Flor de Apolo [“Flower of Apollo”: collected poetry].
AUCTION 72 |
Thursday, March 16th,
2017 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters, Holy Land Maps & Fine Art
Lot 61
BARRIOS, MIGUEL (DANIEL LEVI) DE.
Flor de Apolo [“Flower of Apollo”: collected poetry].
Antwerp: Geronymo & Juan Bautista Verdussen 1674
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
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, de Barrios 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 Tzvi, de Barrios was a fervent believer.
Kayserling considered Flor de Apolo, Barrios’s earliest published collection of poems, to be his finest. See M. Kayserling, Biblioteca Española-Portugueza-Judaica, pp. 16-17; see also T. Oelma, Marrano Poets of the Seventeenth Century (1982) pp. 219-91.
(Coincidentally the National Library of Spain’s copy of this work is also incomplete - as the present copy - lacking pp. 105-106).