(MEXICAN JUDAICA) Processo contra Goncalo Perez Ferro

Sale 2163 - Lot 286

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TWO ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT DOSSIERS FROM THE MEXICAN INQUISITION (MEXICAN JUDAICA.) Processo contra Goncalo Perez Ferro. 140, [16] leaves, paginated on recto only. Folio (12.5 x 8.5 inches), later 1/2 morocco with gilt spine title "Inquisicion MS 1597"; four ink burn holes on title page, bottom of title page reinforced and extended, moderate dampstaining throughout, particularly in lower left corner, also on title page and along top edge of first 40 leaves, bright indigo ink stain affecting top margin of first 33 leaves, irregular puncture tear on leaf [153] with minimal loss of text. Mexico, 1597-1602

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An Inquisition tribunal was established in New Spain in 1571, and began a relentless program of identifying and persecuting the members of Mexico's small secret Jewish community. Many dozens of accused Jews were tortured in hopes of gaining confessions or conversions; sentences included public flogging, exorbitant fines, mandatory wearing of sambenito garments, and not infrequently death.
Gonzalo Perez Ferro was about 30 years old in 1597, a native of Portugal, and an itinerant merchant in Mexico City and surrounding areas. He was a relative by marriage of the Carvajals, the most prominent Jewish family in Mexico during the period. He had previously been arrested for practicing Judaism despite having been baptized in the Catholic Church, admitted his "error," and after a public flogging and a reconciliation, was set free.
Perez Ferro's "relapse" into Judaism led to this second arrest. The dossier contains the order for his arrest, his appearances before various judges giving testimony against 24 other Jews (all named on the verso of the first leaf), his hand-written and signed "confessions" (on leaves 76, 77, 9092, 9697, and 136139), and testimony against him by several Jews who were already in the secret cells of the Mexican Inquisition: Luis de Carvajal the Younger, Isabel Machado, Mariana de Carvajal, and Juan Plata, to name just four.
The testimony of Luis de Carvajal against Perez Ferro was obtained via torture, which is carefully documented here. Perez Ferro, however, gave his testimony and confessions without having been taken to the torture cells. Very curiously, he was reconciled a second time and released. Later evidence suggests that he soon fled Mexico and settled in Martinique.
References: Martin Cohen, Martyr: The Story of a Secret Jew and the Mexican Inquisition (Philadelphia, 1973), 176; Seymour Liebman, The Jews in New Spain (Coral Gables, FL, 1970), 310; Seymour Liebman, A Guide to Jewish References in the Colonial Era (Philadelphia, 1968), 97.