Syntactic Trees

Letter from Gabriel Díaz flores, physician, to Manoel Rodrigues Dias, soap maker.

The author informs Manoel Rodrigues Dias that he visited the secretary of the Inquisition Tribunal to ask him if someone has testified against the addressee or his family.

The accused in this process was Gabriel Díaz Flores, physician of Santa Olalla (Toledo). In 1649 he was accused by the Inquisition Tribunal of Toledo of abetment and interfering with the visit of the tribunal in Talavera de la Reina (Toledo) and surroundings. Gabriel Díaz Flores had asked to the secretary of the Inquisition Tribunal if this had received testimonies against any member of the family of Manoel Rodrigues Dias, because the latter was afraid that one of his servant had denounced him and his family for judaizing. The accused had this letter with him at the moment of the arrest. The letter was joined to the proceedings as a proof, in order to look for signs of Judaism in it. Eventually, Gabriel Díaz Flores was condemned to three years of banishment, in which he had to stay at a minimum distance of twelve leagues from Madrid, Toledo, Santa Olalla (Toledo) and Talavera de la Reina (Toledo), and to the payment of three hundreds «ducados».

In relation to this letter, in the upper margin there is the following annotation: Respecto a la carta aquí transcrita, en el margen superior del folio 3r aparece la siguiente anotación: «Esta carta trajo al Consejo cerrada José Méndez, a quien estaba cometida la prisión de Manoel Rodrigues Dias, a 15 de abril [de] 1649; y dijo haberla hallado en poder de Alonso Díez, criado del susodicho». («This letter was handed over, closed, by José Méndez, who had the responsibility of the imprisonment of Manoel Rodrigues Dias, on the 15th of April 1649, and he affirmed that he had found it in possession of Alonso Díez, servant of the aforementioned»).