Isaac Cardoso
Isaac Cardoso · Science & Medicine
Court physician in Madrid who left Spain to live openly as a Jew in Verona; author of Philosophia libera and of Las excelencias de los hebreos, an early systematic refutation of the blood libel and other antisemitic claims
1603/1604, Celorico da Beira, Portugal — 1683, Verona, Italy
Portugal · Spain (Valladolid, Madrid) · Venice · Verona
Isaac Cardoso is recognized among Jewish contributors to Science & Medicine — Court physician in Madrid who left Spain to live openly as a Jew in Verona; author of Philosophia libera and of Las excelencias de los hebreos, an early systematic refutation of the blood libel and other antisemitic claims
Born Fernando Cardoso into a converso family, he trained in medicine and philosophy at Salamanca and became a physician at the Spanish court, publishing on natural philosophy in Madrid. In middle age he left Spain for Italy, settled in the Verona ghetto, took the name Isaac and lived openly as a Jew. There he wrote Philosophia libera, a defence of experimental natural philosophy, and Las excelencias de los hebreos (Amsterdam, 1679), which answers the standard accusations levelled at Jews — the blood libel above all — point by point, and is one of the first works of Jewish apologetics to argue from evidence rather than from scripture alone.
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Source: Wikipedia — Isaac Cardoso
Court physician in Madrid who left Spain to live openly as a Jew in Verona; author of Philosophia libera and of Las excelencias de los hebreos, an early systematic refutation of the blood libel and other antisemitic claims
Source: Wikipedia — Isaac Cardoso
