MONTALTO, PHILIPP (ELIJAH). Optica, intra philosophiae & Medicinae aream, de visu, de visus organo, & objecto theoriam accurate complectens [opthalmology]

Medical Work by this significant Portuguese-Jewish physician, a champion of Judaism. Elijah Montalto (alias Filipe Rodrigues) (1567-1616) was born in Castelo Branco, Portugal, studied medicine at the University of Salamanca, and as many New Christians, fled Portugal, to find sanctuary in Livorno, Italy. Optica, Montalto's first published work appeared in Florence in 1606. In the dedication, he alludes to his acquaintance with Queen Marie Medicis of France who would later invite Montalto to serve her at the French Royal Court as Court Physician. Montalto accepted the position on condition he would have complete freedom to practice his Jewish religion and be exempt from professional service on the Sabbath. Marie de Medicis wrote to Pope Paul V to obtain the latter's dispensation to have an "infidel" at her service and a dispensation was subsequently granted. Hence Montalto was in the extraordinarily privilged situation whereby he was permitted to openly live as a Jew in Paris at the pleasure of the Pope, due to the good offices of the Queen. And so the professing Jew Elijah Montalto became physician to the French Court at a time when Jews had long been exiled from the French Kingdom. When Montalto died, it was the Queen of France who ordered that his body be conveyed to Amsterdam for burial, for there was at the time no Jewish burial in France. Chief Rabbi Saul Levi Morteira accompanied the body to its final destination, the Jewish cemetery at Ouderkerk. Another extremely rare work by Montalto, Lettre d’Espagne (1614) was sold by Kestenbaum & Company, September 2005, Lot 137. In it, Montalto wrote of the gratitude he felt toward the French Queen for his appointment and for her courage in permitting him to openly live as a Jew whilst in Royal service. See H. Friedenwald, The Jews and Medicine (1967), Vol. II, pp. 468-96; M. Kayserling, Biblioteca Española-Portugueza-Judaica (1971), pp. 72-3; R. Ayoun, "Un médecin marrane au service de la Couronne de France: Élie de Montalto," in Inquisição, Sociedade Portuguesa de Estudos do Século XVII (1989) pp. 75-91; and H.P. Salomon, "Une lettre jusqu'ici inédite du docteur Felipe Rodrigues Montalto," in Les rapports culturels et littéraires entre le Portugal et la France, actes du colloque Paris 1982, pp. 151-69