Abstract
Según Samuel Usque en su Consolaçam as Tribulações de Israel, en 1551 Manuel Bichacho, judío de origen portugués que vivía en Pesaro, convenció al duque de Urbino para que aceptara en sus estados a un grupo de sus compatriotas que habían sido expulsados de Ferrara, acusados de propagar la peste. Sin embargo, el destierro de Ferrara tuvo lugar en el otoño de 1549 y no en 1551. Las investigaciones llevadas a cabo en archivos italianos y belgas nos han permitido identificar al judío portugués Manuel Bichacho, banquero de Pesaro, con Emanuel Lopes, rico mercader marrano de Amberes, que jugó un importante papel como uno de los líderes de la «nación portuguesa» en dicha ciudad y miembro del comité de rescate que organizó y financió la huida de marranos de Portugal a Flandes y desde allí hacia Ferrara y Levante.
Highlights
Emanuel Lopez was already settled in Antwerp in 1535 and enjoyed a remarkable economic position: he hired the ship S
We do not know when Emanuel Lopez left Flanders, nor do we know where he first settled in Italy
The notarial deeds relating to 1550 and 1551 do not supply information on Portuguese people recently settled in Pesaro, the only remarkable exception being perhaps provided by branchs of the Namias "^^ and Roves ^^ families. At this point we have to take into account the problem posed by the wrong dating of the «desterro de Ferrara» ^^ by Samuel Usque
Summary
In 1540, Charles V ordered an inquiry into the religious behaviour of the New Christians of Antwerp, whom he suspected of observing the Sabbath and «other strange Jewish ceremonies» ^. In 1540, various prisoners confessed under torture that they had received money from different merchants of Antwerp and denounced to this effect: Diogo Mendes Benvenisti, Gabriel de Nigro, Manuel Saran, Dominico Mendes, Lopes de Provincia and Manuel Lopes, whom they identified as the heads of the secret Rescue Commitee who had provided the Marranos with money «with the sole purpose of allowing them to reach the city of Salónica, in the parts of Turkey, in order to forswear the Christian faith» ^^ According to these testimonies, Manuel Serrano and Emanuel Lopez were the ones who delivered the money to the refugees and provided them with carriages for the long journey ^^. This document was apparently used by Lucien WOLF, Essays in Jewish History (London 1934): «Jews in Tudor England», pp
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