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Case file s1373 · Jewish law and estates · 1508

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1508

Abravanel Perush ha-torah: Title page of Isaac Abravanel: Perush ha-Torah. Varsha: Bi-Defus Y. Levenzohn, 1862-1863. Perush (Commentary) on the Pentateuch, originally published in — Abravanel Perush ha-torah. Isaac Abravanel. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.

Died: 1508
Place: Lisbon, Portugal; Toledo, Spain; Naples, Italy; Venice, Italy
Field: royal treasurer, financier, Bible commentator · Royalty and nobility on the timeline
Legal tradition: royal confiscation for treason (Portugal); Alhambra Decree of 1492 (Spain) · Royal and church law
Historical event: Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, 1492

Jewish law and estates Seized by the state Empires and conquest Europe Italy

Isaac Abravanel lost an inherited fortune in Portugal, offered Spain 30,000 ducats to stop the expulsion, and lost everything again in Naples

Isaac Abravanel was born in Lisbon in 1437, son of the Portuguese treasurer Judah. He inherited great wealth from his father and became treasurer to King Alfonso V. After Alfonso died, King John II accused him of plotting with the Duke of Bragança, who was executed. Abravanel was warned and fled to Castile in 1483. The king confiscated his lands, silver and gold by royal decree. In Castile he farmed royal revenues, supplied the army and lent money to the crown during the war against Granada. When Ferdinand and Isabella ordered the Jews to leave Spain in 1492, he offered them 30,000 ducats to revoke the edict. They refused. A plot was made to kidnap his grandson, so that his son Judah, a royal physician, would convert and stay. Judah sent the boy to Portugal with a nurse. John II had the child seized and baptised. Isaac sailed to Naples in 1493 and served its king. When the French took Naples in 1495 he lost all his possessions again. He moved to Messina, Corfu, Monopoli and in 1503 Venice, where he died in 1508. He was buried in Padua. His son Samuel rebuilt a fortune of more than 200,000 gold zecchini in Naples. When Charles V ordered the Jews to leave or wear the badge, Samuel moved to Ferrara, where he died in 1551.

What the law took from it

Wealth held in one kingdom under one king was lost three times by royal decree; the family survived by moving.

Sources

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Isaac Abravanel lost an inherited fortune in Portugal, offered Spain 30,000 ducats to stop the expulsion, and lost everything again in Naples,” story s1373, https://www.celebrity.estate/isaac-abravanel-1508, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Jewish law and estates Seized by the state Empires and conquest Europe Royal and church law Italy