David Curiel
{{short description|Portuguese Jewish merchant in Amsterdam}}
{{about||the American cancer biologist|David T. Curiel}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox noble|
name = David Curiel
| father =Abraham Curiel
| mother = Maria de Fonseca
| birth_date = 11 May 1594
| birth_place =Lisbon
| death_date = 4 October 1666 (aged 72)
| death_place =Rotterdam
| occupation =merchant, diplomat
|noble family=Curiel|honorific prefix=Don|nationality=}}
Don David Curiel (11 May 1594 – 4 October 1666), alias Lopo da Fonseca Ramires,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AKEdN0NEE-UC&q=david+curiel|title=Conflicts of Empires: Spain, the Low Countries and the Struggle for World Supremacy, 1585–1713|last=Israel|first=Jonathan|date=1 January 1997|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=9781852851613|language=en}} was a Sephardi Jewish merchant.{{Cite web|url=https://spinozaweb.org/people/77|title=Ramirez, Lopo - The Spinoza Web|website=spinozaweb.org|access-date=7 October 2019}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2VzJHjw_iecC&q=david+curiel&pg=PA37|title=Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation: Conversos and Community in Early Modern Amsterdam|last=Bodian|first=Miriam|date=1999|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=9780253213518|language=en}}, p. 163
Early life and education
David Curiel was the son of Abraham Curiel and the brother of Jacob Curiel.{{Cite journal|last=Israel|first=Jonathan|year=1994|title=Lopo Ramirez (David Curiel) and the Attempt to Establish a Sephardi Community in Antwerp in 1653–1654|journal=Studia Rosenthaliana|volume=28|issue=1|pages=99–119|issn=0039-3347|jstor=41482274}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z4OxAwAAQBAJ&q=lopo+ramirez&pg=PA197|title=Conflicts of Empires: Spain, the Low Countries and the Struggle for World Supremacy, 1585–1713|last=Israel|first=Jonathan|date=1 July 1997|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=9780826435538|language=en}} He was sent to Heidelberg University in Heidelberg, Germany.
Diplomatic career
In Amsterdam, David Curiel served as Agent to the Spanish Crown as well as being engaged in the import business of jewellery and gunpowder across Europe.{{Cite journal|last=Israel|first=Jonathan|year=1994|title=Lopo Ramirez (David Curiel) and the Attempt to Establish a Sephardi Community in Antwerp in 1653–1654|journal=Studia Rosenthaliana|volume=28|issue=1|pages=99–119|issn=0039-3347|jstor=41482274}} He was a financier of the Spanish delegation at the Peace of Westphalia.{{Cite web|url=https://spinozaweb.org/people/77|title=Ramirez, Lopo – The Spinoza Web|website=spinozaweb.org|access-date=7 October 2019}}
Curiel was perhaps the most prominent member of Amsterdam's Sephardi community and was a generous patron of Hebrew scholarship.{{Cite web|url=https://akten.amsterdam/list?t=Person&q=Lopo%20Ramirez|title=akten.amsterdam|website=akten.amsterdam|access-date=7 October 2019}}{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aMcVAQAAIAAJ&q=lopo+ramirez|title=Portuguese Jews in Amsterdam|date=1967 |language=en}}
Whilst in Amsterdam, Curiel was attacked by a robber, recognising who he was, and 'seriously wounded him with a knife'. Curiel pursued his attacker, with the help of his neighbours. The man was 'arrested, tried, and executed', and Curiel received a letter of apology from the Stadholder of the Netherlands.{{Cite book|last=Rooden|first=Peter T. Van|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aMD_uXVDujsC&q=curiel+hebrew&pg=PA161|title=Theology, Biblical Scholarship, and Rabbinical Studies in the Seventeenth Century: Constantijn L'Empereur (1591-1648), Professor of Hebrew and Theology at Leiden|date=1989|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-09035-4|language=en}}
Family
Curiel had two sons born in the Netherlands. Samuel in 1655 and Isaac in 1659. He insisted that his sons be circumcised in accordance with Jewish law and is even said to have refrained from attending the stock exchange on the Sabbath.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HO55DwAAQBAJ&q=lopo+ramirez&pg=PA48|title=The Dutch Intersection: The Jews and the Netherlands in Modern History|last=Kaplan|first=Yosef|date=19 June 2008|publisher=BRILL|isbn=9789047442141|language=en}}
References
{{reflist}}
Books
- In 1994, the British historian Jonathan Israel wrote a book charting the life of David Curiel, Lopo Ramirez (David Curiel) and the Attempt to Establish a Sephardi Community in Antwerp in 1653–1654.{{Cite journal|last=Israel|first=Jonathan|year=1994|title=Lopo Ramirez (David Curiel) and the Attempt to Establish a Sephardi Community in Antwerp in 1653–1654|journal=Studia Rosenthaliana|volume=28|issue=1|pages=99–119|issn=0039-3347|jstor=41482274}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Curiel, David}}
Category:Heidelberg University alumni
Category:17th-century Portuguese Jews
Category:Expatriates in the Holy Roman Empire
Category:Expatriates in the Dutch Republic
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