(TRAVEL).

The Portuguese Marrano explorer Pedro Teixeira (1570-1650), a native of Lisbon, circumnavigated the globe. His first journey took him to China and the Philippines, from there to the Americas, and finally back to Lisbon in 1601. His second journey (1603-1609) took him to India, Persia and the Middle East. In his travelogue, Teixeira comments upon conditions in the Jewish communities along the way, such as Baghdad and Aleppo (pp.174-76). In Efegél (Al Kifl, Iraq) he visits the tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel, (p.102); reports that in Baghdad he came across a dozen Jewish families who affirmed that they were descended from the first Babylonian captivity (p.121); reports a visit to the tomb of Joshua the High Priest in Baghdad, to which are attributed miracles (p.124). Teixeira notes that the Jews who were travelling together with him in the same caravan stopped come Friday afternoon: “The Jews remained there because the following day was Saturday when they could not travel” (p.94). The travelogue also contains information concerning the New World, especially Mexico and Cuba (see pp. 57-61). Provenance: Binding with coat-of-arms of Jacques Auguste de Thou (1553-1617), French historian, book collector and President of the Parlement de Paris. De Thou’s lasting monument is his multi-volume Historia sui temporis (1604-08).