Gracia Mendes Nasi

Common card · No. 424745

Gracia Mendes Nasi (1510 – 1569) born Beatriz de Luna Miques, also known as Doña Gracia or La Señora "The Lady", was a Portuguese Sephardi Jewish philanthropist, businesswoman, and prominent member of the Mendes Benveniste family. She became one of the wealthiest and most influential women of Renaissance Europe. As a widow, she took over the banking and trading enterprise Casa Mendes-Benveniste, which operated throughout Europe and the Mediterranean. Her nephew and business partner Joseph Nasi also became an influential figure in the Ottoman Empire. During the severe repression of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition, she set up extensive escape networks to save hundreds of converso Jews fleeing persecution, established one of the first printing presses, and was an important patron of Jewish communities in Constantinople. She is also known for securing a long-term lease of Tiberias in the Safed sanjak (modern day Israel) from Suleiman the Magnificent. There, she financed the rebuilding...

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