David de Castro Tartas

David ben Abraham de Castro Tartas (also David de Kastro Tartas; in Hebrew, דוד די קאסטרו תרטאס )[1] (Tartas, 1630-Amsterdam, 1698) was a Portuguese Jewish printer in Amsterdam.[2] Between 1662 and 1701 his press printed the Gazeta de Amsterdam, a newspaper of the exiled Jewish community.[3]

David was one of three sons of Portuguese "New Christians" who had escaped from Bragança, and settled, under the Catholic names Cristóvão Luís and Isabel da Paz in the French town of Tartas.In 1640 they moved to Amsterdam to live freely as Jews, retaining the surname "Tartas."[4] David's older brother Isaac de Castro Tartas (ca. 1623-1647) stayed only 1 year in Amsterdam, emigrated to Brazil, and later was martyred in Lisbon.

David de Castro Tartas started as a typesetter in the printing house of Menasseh Ben Israel, where his name is mentioned in 1647. He later appears in 1662 as owner of his own press and in 1678 as a member of the Amsterdam Printers' Guild. His press competed with that of Uri Phoebus Halevi and the press of Joseph Athias.

  1. ^ Library of Congress Authorities
  2. ^ George Alexander Kohut Jewish martyrs of the inquisition in South America - 1895 "He was a relative of the celebrated court-physician Elias (Eliahu, Montalto, and of the Amsterdam publisher, David ben Abraham de Castro Tartas, whose press has enriched Jewish literature.
  3. ^ Yosef Kaplan The Dutch intersection: the Jews and the Netherlands in modern history Page 95 2008 "The Gazeta de Amsterdam, printed by David de Castro Tartas between 1662 and 1701, is another example of a publication not meant for a .."
  4. ^ Hebrew typography in the Northern Netherlands, 1585-1815 Part 2 - Page 339 Lajb Fuks, R. G. Fuks-Mansfeld - 1984 "Abraham Berakh; also notice that David de Castro Tartas helped with the printing of the works for which he is thanked; ... David de Castro Tartas, 1662-1698 David de Castro Tartas or de Crasto Tartaz was the son of Portuguese New Christians from Braganca"