| AdminHistory | Born Venice, son of Phineas (Pinhas) Nieto, 1654; studied medicine at the University of Padua; functioned as dayan (religious judge), preacher, and physician in Livorno; married Sara,before 1687; three sons; Haham (chief rabbi) of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in London, 1701-1728; founded an orphan asylum, Sha'ar Or ve-Avi ha-Yetomim, 1703; as the result of a sermon preached in 1703 on divine providence he was accused by a congregant of heresy; a furore ensued, involving even the Attorney-General, and culminated in Nieto's exoneration in 1705; founded a Bikur Holim (sociey for visiting the sick), 1709; wrote numerous scholarly works and achieved general celebrity through his engagement in the philosophical controversy of the day; proficient in languages and an astronomer of some repute; his writings show evidence of wide reading in science and the humanities; he argued for the compatibility of Judaism and scientific investigations; died 1728. Publications include: 'Pascalogia' (1702); 'De La Divina Providencia; (1704); 'Mateh Dan', a defence of the oral law (1714); 'Esh Dat', an attack on the popular rabbi Nehemiah Hayon, a suspected follower of the false messiah Shabbethai Tzevi (1715). |
| CustodialHistory | Purchased at auction from London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews by Israel Solomons in 1912. Part of the Asher Myers collection acquired by the Mocatta Library, University College London. |
| PublnNote | Described in Israel Solomons, 'David Nieto and Some of His Contemporaries', 'Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England', Vol. 12, 1931, p. 31-33. Described, transcribed and translated in Raphael Loewe, 'The Spanish Supplement to Nieto's "Esh Dath"', 'Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research', Vol. 48, 1981, p. 267-296. |