Poema de la Reyna Ester, Lamentaciones del Propheta Jeremias, Historia de Rut, y Varias Poesias [“Poem of Queen Esther, Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah, Story of Ruth, and Various Poems.”]

DELGADO, JOÃO PINTO.

David Petit

Rouen

1627

FIRST EDITION. Engraved title-page depicting Esther, Jeremiah and Ruth

Kayserling, p.63; Palau 226677; Salva 881

Portuguese-born João Delgado (c.1580-1653) settled with his parents in Rouen, France, where father and son were leaders of the Marrano community, outwardly practicing Catholicism, while inwardly maintaining Judaism. The position of the Marranos in Rouen was jeopardized in 1633 when a delegate of the Spanish Inquisition arrived in town to investigate the crypto-Jews who sought haven there. Though eventually the French Crown intervened on their behalf (after imposing a hefty fine), their standing in the community was sufficiently destabilized to warrant the Delgados' evacuation to Antwerp, and later to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, Joaõ became Mosseh, and served in 1636-37 and 1640 as one of the Parnasim (governors) of the Talmud Torah Seminary. Oelma ranks João Pinto Delgado "the most important literary talent to have emerged from Marrano background" (p. 49) - and that reputation is largely founded precisely on this work. In summing up, Oelma writes: "He is at once the most accomplished of the Marrano poets, and the most Jewish" (op. cit., p. 52). See T. Oelma, Marrano Poets of the Seventeenth Century (1982) pp.49-136. Unlike many other Marrano writers who were bereft of Rabbinic learning, it has been shown quite convincingly that Delgado's presentation of the Esther story is suffused with Midrashic material. See A.D.H. Fishlock, "The Rabbinic Material in the Ester of Pinto Delgado," Journal of Jewish Studies 2 (1950-51); E.M. Wilson, "The Poetry of João Pinto Delgado," Journal of Jewish Studies 1 (1948-49); T. Oelma, op. cit., pp. 130-131, 136