|
The Long Journey of Gracia Mendes By Marianna Birnbaum Published by Central European University Press, Budapest-New York: 2003 Reviewed by Dolores Sloan in HaLapid, Spring 2005 It is easy to come under the spell of Gracia Nasi or Gracia Mendes, as Marianna Birnbaum prefers to call her. This figure from post-expulsion, sixteenth-century Sephardic history, inspirational and revered in her day by Jews and conversos alike, appeals to the twenty-first century enchantment with women who have expanded the gender boundaries of their eras. The author of this new biography “was smitten” by Doña Gracia, as she indicates in the book’s “Acknowledgements,” while researching the Fuggers, sixteenth-century German merchant bankers. La Señora, as the great woman was known affectionately by her coreligionists, had headed the House of Mendes, prosperous trading and banking firm, which competed with the Fuggers, and had been referred to disdainfully by one of their agents as a Portuguese Jewish woman, living in Constantinople, who, writes Dr. Birnbaum “dared to dress and behave like a European aristocrat.” The author’s The Long Journey of Gracia Mendes is the result of that discovery. It goes beyond presentation of the notable woman’s remarkable life. The author tells us, early on, that he story of Gracia and her family are “important for the understanding of early-modern Jewish-Christian relations, the dynamics of early modern trade, the construction (and reconstruction) of Jewish self-identities, and of women’s history.” Dr. Birnbaum brings the reader insight into the skill and effectiveness of Gracia Nasi as businesswoman, philanthropist and patron of publishing, going beyond existing studies in English. The best known of these studies, published in 1948, was English Historian Cecil Roth’s Doña Gracia, first in his two-book series, The House of Nasi. This has remained the definitive scholarly work in English on La Señora. Earlier, in 1931, novelist Ludwig Lewisohn made Gracia a character in The Last Days of Shylock, in which he has her, along with Joseph Nasi, her nephew and son-in-law, rescuing Shakespeare’s merchant from his living death in Venice, where he has been forcefully converted to Christianity and obligated to attend mass regularly. Then, in the 1990’s, interest in Doña Gracia took several manifestations: a novel, The Ghost of Hannah Mendes, by Israeli author Naomi Ragen and a research work by Connecticut journalist Andrée Aelion Brooks, The Woman Who Defied Kings. Dr. Birnbaum’s The Long Journey of Gracia Mendes, however, goes beyond in detailing La Señora’s acumen as gifted businesswoman, who, as CEO of the banking and trading firm that dominated the spice trade, used effective economic leadership skills to bring the House of Mendes to new heights of prosperity. She had inherited the position from her husband and brother-in-law. Other writers allude to her success in passing, but Dr. Birnbaum adds examples of specific business deals so one can see the great lady’s skills in action. An example is the chapter “In Business with Ragusa,” in which the author describes a contract negotiated by Doña Gracia for her firm with the port city, now called Dubrovnik, so fortuitously positioned between Europe and the Ottoman Empire. Elsewhere, Dr. Birnbaum’s expertise in the political economy of the period enhances the reader’s comprehension of the banking and trading of the day, with information such as the relative values of period currency and products traded. She also takes care to present the background to the events she covers. For example, Chapter 2, “A Short History of the Conversos,” describes in full the issues faced by New Christians and their origins. This is important if one is to appreciate fully the challenges confronting someone of this background, very much in the public eye, on a seventeen-year odyssey to a destination that must be kept hidden as long as possible. The same attention is given to a wide-screen picture of the Ottoman Empire, necessary if one is to understand the environment that served as stage for the daring political actions and spiritual dreams of Doña Gracia’s later years. Still another example is the author’s portrait of bustling Antwerp, thriving as a crossroads of sixteenth century trade, where the House of Mendes benefited, being in the right place at the right time. Dr. Birnbaum’s scholarship is artfully combined with her writer’s understanding that readers need more than a chronological recounting of events for the true picture to emerge of personages and periods long gone. Her approach, and its reasons, are clear in the book’s final paragraph of homage. The following shows how her work differs from the often impassioned style one finds in Roth and Brooks. There are no extant records in which Gracia directly expressed her political ideas or religious feelings, and I do not speculate about them. I have faithfully chronicled her private and public activities, and her role as a mater familias, supported by available documents. Those facts alone should prove beyond doubt that Gracia was a woman of singular intelligence, imagination, and perseverance, whose actions were ennobled by her unyielding faith and spiritual grace. She knew how to dream without boundaries and had the courage to make her dreams come true, regardless of the limits forced upon her by her faith and gender. An independent thinker, Gracia presents a life that affirms the fundamental importance of human dignity for centuries to come. Reviewed by DOLORES SLOAN MARIANNA D. BIRNBAUM taught Hungarian and Central European literature and culture at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she is Professor Emeritus. She also serves as visiting professor at Central European University, Budapest, in the Medieval Department. DOLORES SLOAN spoke on Doña Gracia at SCJS’s 1999 conference. Her articles on La Señora have appeared in HaLapid, which she edits. |
Society For Crypto Judaic Studies
|
