Vidal Astori, born in

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

in the 15th century, was a Sephardic silversmith and merchant. He worked for the court of

Ferdinand the Catholic Ferdinand II ( an, Ferrando; ca, Ferran; eu, Errando; it, Ferdinando; la, Ferdinandus; es, Fernando; 10 March 1452 – 23 January 1516), also called Ferdinand the Catholic (Spanish: ''el Católico''), was King of Aragon and Sardinia from ...

between 1467 and 1469. With time he would reach the prestigious rank of "silversmith of the king," a status he would preserve after Ferdinand's union with

Isabella of Castile Isabella I ( es, Isabel I; 22 April 1451 – 26 November 1504), also called Isabella the Catholic (Spanish: ''la Católica''), was Queen of Castile from 1474 until her death in 1504, as well as Queen consort of Aragon from 1479 until 1504 b ...

Biography and business

Vidal Astori's place of birth is not clear, but it was probably the city of

Sagunto Sagunto ( ca-valencia, Sagunt) is a municipality of Spain, located in the province of Valencia, Valencian Community. It belongs to the modern fertile ''comarca'' of Camp de Morvedre. It is located c. 30 km north of the city of Valencia, cl ...

, where his workshop was located. The ''judería'' of Sagunto was one of the largest of Aragon. It included various institutions for social beneficence and a school for

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...

ic studies, opened with direct permission of Doña María, Ferdinand's mother. The local Jewish population of Sagunto had traditionally made their living either through silver crafting or through slavery,. and those were the main commercial venues he would take during his life. Vidal was the most prestigious member of a long tradition of silversmiths of the Jewish faith that went back over a century, which earned him the title of Royal Silversmith of Aragon, and Ferdinand's trust. During Ferdinand's marriage, he was recommended as ''rabí'' of the shared court of Isabella and Ferdinand by Ferdinand, against Abraham Seneor. Ferdinand was disappointed when Seneor was elected instead, but he chose to respect the internal hierarchy of the ''aljamas'' and accepted the decision. In 1480 he received a special permission from King Ferdinand to visit Castile and Portugal and conduct business both in the king's name, and in his own. He established his son, Jahuda, as his agent in Portugal, and his other son, Samuel, as his agent in Valencia. They presumably exported silverwork and Movedre wine to Portugal, and imported

black slaves The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...

acquired by the Portuguese merchants in west Africa. The Astori family sold 19

between 1484 and 1485, for a total of 10,575 sous. In 1486 their business was cut abruptly when the bailiff general issued a decree forbidding the purchase of African slaves from Guinea "lest their Christianization be impeded". He is mentioned in 1487, in an Aragonese court ruling, in which Mexte, a Muslim woman, agrees to become his slave for four years in exchange for the pardon of some debts her husband had with the crown.Mark D. Meyerson, "A Jewish Renaissance in Fifteenth-Century Spain " Princeton University Press, 2004. pp145 Vidal had also made himself a vital part of the Jewish effort to economically revitalize the area of the Palancia river. By 1487 the effort was paying off and the area had become a successful Jewish community. The community was temporarily exiled for two years by 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, ...

, due to tensions in the Mediterranean. Vidal died in 1490 due to natural causes, before he could return.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Astori, Vidal Year of birth unknown 1490 deaths 15th-century people from the Kingdom of Aragon Spanish Jews Silversmiths 15th-century businesspeople