ALMEIDA, LOPEZ D':

Head of the embassy sent by Alfonso V. of Portugal to Pope Sixtus IV., in the year 1472. His mission was twofold: to congratulate the pope upon his accession, and to inform him of the king's victory over the Moors of Arzilla, in Africa. Don Isaac Abravanel, who was prominent at the court, endeavored to induce the embassy at the same time to plead with the pope in favor of the Jews. He wrote to his Italian friend, Yeḥiel of Pisa, to perform all possible kindly offices toward Lopez d'Almeida and to win his good-will by impressing upon him the gratification of the Italian Jews at the generous attitude of Alfonso toward their coreligionists. The success of Abravanel's effort is doubtful (see Sixtus IV.).

Bibliography:
  • De Pina, Cronica de Affonso V., ch. 168;
  • Carmoly, Biographie der Jachjiden, p. 68;
  • Grätz, Gesch. d. Juden, 3d ed., viii. 328.
H. G. E.
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