BARGAS, ABRAHAM DE

BARGAS, ABRAHAM DE (c. 1740), Spanish Marrano author and physician. After escaping from Spain, Bargas settled first in France, where he was personal physician to the duke of Gramont, and later in Italy, where he became physician to the Leghorn Jewish community. There he composed a volume of ethical discourses on the Bible, Pensamientos sagrados y educaciones morales… (Florence, 1749). He also wrote an account of the earthquake of 1742, Fiel relación de los terremotos… (Leghorn, 1742), and translated into Spanish the order of service for the fast-day instituted to commemorate that event: Traducción de la oración del ayuno y de los temblores de tierra… (Pisa, 1746). He wrote some occasional poems, among them El Casto Niceto (Leghorn, n.d.). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Kayserling, Bibl, 15–16; A.S. Toaff, Cenni storici sulla communità ebraica e sulla sinagoga di Livorno. (1955). (Cecil Roth)