FRESCO, DAVID:

Turkish writer; descendant of Spanish exiles; born at Constantinople about 1850. He edited successively five Judæo-Spanish periodicals: "El Nacional" (1871: changed in 1872 to "El Telegraphe," later [1872] to "El Telegrafo"); "El Sol" (1879); "El Amigo de la Familla" (1886); "El Instructor" (1888); "El Tiempo" (1889); the last is the best edited and most widely circulated paper in the East. Fresco, who is very popular, has translated many works into Ladino. Among them are: "Los Judios y la Sciencia," from Schleiden's "Die Bedeutung der Juden für Erhaltung und Wiederbelebung der Wissenschaften im Mittelalter" (Constantinople, 1878); "La Ley Natural," from Volney's "Natural Law" (ib. 1879); "Jerusalem," from Mendelssohn's "Jerusalem" (ib. 1879); "Amor de Sion," from Abr. Mapu's work of the same name (ib. 1880); "Los Maraños de España," from Philippson's "Die Marranen" (ib. 1880); "La Calomnia de la Sangre," from the Hebrew (ib. 1880); "Una Victima de la Iñoranza" (ib. 1881); "Los Mysterios de Paris," from the original of Eugene Sue. He also translated several novels by Emile Richebourg, and other French writers.

Bibliography:
  • Franco, Essai sur l'Histoire des Israélites de l'Empire Ottoman, pp. 273-281.
S. M. K.
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