| Abstrakt: |
The study delves into the context and perceptions of Samuel Usques’ iconic Consolação às Tribulações de Israel (1553), at first available only in Portuguese and not translated for about four centuries. Amid the classic ‘literature of Tribulations’ and the ostensible rise in Jewish historiography in the mid-sixteenth century, it re-centers Usque’s work, interpreting the Tribulações in a framework of emergent intellectual modernity. The use of dialogue as a literary device serves here as a diagnostic marker pinpointing a shift in the ‘literature of Tribulations’ – from medieval chroniclelike settings to the stylistics of Renaissance Humanism. The study evokes parallels between the Tribulações and the similar modernity of Shevet Yehuda / Scepter of Yehuda (1552?), for instance. The Shevet exemplifies here a post-Machiavellian attempt at explaining Jewish history in social and economic terms, sometimes approaching Realpolitik, rather than in pure terms of Divine Providence. The article tackles issues of exilic Sefardi identity, editorial decisions, typography and design, history of images and history of ideas, geographical concepts, and choice of language (rise of the modern, ‘national’, vernaculars). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
