Samuel Usque:
Poet and historian; a near kinsman (but not a brother) of the printer Abraham Usque, whose contemporary he was at Ferrara, whence Samuel later went to Safed. No further details of his life are known, but he was a man of high culture, and one of the most interesting figures among the Jewish writers of the middle of the sixteenth century. He was thoroughly versed in the Bible, wrote Portuguese correctly, understood Spanish and Latin, and had a philosophical bent.
To confirm the Maranos in their faith and to prevent apostasy from Judaism, Usque wrote in Portuguese "Consolaçam as Tribulaço?s de Ysrael" (Ferrara, 1553; 2d ed. Amsterdam, n.d.), a work on the trials and tribulations of the Jewish people, together with the causes of their various sorrows. This prose poem, which is dedicated to Gracia Mendesia, is divided into three dialogues between the patriarch Icabo (Jacob), who is introduced as a shepherd lamenting the fate of his children Numeo (Nahum) and Zicareo (Zechariah). In the first two dialogues, the author narrates the history of the Israelites down to the destruction of the Second Temple, and describes their sufferings under the Roman rule, basing his account on the Books of Maccabees and on Josephus. The work derives its importance, however, and its martyrologic character from the third dialogue, which, in thirty-seven numbers, recounts the sufferings of the Jews to the author's own time, and quotes the prophecies which were thereby fulfilled. The narrative begins with the persecution by Sisebut, which is followed by the story of the alleged desecrations of the host in France and Spain; the sufferings of the Jews in Persia, Italy, England, and Germany; the accusations against them in Spain and France; their persecution in Spain and Portugal; and the fortunes of those who were exiled from the last-named country. The story of these afflictions, most of them given in chronological order, concludes with words of consolation taken from the Bible.
Usque's chief sources for his history were Alfonso de Spina's "Fortalitium Fidei" (cited as "F. F." or "F. Fid."), which he attacked, and also the "Coronica de España," "Estorias de S. Denis de França" (ch. x.), "Coronica Dos Emperadores e Dos Papas," and other similar records. The abbreviations "L. I. E. B.," "E. B.," and "V. M." also occur frequently in Usque's work. The first two are supposed by Isidor Loeb to stand for "Liber Iehuda ibn Berga" (Verga), in which case they would denote the first edition of the "Shebe? Yehudah" of Judah ibn Verga. Grätz, however, thinks they connote "Liber Efodi," and he thus assumes that both Judah and Usque, who generally agree, drew upon the "Zikron ha-Shemadot" of Profiat Duran. The abbreviation "V. M." is as yet unexplained. Usque's "Consolaçam" was frequently used by Joseph ha-Kohen, author of the "'Eme? ha-Baka."
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