[인물] Joseph de la Vega

자료 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_de_la_Vega

José, Josseph or Joseph Penso de la Vega, best known as Joseph de la Vega (ca.1650, Espejo, Spain — November 13, 1692, Amsterdam, Netherlands), was a successful Jewish merchant, poet, and philanthropist residing in 17th century Amsterdam. He became famous for his masterpiece Confusion of Confusions , the oldest book ever written on the stock exchange business.

Biography

Joseph was born about 1650 in Espejo, a small town in Córdoba province (Andalusia, Spain), into a family of Spanish and Portuguese Jews. He was the son of Isaac Penso Félix and of Esther de la Vega, whose family name he assumed, and who was a relative of the Vegas that founded a Talmudic school in Livorno. His father was a Marrano, who had made a solemn vow in the dungeon of the Inquisition that within a year after regaining his liberty he would openly profess Judaism. This oath he fulfilled in Middelburg after his escape to Antwerp. Isaac, from the time of his marriage until his death, which occurred in February, 1683, distributed 80,000 gulden as tithes from his profits. Penso had four brothers: Abraham, the eldest, who was charitable like his father; Joseph, David, and Raphael, who lived in London.
Joseph went while still young to Amsterdam, where he was taught by Isaac Aboab da Fonseca and Moses Raphael de Aguilar. When in his eighteenth year he completed his first Hebrew drama, "Asire ha-Tiḳwah" ("Pardes Shoshannim"), in three acts, which appeared in Amsterdam in 1673 (2d ed., Leghorn, 1770), and in which he allegorically depicted the victory of the will over the passions. He became a respected merchant and an elegant Spanish poet, and filled the honorary offices of president of the Academia de los Sitibundos and secretary of the Academia de los Floridos, founded by Manuel de Belmonte. Penso wrote over 200 letters to different princes and statesmen, and was a prolific author, "the marvel of the academies, who made his work proof against criticism by presenting his subject in ordered form; delicate in his sentiments and of true refinement", as De Barrios ("Arbol de las Vidas", p. 90) characterizes him.
[edit]Confusion of Confusions (1688)

Although not a descriptive account of the process of stock trading, Penso presented the history of speculation in stocks and acquainted the reader with the sophisticated financial instruments used. The dialogue format allowed the reader to understand the respective perspectives of the various market participants and the intricacies of speculation and trading.
Penso also came up with four basic rules of the share market that are still of the greatest relevance today: (...)

자료 2: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0015_0_15551.html

PENSO DE LA VEGA, JOSEPH (1650–1692), *Marrano writer and merchant. Joseph was born in Amsterdam. His father Isaac Penso Felix, a native of Espejo, Spain, had been imprisoned by the *Inquisition in Spain, and supposedly vowed to embrace Judaism openly within a year of his release. When freed he fled with his family to Antwerp and then to Amsterdam, and formally returned to Judaism at Middleburg. A charitable man, Isaac was said to have distributed 80,000 guldens as tithes from his profits.

Joseph Penso spent a short period in Leghorn, but lived mainly in Amsterdam, where he was a member of several literary academies and produced many and varied works. Besides funeral orations, wedding verses, and similar occasional pieces, he claimed to have written more than 200 epistles to different European statesmen. One of his earliest efforts was a Hebrew drama, Asirei ha-Tikvah (Amsterdam, 1673), an allegorical depiction of the victory of the will over the passions.

His Spanish books, all published in Amsterdam, include the Triunfos del Aguila (1683), on the relief of Vienna by John Sobieski; Retrato de la Prudencia (1690), which eulogized William of Orange when he became king of England; a collection of Discursos académicos, morales, retóricos y sagrados (1685), which he delivered at the Academia de los Floridos in Amsterdam; and Rumbos Peligrosos (1684), containing three short novels. These works, particularly the last named, enjoyed considerable vogue, but suffer the defects of the period: excessive display of erudition, digressions, and baroque floridness. One of his outstanding works is Confusión de Confusiones (1688), the first book to treat the workings of the stock exchange. It is still considered one of the best descriptions of dealings in stocks and shares. In the form of four dialogues between a "fastidious philosopher," a "prudent merchant," and an "erudite stockholder," Penso explains what stocks are, how they are bought and sold, the use of options, speculative maneuvers, and so on, and describes the operations of the Dutch trading companies. In spite of its serious subject, the work is enlivened by whimsical explanations of the origins of this kind of dealing and ironic descriptions of the bourse, of Amsterdam's coffee houses, and of the life of stock traders. Selections of it were translated into English by H. Kellenbenz and published under the same title in 1957.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Roth, Marranos, 336–7; M.B. Amzalak, Joseph de la Vega e o seu livro Confusión de Confusiones (1925); idem, As Operações de Bolsa segundo Joseph de la Vega (1926); idem, Trois précurseurs Portugais (193–?); J. Caro Baroja, Los Judios en la España moderna y contemporánea, 2 (1962), 157–9.

[Kenneth R. Scholberg]