Prevenciones Divinas contra la vana ydolatria de las gentes. [“Divine Admonitions against the Vain Idolatry of the Gentiles:” anti-Christian polemic]

Magnificent Unpublished Manuscript by One of the Finest Minds Among Amsterdam's Former Marranos. Isaac Orobio de Castro (alias Balthasar de Orobio, 1620-87) was born in Braganza, Portugal, to crypto-Jewish parents, who later relocated to Seville. Initially a student of philosophy, Orobio turned his attention to medicine becoming so well-regarded he was designated personal physician to the Duke of Medina Céli. Nonetheless, he was denounced to the Inquisition as a Judaizer and after torture, was sentenced to languish in the tribunal's prison. Upon release, Orobio fled to Toulouse and after arrival in Amsterdam in 1666, Orobio was finally able to make public his Judaism and was formally admitted into his ancestral faith by undergoing circumcision. Orobio continued to practice medicine and became a part of a circle of Marrano intellectuals and men of letters resident of Amsterdam. He was also appointed one of the Parnassim of the Spanish-Portuguese community. Orobio was an eloquent apologist on behalf of Judaism and devoted his prodigious literary talents to anti-Christian polemic. The present manuscript, Prevenciones Divinas, is his most important work of this genre. Though never seeing the light of print in the Spanish original, Prevenciones Divinas nonetheless enjoyed wide popularity, as witnessed by a number of surviving manuscripts. Prof. Yerushalmi attributed the fact that Orobio did not publish his polemic works, to their aggressive anti-Christian tone. (See From Spanish Court to Italian Ghetto, p. 355). Nonetheless, a portion of this sprawling work was translated into French by a Jew named Henriquez and brought out as Israel Vengé (London, 1770). Subsequently, the celebrated Anglo-Jewish authoress Grace Aguilar translated the French version into English, and after adjusting the author's vitriol, published the work under the title Israel Defended (London, 1838). See C. Roth, Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica, p. 259, nos.18-19 THE WORK: Prevenciones Divinas actually comprises several works by Orobio, which on occasion appear in the bibliographic literature as separate manuscripts. Thus, between ff.87-88, as Book Four, we have: Respuesta a un Cavallero Frances Reformado [Response to a French Reformed Gentleman]. Kayserling p. 83 lists this as a separate manuscript, while adding: "This is the same work as 'Prevenciones Divinas,' of which it forms the third part(!)." (M.B. Amzalak published this response to a French Reform minister as a separate treatise under the title La observancia de la divina ley de Mosseh [Coimbra, 1925].) Further, between ff.122-123 we have as Book Five: Respuesta a una persona que dudava si el libro de Raymundo Lulio, nuevamente traducio y comentado por Don Alonson de Zepeda, era intelligible y se concluyan sus discursos [Response to a person who doubts if the book of Raymundo Lull, newly translated and commented by Don Alonso de Cepeda, is intelligible and conclusive]. In the Catalogue "Treasures from the Library Ets Haim," p. 79, no. 129, we find a separate manuscript under this title. (Unlike Kayserling, the cataloguer failed to make the connection to the section in Prevenciones divinas by that name.) And again between ff.133-134, we have: Respuesta apologetica al libro que escrivió Don Alonso de Zepeda, que intituló Defensa de los terminos y doctrina de Raymundo Lulio [Apologetic reponse to the book written by Don Alonso de Cepeda, entitled Defense of the Terms and Doctrines of Raymund Lull]. This too appears in Treasures from the Library Ets Haim (p.80, no. 130) as a separate manuscript work. The historical backdrop to these two "Responses" is as follows. In 1663, Don Alonso de Cepeda published in Brussels a Spanish translation of The Tree of Knowledge, composed originally by Raymond Lull in Latin. Raymond Lull (1232-1316) was a Franciscan theologian. Orobio wrote a short polemic work rebutting Lull's supposed proof of the doctrine of Trinity. No sooner did the translator and commentator Cepeda read Orobio's work, than he penned a comprehensive reply, Defensa de los terminos y doctrina de Raymundo Lulio (Brussels, 1666). Not one to let Cepeda (representing the medieval Lull) have the last word, Orobio then came back with his reply: Respuesta apologetica al libro que escrivió Don Alonso de Zepeda, que intituló Defensa de los terminos y doctrina de Raymundo Lulio [Apologetic reponse to the book written by Don Alonso de Cepeda, entitled Defense of the Terms and Doctrines of Raymund Lull]. A substantial portion of Prevenciones Divinas is devoted to a defense of the Talmud. It is well known that many of the Spanish and Portuguese Marranos who openly embraced Judaism in Amsterdam, came with an excellent knowledge of the Old Testament (which they obtained while living outwardly as Christians in the Iberian Peninsula), yet were virtually ignorant of post-Biblical Jewish texts such as the Talmud. Orobio knowledgeably notes on f.72v that Fray Luis de Granada and the Bishop of Coimbra who spoke dispargingly of the Talmud, did so out of ignorance, not being able to read Talmudic texts in their original. As Yerushalmi wrote: "The real marvel is that some Marranos were able, despite their background, to embrace a complete Jewish orthodoxy, to immerse themselves thoroughly in Jewish tradition, and to become intellectual and communal leaders in seventeenth-century Jewry" (Y.H. Yerushalmi, From Spanish Court to Italian Ghetto, p.49). See M. Kayserling, Biblioteca Española-Portugueza-Judaica, pp. 81-83; EJ, Vol. XII, cols.1475-7, C. Roth, A History of the Marranos (1932) pp. 299-230, 329, 338, 395; J. Kaplan, From Christianity to Judaism: The Story of Isaac Orobio de Castro (1989). Another manuscript of Prevenciones Divinas from the library of Sir Moses Montefiore was sold at Sotheby's New York on October 27th, 2004 (Lot 255). AN ALTOGETHER REGAL MANUSCRIPT. OF GREAT IMPORTANCE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF POST-MARRANO ERA JEWISH THOUGHT