Samuel Usque (
Lisbon, c.1500 - after 1555 in Italy or Palestine) was a Portuguese
converso
A ''converso'' (; ; feminine form ''conversa''), "convert", () was a Jew who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries, or one of his or her descendants.
To safeguard the Old Christian ...
Jewish author who settled in
Ferrara
Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...
.
His major work is the ''Consolação às Tribulações de Israel'' ("Consolation for the Tribulations of Israel"), Ferrara, 1553. He appears to be the only one of the contemporaries of
Solomon ibn Verga to have made use of the latter's ''Sceptre of Judah.''
He is credited with coining the epithet "Mother of Israel" (
Judaeo-Spanish
Judaeo-Spanish or Judeo-Spanish (autonym , Hebrew script: , Cyrillic: ), also known as Ladino, is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish. Originally spoken in Spain, and then after the Edict of Expulsion spreading through the Ottoman E ...
: ''Madre de Israel'') for the Greek city of
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...
.
[Gallery labels, Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Usque, Samuel
Portuguese male writers
Portuguese Renaissance writers
1500s births
16th-century deaths
People from Lisbon
16th-century Portuguese writers
Jewish Portuguese writers