(INQUISITION). <<(Antonio Jose da Silva Coutinho).>> Theatro comico portuguez, ou, Colleccao das operas ...

(INQUISITION). <<(Antonio Jose da Silva Coutinho).>> Theatro comico portuguez, ou, Colleccao das operas portuguezas, que se representarao na casa da theatro publico do Bairro Alto, e Mouraria de Lisboa.

Comprising the plays: <<*>> 1. Vida de D. Quixote de la Mancha. <<*>> 2. Esopaida, ou vida de Esopo. <<*>> 3. Os encantos de Medea. <<*>> 4. Amfitriao, ou Jupiter, e Alcmena. pp. 426, (4). Opening blanks worn, inscription by Immanuel Silvius Nunes. Contemporary mottled calf, worn. 8vo. Lisbon, Simao Thaddeo Ferreira, 1787

    'Theatro Comico Portuguez' was issued in four volumes. This is the first volume which comprises four works by the Jewish playwright Antonio Jose da Silva, known as 'O Judeu' (Portuguese: 'The Jew'), whose comedies, farces, and operettas revitalized the Portuguese theater during a period of dramatic decadence.

    Of Jewish extraction and born in Rio de Janeiro, when Antonio Jose da Silva (1705-39) was seven years old his mother was accused by the Inquisition of relapsing into Judaism, whereupon the family was forced to leave Brazil for Portugal for her trial. Silva studied canon law at Coimbra, but at 21 he was imprisoned with his mother and brothers and forced under torture to abjure his Jewish faith. On his release, he completed his studies (1728), joined his father's legal practice in Lisbon, and married a cousin who had also suffered religious persecution.

    During a brief period (1729-37) when he was unmolested by the authorities, Silva wrote eight plays, all for the opera dos bonecos (puppet theater), performed at the Bairro Alto Theatre in Lisbon. Prose dialogue is interspersed with arias, minuets, and modinhas (popular, light songs). His best plays are generally considered to constitute a skilled and witty satire against the pretensions of a society based upon caste and privilege.

    In 1739 Silva and his wife were both charged by the Inquisition with the heresy of Judaizing and imprisoned on October 5th. Thirteen days later, Silva was garrotted and burned at an auto-da-fe (public burning at the stake), witnessed by his wife, who died soon thereafter. (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antonio-Jose-da-Silva). See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%C3%B3nio_Jos%C3%A9_da_Silva.