Honorific Prefix: | Captain |
Birth Date: | 1514 |
Death Date: | 1577 |
Birth Place: | Coimbra, Portugal |
Death Place: | Coimbra, Portugal |
Allegiance: | Spain |
Rank: | Captain |
Children: | Abraham Curiel, physician |
Relations: | Fernão Nunes (brother) |
Jacob Curiel of Coimbra (1514-1576),[1] also known as Jacob Curiel or Duarte Nunes of Coimbra, was a prosperous Portuguese cloth merchant and navy commander.[2]
Curiel was born into a family of crypto-Jews, the brother of Fernão Nunes, and grandson of Jeronimo de Saldanha y Bovadilha, who was a Portuguese nobleman. Curiel rose to become a captain in the Spanish Navy, commanding two fleets. Upon discovering that Curiel was Jewish, his sailors freed him because they had respected him.[3] [4] He was the father of Abraham Curiel.[5] [6] Historian Jonathan Israel described him as one of the most influential merchants of the sixteenth century.[7]