Retrato de la prudencia y simulacro del valor que en obsequioso Panegirico consagra al augusto Monarcha Guillermo Tercero Rey de la Gran Bretaña

PENSO DE LA VEGA, JOSEPH

Joan Bus (i.e. Joseph Athias)

Amsterdam

1690

FIRST EDITION. Bookplate of Daniel M. Friedenberg

Kayserling 87; Palau 217267

A highly scarce work composed in praise of King and Stadholder William III of Orange, reflecting the Jewish support for the 'Glorious Revolution' and dethronement of James II of England. Joseph Penso de la Vega (1650-1692) was one of the foremost authors among the Spanish and Portuguese Jews of Amsterdam. He was the author author of Confusion de Confusiones (1688), the celebrated first publication to examine the workings of the stock exchange. Although Penso de la Vega was prudent enough not to make any overt allusion to his Jewish faith, the present work reflects the intense support of Portuguese Jews for the military and political campaign of Stadholder William III of Orange in his successful bid to dethrone the Catholic King James II of England. Jews had good reason to be grateful for William III's well-advertised commitment to religious toleration. Indeed, several leading members of the Portuguese Jewish community were closely involved with the financial and other practical aspects of the Prince's ambitious statecraft. The present work was not the only printed testimony of Portuguese Jewish involvement with the Glorious Revolution, other leading former-Maranno writers such as Daniel Levi de Barrios, Manuel de Leon and Moses Lopes Rosa published poems or prose works celebrating the victory (see lots 12 and 57.) These works are to be understood in the context of the political, financial and diplomatic role of the Dutch Sephardi patrician elite. The leading figures of the community were eager to build on their links with William III, his entourage and the ambassadors of his allies. Thus patronage of the type of occasional literature the Sephardi writers of Amsterdam produced at the time of the Glorious Revolution was of a political, cultural, and social strategy. By increasing their ties with William III and his allies, the Dutch Sephardi leadership gained in influence and prestige in both Jewish and non-Jewish circles and further enhanced their aristocratic pretensions. See H. den Boer and J.I. Israel, "William III and the Glorious Revolution in the Eyes of Amsterdam Sephardi Writers: The Reactions of Miguel de Barrios, Joseph Penso de la Vega, and Manuel de Leao", in The Anglo-Dutch Moment: Essays on the Glorious Revolution and Its World Impact (Cambridge.) Exceptionally rare. No copy in the British Library, Bodleian, Bibliothèque Nationale, JTSA, HUC, or JNUL