ROSALES, JACOB HEBRAEUS

ROSALES, JACOB HEBRAEUS (Immanuel Bocarro Frances ; c. 1588–c. 1668), Portuguese physician, astronomer, astrologer and poet. Born in Lisbon, Rosales was the son of a Marrano physician (Ferdinand Bocarro) and member of a family that included the poets Jacob *Frances and Joseph Frances. He studied medicine, mathematics and classical languages at Montpellier, after which he returned to Lisbon, where he attained a considerable reputation as a physician. Among the many noble personages he attended was the Archbishop of Braga. In addition to a thriving medical practice, Rosales developed a serious interest in astronomy, publishing in 1619 Tratado dos Cometas que aparecciao en Novembro de 1618. Five years later, he published a far more influential astrological work, Status Astrologicus sive Anacephalaeosis da Monarchia Lusitania (Lisbon, 1624), written in verse. The work is dedicated to King Phillip iii of Spain and praises Portugal's kings and nobility. In 1625, together with other Marranos, Rosales left Lisbon for Rome, possibly out of fear of the Inquisition. In Rome he cultivated a friendship with Galileo, who had a profound influence upon him and inspired him to write Regnum Astrorum Reformation (Hamburg, 1644). During the early 1630s, Rosales made his way to Hamburg, where there was a settlement of Marranos. On July 17, 1647, Emperor Ferdinand iii bestowed upon him the title of count palatine in recognition of his scientific achievements. Later, in Leghorn, Rosales openly called himself a Jew, having assumed the name Jacob Hebraeus. As a consequence, he was denounced to the Inquisition in Lisbon in 1658 together with other notable Marranos.

Among his other works are Poculum poeticum, a poem in honor of his friend, Abraham *Zacuto, printed in the latter's treatise, De medicorum principum historium (Amsterdam, 1629–42); Carmen intelectuale and Panegrycus in laudem eximii, which appears in Ẓeror ha-Ḥayyim; Menasseh ben Israel de Termino Vitae (Amsterdam, 1639).

bibliography:

R. Landau, Geschichte der juedischen Aertzte (1895), 113; Kayserling, Bibl, 95–96; idem, Sephardim (Ger., 1859), 209–11; idem, Geschichte der Juden in Portugal (1867), 298–300; H. Friedenwald, Jews and Medicine, 2 vols. (1944), 304, 311, 314, 756; Roth, Marranos, 219, 298.