Flor de Apolo [“Flower of Apollo”: collected poetry].

<<Sumptuous Edition of Collected Poetry by One of the Most Celebrated Seventeenth-Century Marrano Poets.>> Miguel de Barrios (1635-1701) was born in Montilla, Spain to Marrano parents. In 1659 he emigrated to Italy, where he publicly embraced Judaism in Livorno (then a safe haven for Spanish Marranos) and assumed the Jewish name”Daniel Levi de Barrios.” After a brief stint in Tobago in the West Indies, Miguel returned to Europe in 1662 and entered military service, becoming a Captain in the Spanish cavalry. After retiring from the military in 1674, he relocated to Amsterdam where he became a leading literary figure and founding member of Amsterdam’s literary salons: The Academia de los Sitibundos and the Academia de los Floridos. During the eruption of Messianic fervor surrounding the person of Shabthai Tzevi, De Barrios was a fervent believer. His grave can be located to this day in the famed cemetery of the Spanish-Portuguese Jews in Ouderkerk, Holland. Kayserling considered Flor de Apolo, Barrios’s earliest published collection, to be his finest. See M. Kayserling, Biblioteca Española-Portugueza-Judaica, pp. 16-17; T. Oelma, Marrano Poets of the Seventeenth Century (1982), pp. 219-91; L. Hagoort, Het Beth Haim in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel (2005).