Joan d'Acosta

Joan d'Acosta
Jesters at the Court of Empress Anna (1872) by Valery Jacobi. D'Acosta appears at the bottom of the painting, wielding a whip.
Bornc. 1665
Diedc. 1740
OccupationCourt jester

Joan d'Acosta (Russian: Ян Лакоста; c. 1665– c. 1740) was a Jewish jester at the court of Czar Peter the Great of Russia in the first half of the eighteenth century.

Born in Holland or Morocco into a Portuguese Marrano family, d'Acosta worked as a broker in Hamburg before settling in Saint Petersburg.[1] He received an appointment as jester in 1714.[2]

D'Acosta is described as having been very clever and witty, well-versed in Scripture, and a master of numerous European languages. Czar Peter reportedly enjoyed discussing philosophical and theological questions with him, which often led to heated arguments.[3] As a reward for his services, the Czar gave him the uninhabited island of Sammer in the Gulf of Finland,[4][3] along with the mock title "King of the Samoyeds."[5] He retained his position as court jester under Empress Anne.

Legacy

D'Acosta appears as a protagonist in David Markish's 1983 novel Jesters.[6]

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rosenthal, Herman (1901). "Acosta, Joan d'". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 167.

  1. ^ Shubinsky, Sergey Nikolaevich (1871). "Court Jesters and Their Weddings, in the Reigns of Peter the Great and Anna Ivanovna". Historical Narratives from the Russian. Translated by Romanoff, H. C. London: Rivingtons. pp. 6–7.
  2. ^ Slutsky, Yehuda (2007). "Acosta, Joan d'". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4.
  3. ^ a b Senelick, Laurence (2018). "Eighteenth-Century Russia". In Balme, Christopher B.; Vescovo, Piermario; Vianello, Daniele (eds.). Commedia dell'Arte in Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 114. doi:10.1017/9781139236331. ISBN 978-1-139-23633-1.
  4. ^ Ferrazzi, Marialuisa (2000). Commedie e comici dell'arte italiani alla corte russa (1731–1738). La fenice dei teatri (in Italian). Vol. 12. Bulzoni Editore. p. 288. ISBN 978-88-8319-531-0.
  5. ^ Otto, Beatrice K. (2007). Fools Are Everywhere: The Court Jester Around the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-226-64092-1.
  6. ^ Shrayer, Maxim D., ed. (2015). An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature: Two Centuries of Dual Identity in Prose and Poetry. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-47695-5.