MEDIDAS DE SEPARACIÓN

1550-1750 (Oxford: OUP, 1985); Henry Méchoulan, Etre juif à Amsterdam au temps

de Spinoza (Paris: Michel, 1991); Carel ter Haar, Jüdisches Städtebild Amsterdam (Frankfurt

am Main, 1993); Yosef Kaplan, From Christianity ίο Judaism. The Story of Isaac Orobio

de Castro (Oxford: OUP, 1989); Miriam Bodian, Hebrews of the Portuguese nation: con- versos and community in early modern Amsterdam (Bloomington [u.a.]: Indiana Univ. Press,

1997), and the contribution of Elisheva Carlebach to this volume.

refers to his time in Amsterdam: "It was there that I sealed the covenant with our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with my blood" (1,37). The Hebrew introduction to the letters gives a similar descrip- tion: "And he left his house and homeland and traveled to the holy community of Amsterdam to worship God and offer his sacrifice there; the heart and blood."68 Around that time d'Antan must have

accepted his Jewish first name. We do not know his original first name. However we know that it must have been about that time that d'Antan decided to write a book about his "miraculous con- version" (1,38), not unlike converts to Christianity, who often wrote justifying this step in a public report. D'Antan's book never seemed to have been published. Was it ever written? If so, then it may still remain untouched without a name on its cover among the collec- tions of the Amsterdam community.69

It is hard to determine from the available information when the conversion precisely occurred. If one adds to his time at the Collège, which must have been during the mid-1690s, a few years of mili- tary service, which may have overlapped with the three years of indecision, then one arrives at around 1705 as the year of his con- version. D'Antan would then still only have been about twenty years old. The unknown variable in this calculation, however, remains the precise time and duration of his military service. If it is taken into consideration that d'Antan's second letter—as we shall see—was writ- ten after 1711 then it may very well be that we have to presume his conversion for approximately 1710 or even later. It could even be that only the publication of La Croze's Entretiens in 1711 served as the impetus for d'Antan to contact his old mentor. In this work, La Croze uses a fictional Sephardic Jew as a mouthpiece to criti- cize the intolerant and corrupt conditions in Christianity. He endows the Jew—quite uncommon for this time—with very benevolent char- acter traits. The Jew is a cosmopolitan, educated and eloquent figure.70

D'Antan may have heard, possibly from Baron von Staff, that the

Amsterdam Jewish community. I thank Adrain Offenberg of the Bibliotheca Rosen- thaliana for the information.

68 Ms. gall. Oct. 38 (footnote 1), fol. 2v.

69 On the manuscripts, see above all L. Fuks und R.G. Fuks-Mansfeld, Hebrew

and Judaic Manuscripts in Amsterdam Public Collections (Leiden, 1975).

70 See La Croze, Entretiens (footnote 21); on that book see Jonathan Israel, "Philo-

author of the anonymously published book was his old mentor, who worked by that time as librarian in Berlin. This may have motivated him to entrust this man, whom he could picture with sympathies for the Jews, with the story of his conversion.

With regards to von Staff, his identity remains a mystery. The archives in Berlin have records of a certain Nathanael von Staff, who was director-in-chief of the Berlin Fürsten-und Ritterakademie (Academy for Princes and Knights) and from 1706 on became civil servant or the Herolds-Amt (Office of Heralds) there.71 Another line

of the family leads us into military circles. In 1709, Carl von Staff, who was a royal Prussian major, died. In 1729, Thomas Ernst von Staff died, who probably was also a descendant from a Prussian fam- ily and who had served as lieutenant general in the imperial Russian military.72 A connection between d'Antan and von Staff seems pos-

sible through the military service of both men. The years preceed- ing 1713/14 were characterized by intensive military movements against the background of the Wars of the Spanish Succession. At the time of the peace negotiations in Utrecht, numerous ambassadors and military officials arrived in Holland;73 it is possible that von Staff

knew La Croze from Berlin and that he made the acquaintance of d'Antan either when d'Antan served in the military or after his con- version in Amsterdam. But it is impossible to speculate more than that. The question of von Staffs religious views remains a specula- tion as well. Could it have been possible that von Staff harbored anti-Trinitarian sympathies? In 11,6, for example, where d'Antan developed his cabbalism, operating with ternary distinctions, he hints: "Please show this letter to Baron von Staff and he will be equally stunned to see a Trinitarian Jew as I would be if I saw a Unitarian Christian." It is not clear if the "I would be" has to be taken purely hypothetically or if it indeed referred to von Staff's beliefs.

71 See Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, I. HA Geheimer Rat,

Rep. 7 Preußen, Nr. 13 Fasz. 83x von Staff, 1708; I. HA, Rep. 176 Heroldsamt, S Nr. 312 v. Staff/Reitzenstein. A title "Baron" cannot be found in the archivalia. I am grateful to the GSTA PK for the information. The first name Nathanael is rather unusual. Might this von Staff have any connection to Judaism?

72 See Genealogisches Handbuch des Adeh, vol. 26 (Limburg/Lahn, 1961), 396.

73 On the milieu see Max Braubach, Geschichte und Abenteuer: Gestalten um den Punzen