BOOK LAUNCH IN BRAGANZA-JACOB DE CASTRO SARMENTO

(A biography by Fernanda Guimarães and António Andrade, published by www.novavega.pt. An English adaptation will be available shortly. To read the English preface by professor Michael Alpert, president of the Jewish Historical Society of England, please visit, http://www.jackwhite.net/iberia/castro_sarmento.html)




On Sunday, June 13, 2010, His Worship, António Jorge Nunes, mayor of the City of Braganza launched a new biography of Dr. Jacob De Castro Sarmento, baptized Henrique in Braganza in 1691, son of Francisco de Castro Almeida and Violante da Mesquita, Marranos from Braganza. Welcomed into the Sephardic fold of Bevis Marks congregation in London after fleeing the Portuguese Inquisition, Sarmento became the first Jew to obtain a PHD in the UK and one of the first Jews to be admitted to the Royal College of Physicians. A pioneer of the smallpox vaccine and a quinine water remedy ("Aguas da Inglaterra"), Sarmento was one of many "Bragantinos" to distinguish themselves in the Marrano diaspora.



His worship, mayor António Jorge Nunes (standing), Carla da Costa Viera (left), PHD student and author of the preface to the book, and co-authors António Júlio de Andrade and Maria Fernanda Guimarães.

His Worship, António Jorge Nunes, mayor of the City of Braganza.


The book launched took place in the municipal library during the annual book fair. The city of Braganza supported the publication and has purchased a building to house a Marrano-Jewish museum.

Fernanda Guimarães, tireless researcher of the Inquisition archives at the Torre de Tombo, national archives. She taught herself German to read the seminal work on Portuguese Marranos in Spain by Marcus Schreiber, " Marranen in Madrid 1600-1670" (Stuttgart 1994).