 onwards he had many Sephardic clients. Today for example I came across this probate inventory of a Daniel and Mozes Bueno with the Country Hou...
Good morning! A new very interesting dataset is available at the Amsterdam City Archives. The Transkribus Read & Search tool. With over 300.000 scans with HTR-transcription. Including all 116.000 scans of notary who had many Sephardic clients between 1670 and 1720. It's not perfect but very workable (put fuzzy search on high -hoog)
On 22 and 23 February it is 80 years ago that 389 Jewish men were arrested in Amsterdam, the first razzia's in the city. Only two of the men survived, 387 men were murdered. The Amsterdam City Archives published a website with short biographies of all 389 men. https://www.amsterdam.nl/stadsarchief/themasites/razzia/
The unusual harsh winter weather in Amsterdam the last couple of days reminded me of a story I read in the notarial archives about Abraham Chamis. On New Year's Day 1653 Abraham Chamis came ice-skating from Ouderkerk a/d Amstel (maybe from Beth Haim, but it is not mentioned in the doc). It was already late and the gates were closed. He decided to look for a place to stay the night. He knocked on t...
Interesting article in Dutch about Al-Andalus.
On 26 december 1721 book printer Samuel Marcus (Marques) died in his house on Vlooyenburg in Amsterdam. He left a spectacular collection of books in Spanish, Hebrew, Dutch and other languages (#update). https://archief.amsterdam/indexen/deeds/9d6d21e0-3bfb-666d-e053-b784100a1840
Just came across this video I made of one of the lovely candlelight concerts in the Esnoga 12 years ago, probably with my first smartphone or a cheap digital photo camera.