David Franco Mendes (; 13 August 1713 – 10 October 1792), also known as David Ḥofshi (), was a Dutch-Jewish Hebrew-language poet. He was an early member of the

Haskalah The ''Haskalah'' (; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), often termed the Jewish Enlightenment, was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Wester ...

in Holland.

Biography

A businessman, he devoted his leisure hours to the study of the

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

, in which he became very proficient. He knew several languages and was especially well versed in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

. For six months preceding his death he was honorary secretary of the Spanish-Portuguese community in Amsterdam. David Franco Mendes was regarded as, next to Moses Hayyim Luzzatto and

Naphtali Hirz Wessely Naphtali Hirz (Hartwig) Wessely (; 9 December 1725 – 28 February 1805) was a German-Jewish Hebraist and educationist. Family history One of Wessely's ancestors, Joseph Reis, fled from Podolia in 1648 on account of the Chmielnicki persecutions ...

, the most important Hebrew poet of his time.

Delitzsch Delitzsch (; Slavic: ''delč'' or ''delcz'' for hill) is a town in Saxony in Germany, 20 km north of Leipzig and 30 km east of Halle (Saale). With 24,850 inhabitants at the end of 2015, it is the largest town in the district of Nordsach ...

describes his poems as traditional in subject, national in spirit, and artistic in form. He followed

Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ; ; 22 December 1639 – 21 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille, as well as an important literary figure in the Western tra ...

's ''

Athalie ''Athalie'' (, sometimes translated ''Athalia'') is a 1691 play, the final tragedy of Jean Racine, and has been described as the masterpiece of "one of the greatest literary artists known" and the "ripest work" of Racine's genius. Charles August ...

'' in his historical drama ''Gemul 'Atalyah'' (Amsterdam, 1770; Vienna, 1800; Warsaw, 1860). Under the title ''Teshu'at Yisrael bi-Yede Yehudit'' (Rödelheim, 1840) he translated into Hebrew

Pietro Metastasio Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi (3 January 1698 – 12 April 1782), better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio (), was an Italian poet and Libretto, librettist, considered the most important writer of ''opera seria'' libretti. Early ...

's ''

Betulia liberata ''La '' (''The Liberation of Bethulia'') is a libretto by Pietro Metastasio which was originally commissioned by Emperor Charles VI and set to music by Georg Reutter the Younger in 1734. It was subsequently set by as many as 30 composers, includin ...

''. He was a frequent contributor to '' Ha-Meassef'', in which he published some poems and short biographies of eminent Spanish-Portuguese Jewish. He left several manuscripts, written partly in Hebrew, partly in Portuguese and Spanish, most of which () were in possession of the seminary of the Spanish-Portuguese community at Amsterdam. They include: ''Bi'at ha-Mashiaḥ'', on the advent of the Messiah; ''Nir le-Dawid'', responsa, several of which are printed in the collection ''Peri 'Eẓ Ḥayyim''; a collection of Hebrew epitaphs; and ''Kinnor Dawid'', a large collection of poems by him and others. His ''Memorias do Estabelecimento e Progresso dos Judeos Portuguezes e Espanhoes nesta Famosa Cidade de Amsterdam: Recapilados de Paneis Antigos Impressos e Escritos, no Ao. 5529 = 1769'' (MS. no. 220, p. 4), ''Memorias Succintas da Consternaçaõ de Nosso K. K. de Amsterdam nos Tribulaçoõs desde Cidade e Provincia, no Ao. 1787'' (MS. no. 34, p. 4), and ''Collecaõ de Antiguidades'' (manuscript) are of historical value.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Franco Mendes, David 1713 births 1792 deaths Dutch male poets Dutch people of Spanish-Jewish descent Dutch Sephardi Jews Hebrew-language poets People of the Haskalah Writers from Amsterdam