Leonardo’s Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms by Stephen Jay Gould Page A
Authors: Stephen Jay Gould
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Mendes da Costa grew up in Britain at an interesting time, probably more favorable than most, for his people.
Jews had dwelled in England from the Norman Conquest until their expulsion underEdward I in 1290. After banishment from Spain in 1492, and from Portugal in 1497, Sephardic Jews (named from the Hebrew word for Spain) dispersed widely, but still could not settle in England. Some small communities of conversos or Marranos (officially converted Jews, but many still practicing their old religion secretly) lived in England from time to time, but when Shakespeare wrote the The Merchantof Venice , and created the anti-Semitic character of Shylock, no openly practicing Jews inhabited England. A new group of Marranos began to enter Britain from Rouen in the 1630s. This community, hoping for more toleration from Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate than from the previous monarchy, petitioned for the right to practice their religion openly—and their plea received favorable action in 1656.The restored monarchy of 1660 did not rescind the permission, and a few Jews therefore continued their tenuous tenancy. They could not, for example, engage in retail trade in London until 1822, and could not sit in Parliament until 1858 (Disraeli was a Christian convert).
As part of this history, very few Jews inhabited England in Mendes da Costa’s day—about two thousand Sephardim by the endof the eighteenth-century, and perhaps somewhat more Ashkanazim, or Jews of German and eastern European origin. In a potentially prejudiced society, just a few folks from an alien culture may appear exotic and fascinating, rather than threatening and despised—and the rarity of Jews seemed to work in Mendes da Costa’s favor, as he often encountered philo-Semitism among his noble and gentleman correspondents.
Emmanuel Mendes da Costa was trained in law, but chose to devote himself to natural history. He built a fine collection and published several articles, leading to his election as a fellow of the Royal Society (England’s premier association of scientists) in 1747, and to the Society of Antiquities in 1751. But his troubled and shadowy side also surfaced amid his successes. The Dictionary of NationalBiography remarks: “Although he early obtained the reputation of being one of the best fossilologists at his time . . . his life appears to have been a continual struggle with adversity.” He was imprisoned for debt in 1754. After his release the next year, he began to prepare, and finally published in 1757, his major treatise The Natural History of Fossils.
Mendes da Costa received his biggestopportunity in 1763 when he became clerk of the Royal Society, in charge of their collections and library, then in a state of neglect and disrepair. He wrote to a friend in September 1763:
I immediately proceeded to work, but such was the state of the said libraries and museum, that I am inclined to think the Augean stable was but a type of them [a reference to Hercules’ most unpleasant labor,far more taxing than killing the Lernaean Hydra, of clearing thirty years of manure from the stable of Augeas, King of Elis] . . . After many weeks’ work, amidst the repeated curses of myriads of spiders and other vermin, who had held peaceable possession for a long series of years, I accomplished, so that, thank God, now both libraries and museum are accessible, and in a state fit to be consultedby the curious.
Nonetheless, Mendes da Costa took great joy in the good fortune of his new job. He wrote to another friend: “Whenever you come to town, pray let me see you. Our Museum here, I assure you, has many fine things, and our library is very numerous and scientific. I am very happy in my places, and henceforward my whole life will be devoted to study.” But four years later, in December1767, he was dismissed for “various acts of dishonesty,” arrested at the suit of the Society, and committed to the King’s Bench prison, where he remained until 1772.
Jews had dwelled in England from the Norman Conquest until their expulsion underEdward I in 1290. After banishment from Spain in 1492, and from Portugal in 1497, Sephardic Jews (named from the Hebrew word for Spain) dispersed widely, but still could not settle in England. Some small communities of conversos or Marranos (officially converted Jews, but many still practicing their old religion secretly) lived in England from time to time, but when Shakespeare wrote the The Merchantof Venice , and created the anti-Semitic character of Shylock, no openly practicing Jews inhabited England. A new group of Marranos began to enter Britain from Rouen in the 1630s. This community, hoping for more toleration from Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate than from the previous monarchy, petitioned for the right to practice their religion openly—and their plea received favorable action in 1656.The restored monarchy of 1660 did not rescind the permission, and a few Jews therefore continued their tenuous tenancy. They could not, for example, engage in retail trade in London until 1822, and could not sit in Parliament until 1858 (Disraeli was a Christian convert).
As part of this history, very few Jews inhabited England in Mendes da Costa’s day—about two thousand Sephardim by the endof the eighteenth-century, and perhaps somewhat more Ashkanazim, or Jews of German and eastern European origin. In a potentially prejudiced society, just a few folks from an alien culture may appear exotic and fascinating, rather than threatening and despised—and the rarity of Jews seemed to work in Mendes da Costa’s favor, as he often encountered philo-Semitism among his noble and gentleman correspondents.
Emmanuel Mendes da Costa was trained in law, but chose to devote himself to natural history. He built a fine collection and published several articles, leading to his election as a fellow of the Royal Society (England’s premier association of scientists) in 1747, and to the Society of Antiquities in 1751. But his troubled and shadowy side also surfaced amid his successes. The Dictionary of NationalBiography remarks: “Although he early obtained the reputation of being one of the best fossilologists at his time . . . his life appears to have been a continual struggle with adversity.” He was imprisoned for debt in 1754. After his release the next year, he began to prepare, and finally published in 1757, his major treatise The Natural History of Fossils.
Mendes da Costa received his biggestopportunity in 1763 when he became clerk of the Royal Society, in charge of their collections and library, then in a state of neglect and disrepair. He wrote to a friend in September 1763:
I immediately proceeded to work, but such was the state of the said libraries and museum, that I am inclined to think the Augean stable was but a type of them [a reference to Hercules’ most unpleasant labor,far more taxing than killing the Lernaean Hydra, of clearing thirty years of manure from the stable of Augeas, King of Elis] . . . After many weeks’ work, amidst the repeated curses of myriads of spiders and other vermin, who had held peaceable possession for a long series of years, I accomplished, so that, thank God, now both libraries and museum are accessible, and in a state fit to be consultedby the curious.
Nonetheless, Mendes da Costa took great joy in the good fortune of his new job. He wrote to another friend: “Whenever you come to town, pray let me see you. Our Museum here, I assure you, has many fine things, and our library is very numerous and scientific. I am very happy in my places, and henceforward my whole life will be devoted to study.” But four years later, in December1767, he was dismissed for “various acts of dishonesty,” arrested at the suit of the Society, and committed to the King’s Bench prison, where he remained until 1772.
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