COSTA, ISAAC DA, Brieven van Mr. Isaac da Costa, medegedeeld door Mr. Groen van Prinsterer.

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saäc da Costa (14 January 1798 – 28 April 1860)[1] was a Jewish poet.Da Costa was born in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. His father, an aristocratic Sephardic Portuguese Jew, Daniel da Costa, a relative of Uriel Acosta, was a prominent merchant in the city of Amsterdam; his mother, Rebecca Ricardo, was a sister of the English political economist David Ricardo. Daniel da Costa, soon recognizing his son's love for study, destined him for the bar, and sent him to the Latin school from 1806 to 1811. Here Isaäc wrote his first verses. Through his Hebrew teacher, the mathematician and Hebraist Moses Lemans, he became acquainted with the great Dutch poet Bilderdijk, who, at the request of Isaäc's father, agreed to supervise the boy's further education. Bilderdijk taught him Roman law, and a familiar intercourse sprang up between them, which afterward developed into an intimate friendship.

In 1817 Da Costa went to Leyden, where he again saw much of Bilderdijk. There he took his degree as doctor of law in 1818, and as doctor of philosophy on 21 June 1821. Three weeks later he married his cousin, Hannah Belmonte, who had been educated in a Christian institution; and soon after, at the instance of Bilderdijk, he was baptized with her at Leyden.