Joan d'Acosta

Joan d'Acosta (Russian: Ян Лакоста; c. 1665– c. 1740) was a Jewish jester at the court of Czar Peter the Great of Russia in the first half of the eighteenth century.

Joan d'Acosta
Jesters at the Court of Empress Anna (1872) by Valery Jacobi. D'Acosta appears at the bottom of the painting, wielding a whip.
Born	c. 1665
Died	c. 1740
Occupation	Court jester

Born in Holland or Morocco into a Portuguese Marrano family, d'Acosta worked as a broker in Hamburg before settling in Saint Petersburg.^[1] He received an appointment as jester in 1714.^[2]

D'Acosta is described as having been very clever and witty, well-versed in Scripture, and a master of numerous European languages. Czar Peter reportedly enjoyed discussing philosophical and theological questions with him, which often led to heated arguments.^[3] As a reward for his services, the Czar gave him the uninhabited island of Sammer in the Gulf of Finland,^[4][3] along with the mock title "King of the Samoyeds."^[5] He retained his position as court jester under Empress Anne.

Legacy

D'Acosta appears as a protagonist in David Markish's 1983 novel Jesters.^[6]

References

  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rosenthal, Herman (1901). "Acosta, Joan d'". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 167.

1. Shubinsky, Sergey Nikolaevich (1871). "Court Jesters and Their Weddings, in the Reigns of Peter the Great and Anna Ivanovna". Historical Narratives from the Russian. Translated by Romanoff, H. C. London: Rivingtons. p. 6–7.
2. Slutsky, Yehuda (2007). "Acosta, Joan d'". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4.
3. Senelick, Laurence (2018). "Eighteenth-Century Russia". In Balme, Christopher B.; Vescovo, Piermario; Vianello, Daniele (eds.). Commedia dell'Arte in Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 114. doi:10.1017/9781139236331. ISBN 978-1-139-23633-1.
4. Ferrazzi, Marialuisa (2000). Commedie e comici dell'arte italiani alla corte russa (1731–1738). La fenice dei teatri (in Italian). Vol. 12. Bulzoni Editore. p. 288. ISBN 978-88-8319-531-0.
5. Otto, Beatrice K. (2007). Fools Are Everywhere: The Court Jester Around the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-226-64092-1.
6. Shrayer, Maxim D., ed. (2015). An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature: Two Centuries of Dual Identity in Prose and Poetry. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-47695-5.