Isaac (Fernando) Cardoso was a Jewish physician, philosopher, and polemic writer.
Life
He was born of
Marrano
Marranos were Spanish and Portuguese Jews living in the Iberian Peninsula who converted or were Forced conversion#Spanish Inquisition, forced to convert to Christianity during the Middle Ages, but continued to Crypto-Judaism, practice Judaism i ...
parents at
Trancoso, near Celorico, in the province of
Beira,
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
in 1603 or 1604 and died at
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...
in 1683. He was an older brother of
Abraham Miguel Cardoso.
After studying medicine, philosophy, and natural sciences at
Salamanca, he settled as physician at
Valladolid
Valladolid () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province o ...
in 1632, but was soon called as chief physician (''physico mor'') to
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
. While there he published in 1632 a lecture on
Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius ( ; it, Vesuvio ; nap, 'O Vesuvio , also or ; la, Vesuvius , also , or ) is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples
The Gulf of Naples (), also called the Bay of Naples, is a roughly 15-kilometer-wide (9 ...
and on the causes of the earthquake, and in 1635 a treatise on the color green, which he dedicated to
Isabel Henriques
Isabel is a female name of Spanish origin. Isabelle is a name that is similar, but it is of French origin. It originates as the medieval Spanish form of '' Elisabeth'' (ultimately Hebrew ''Elisheva''), Arising in the 12th century, it became popul ...
, who was celebrated in the academies of Madrid for her intellect, and who lived later in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
. In the latter year he also composed a funeral discourse for
Lope de Vega
Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio ( , ; 25 November 156227 August 1635) was a Spanish playwright, poet, and novelist. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Age of Baroque literature. His reputation in the world of Spanish literature ...
, which was dedicated to the Duke de Sessa, and a treatise on the uses of cold water, printed in 1637, and dedicated to King
Philip IV of Spain
Philip IV ( es, Felipe, pt, Filipe; 8 April 160517 September 1665), also called the Planet King (Spanish: ''Rey Planeta''), was King of Spain from 1621 to his death and (as Philip III) King of Portugal from 1621 to 1640. Philip is remembered f ...
.
Fernando (his Marrano name) left Spain, probably to escape from the
Inquisition
The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...
, and went with his brother Miguel, who had also studied medicine, to
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
, where both openly embraced
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
, Fernando changing his name to "Isaac." After a short stay in Venice he settled in Verona, where he remained until his death, highly honored by Jews and Christians.
Works
Aside from the works already mentioned, Cardoso published a comprehensive treatise on cosmogony, physics, medicine, philosophy, theology, and natural sciences, printed at Venice in 1673 under the title ''Philosophia Libera in Septem Libros Distributa'', and dedicated to the doge and senate of that city. In this work, which critically discusses the various philosophical systems, he appears as a decided opponent of the
Kabbalah
Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and Jewish theology, school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "rece ...
and of the pseudo-Messiah
Sabbatai Zevi, although his brother Miguel was an adherent. Isaac also ridiculed the kabbalistic, Pythagorean doctrine of the
transmigration of souls.
This "learned, God-fearing physician," as he is designated by the pious
Moses Hagiz Moses Hagiz (1671 – c. 1750) (Hebrew: משה חגיז) was a Talmudic scholar, rabbi and writer born in Jerusalem during the time of the Old Yishuv. He was also one of the most prominent and influential Jewish leaders in 17th-century Amsterdam. Du ...
(''Mishnat Chakamim'', p. 120a) defended his coreligionists in his great work, ''Las Excelencias y Calunias de los Hebreos'', printed in 1679 at Amsterdam, and dedicated March 17, 1678, to
Jacob de Pinto
Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Jacob in Islam, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel (name), Israel, is regarded as a Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religi ...
. In ten chapters he emphasizes the "excelencias" (distinguishing features) of the Jews, their selection by God, their separation from all other peoples by special laws, their compassion for the sufferings of others, their philanthropy, chastity, faith, etc.; and in ten other chapters he refutes the "calunias" (calumnies) brought against them; viz., that they worship false gods, smell badly, are hard and unfeeling toward other peoples, have corrupted Scripture, blaspheme holy images and the host, kill Christian children and use the blood for ritual purposes. This work, which was celebrated by the rabbi J. Brieli of
Mantua
Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name.
In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture ...
in a Hebrew sonnet ("Otzar Nechmad," iii. 167), was sent by Cardoso soon after its appearance, July 23, 1679, to the rabbi
Samuel Aboab Rabbi Samuel ben Abraham Aboab (Hebrew: רבי שמואל בן אברהם אבוהב; – August 22, 1694) also known by his acronym RaSHA (רש"א, Rabbi Shmuel ben Avraham) was a 17th-century Western Sephardic rabbi and scholar, who is considere ...
in Venice, asking for an opinion. Aboab answered July 31, thanking him for the splendid gift. In another letter to Aboab, December 24, 1679, he gave his views on the derivation of some Spanish words from persons mentioned in the Bible. According to De Barrios, Cardoso also published ''Varias Poesias'' (1680).
References
*Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim, ''From Spanish Court to Italian Ghetto: Isaac Cardoso: a Study in Seventeenth-Century Marranism and Jewish Apologetics''. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1981.
External links
*
Brief biographyIsaac Cardoso, ''Las excelencias de los hebreos'', Chapter on the blood libel (1649), selections in English and Spanish (pedagogical edition) with introduction, notes, and bibliography in ''Open Iberia/América'' (open access teaching anthology)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cardoso, Isaac
1600s births
People from Guarda District
1683 deaths
Jewish Portuguese writers
Jewish philosophers
17th-century Portuguese physicians
University of Salamanca alumni
17th-century Jewish physicians of Portugal
Portuguese Jews
17th-century Spanish philosophers
Conversos