LOBATO

LOBATO (Cohen Lobato ), Marrano family prominent in Amsterdam, Hamburg, and London. Of especial importance were the following: abraham cohen lobato, Portuguese Marrano born in Lisbon where he was known as Diego Gomez Lobato. In 1599, when his kinsman, Paul de Pina (alias Reuel *Jesurun) set out for Rome with the intention of becoming a monk, Lobato wrote to Elijah Montalto at Leghorn, who dissuaded him from his plan. Lobato subsequently went with De Pina to Brazil. On their return to Europe, they both settled as professing Jews in Amsterdam. Abraham Cohen Lobato is not to be confused with another person of the same name (perhaps his grandson) who died in Hamburg in 1665. The name Rehuel (Reuel) remained common among his descendants. rehuel cohen lobato, probably his son, and father of Isaac Cohen, was cotranslator, with Moses *Belmonte, of Avot, published in Spanish in Amsterdam (1644). isaac cohen lobato filled the role of "Mount Zion" in the original presentation of Reuel Jesurun's "Dialogue of the Seven Mountains" in 1624, and was one of the founders of the society Sha'arei Ẓedek in Amsterdam in 1678. rehuel lobato (1797–1866), a Dutch mathematician, was author of scientific and statistical works.

bibliography:

Roth, Marranos, index; M. Kayserling, Sephardim an der unteren Elbe (1859), 176; Kayserling, Bibl, 27, 64, 89; M. Grunwald, Portugiesengraeber auf deutscher Erde (1902), 115; M. De Barrios, Casa de Jacob (1685), 18, 24; H. Brugmans and A. Frank, Geschiedenis der Joden in Nederland, 1 (1940), 220, 264, 267.

[Cecil Roth]