June 5 1717 – 7 Tammuz 5477
London
Emanuel Mendez da Costa, author of A Natural History of Fossils
(1757), was born. Descended from Spanish conversos, this former
notary was among the first Jewish fellows of the Royal Society of
London. As the society’s clerk, the cash-strapped da Costa
deposited advance membership payments into his own account so|
as to collect interest. Convicted of this crime, he spent the last five
years of his life in debtors’ prison.
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