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

BARRIOS, MIGUEL (DANIEL LEVI) DE.

Baltazar Vivien

Brussels

1665

FIRST EDITION. Title in red and black with engraving of flower and Apollo the Sun deity. Numerous sumptuous engravings by the Dutch artist Peter Clouwet. Headpieces, initials, tailpieces. Wide margins.

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).