Isabella Henríquez (c. 1610 – between 1680 and 1684), also known as Isabella Enríquez, was a Sephardi Jewish poet.

Henríquez belonged to the converso community in Madrid where she distinguished herself in the different academies. Isaac Cardoso dedicated to her his work, Panegyrico y excelencias del color verde (Madrid, 1634), and Miguel de Silveira [es] included a hymn of praise to her in his Parténope Ovante.[1][2]

She left Spain sometime around 1635 to settle in Amsterdam,[3] where she openly embraced Judaism. She became active in the literary circles of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community. It is reported that Henríquez distributed amulets alleged to protect against physical harm.[4]

Her only-known surviving work is a décima dedicated to Rabbi Isaac Aboab, from her manuscript Obras Poeticas. The poem is quoted by Daniel Levi de Barrios, who dedicated two poems to her (reprinted in his 1686 work Bello monte de Helicona).[5]

References edit

  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainGottheil, Richard; Kayserling, Meyer (1904). "Henriquez (Enriquez), Isabella". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 349.

  1. ^ Geevers, Liesbeth (13 January 2014). "Henríquez, Isabella". Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
  2. ^ Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim (April 2014). De la Cour d'Espagne au ghetto italien: Isaac Cardoso et le marranisme au XVIIe siècle (in French). Paris : Fayard, 1988. ISBN 9782213652870. OCLC 799943219.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ Díaz Esteban, F. (1999). "La poetisa entre los literatos. El ejemplo de Isabel Henríquez entre los judaizantes del siglo XVII". In Bosse, Monika; Potthast, Barbara; Stoll, André (eds.). La creatividad feminina en el mundo barroco hispánico. María de Zayas, Isabel Rebeca Correa, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (in Spanish). Vol. 2. Kassel: Reichenberger. pp. 419–438. ISBN 978-3-931887-80-3. OCLC 44702790.
  4. ^ Kayserling, Meyer (1859). Sephardim. Romanische Poesien der Juden in Spanien. Ein Beitrag zur Literatur und Geschichte der spanisch-portugiesischen Juden. Leipzig: Hermann Mendelssohn. pp. 250–251.
  5. ^ Kayserling, Meyer (1890). Biblioteca Española-Portugueza-Judaica (in French). Strasbourg: Charles J. Trubner. pp. 33–4, 52, 58.