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{{Infobox noble house|surname=Curiel|native_name=קוריאל|native_name_lang=[[Hebrew]]|other_name=|type=Jewish noble family|coat of arms=Complete Guide to Heraldry Fig065.png|image_size=100px|alt=|caption=|country=|estates=|parent house=|titles=Knights of the royal household of Portugal|styles=Knight|founded=14th century|founder=|final ruler=|current head=|motto=Merite|motto_lang=|motto_trans=|dissolution=<!-- {{End date|YYYY}} -->|deposition=|cadet branches=|notes=|region=[[Europe]] (mainly [[the Netherlands]], [[United Kingdom]], [[France]], and [[Italy]]) and [[Mexico]]|origin=[[Curiel de Duero]], [[Castile (historical region)|Castile]], [[Spain]]|traditions=[[Judaism]]|image=|coat_of_arms_size=100px}}

The '''Curiel family''' (Dutch: '''Curiël''' ''or'' also known as: '''Nuñez da Costa''') is a prominent [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardi Jewish]] family.

Until the late 18th century, the family held diplomatic positions for the [[List of Portuguese monarchs|Portuguese Crown]] in [[Hamburg]] and [[Amsterdam]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/curiel|title=Curiel|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org|access-date=2019-11-27}}</ref>

== History ==
The family's origins date back to the 14th century in [[Curiel de Duero|Curiel de Duero, Castile, Spain]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=srkwAQAAIAAJ&q=curiel+family&dq=curiel+family|title=At the end of the earth: essays on the history of the Jews in England and Portugal|last=Samuel|first=Edgar|last2=England|first2=Jewish Historical Society of|date=2004|publisher=Jewish Historical Society of England|isbn=9780902528376}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/curiel|title=Curiel|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org|access-date=2019-10-30}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=1WfaAAAAMAAJ&q=curiel+family+nobility&dq=curiel+family+nobility|title=Gentry and Lesser Nobility in Late Medieval Europe|last=Jones|first=Michael|date=1986|publisher=Sutton|isbn=9780862992804}}</ref> Part of the [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardic community]] in [[Spain]], the Curiel family settled in [[Coimbra|Coimbra, Portugal]] after the 1492 Spanish decree that ordered the expulsion of all Jews who refused conversion to [[Catholicism]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://jhse.org/articles/the-curiel-family-in-16th-century-portugal/|title=The Curiel Family in 16th-century Portugal|website=Jewish Historical Society of England|access-date=2019-10-31}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=srkwAQAAIAAJ&q=curiel+family+1492&dq=curiel+family+1492|title=At the end of the earth: essays on the history of the Jews in England and Portugal|last=Samuel|first=Edgar|last2=England|first2=Jewish Historical Society of|date=2004|publisher=Jewish Historical Society of England|isbn=9780902528376}}</ref> They were ennobled in 1641 by [[John IV of Portugal|João IV of Portugal]] and hold noble titles in Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands. The Curiel family has links to banking and commerce, the arts, literature and politics.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=AKEdN0NEE-UC&pg=PT207&dq=curiel+ennobled#v=onepage&q=curiel%20ennobled&f=false|title=Conflicts of Empires: Spain, the Low Countries and the Struggle for World Supremacy, 1585-1713|last=Israel|first=Jonathan|date=1997-01-01|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=9781852851613}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=ShYX4qoEYPYC&pg=PA333&dq=curiel+ennobled#v=onepage&q=curiel%20ennobled&f=false|title=Empires and Entrepots: Dutch, the Spanish Monarchy and the Jews, 1585-1713|last=Israel|first=Jonathan|date=1990-01-01|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=9781852850227}}</ref>

'Curiel ancestry, with its link to the last [[Visigothic Kingdom|Visigothic Kings]] and to the Portuguese ruling family, was inherited by the Baruch Lousadas through the Lamegos, but the Curiel noble descent was [[Legitimacy (family law)|illegitimate]].'<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.barrow-lousada.org/|title=4th cousin|website=www.barrow-lousada.org|access-date=2019-11-30}}</ref>

Historian [[Jonathan Israel]] writes that in the seventeenth century, "the new Hamburg synagogue, a place of worship for some eight hundred Sephardi Jews, was filled with emblems and reminders of the Curiel family. The eternal lamp, the ''Ner Tamid'', was provided by [[Jacob Curiel]], as was the oil for keeping the lamp burning. And also the ''bimah'' that stood at the centre of the synagogue, the shelves which lined it being reserved for the use of Jacob and his family."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=ShYX4qoEYPYC&pg=PA352&dq=curiel+family#v=onepage&q=curiel%20family&f=false|title=Empires and Entrepots: Dutch, the Spanish Monarchy and the Jews, 1585-1713|last=Israel|first=Jonathan|date=1990-01-01|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=9781852850227}}</ref>

Israel writes that [[Moses Curiel]] was "renowned for his wealth, the prestige he enjoyed among non-Jews (the [[Stadtholder|Stadholder]] William III stayed at his house for three days during one of his later visits to Amsterdam), and his handsome donations to the Amsterdam Portuguese synagogue, his name figured constantly in Dutch Jewish community life and synagogue politics for over half a century."  He continues: "his opulent residence on the [[Nieuwe Herengracht]], then called the Joden Herengracht, in Amsterdam, testified to the seigneurial grandeur of his life-style and his pretensions to leadership among the Portuguese Jewish 'nation' as the community was known in Holland."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=AKEdN0NEE-UC&pg=PT207&dq=curiel+ennobled#v=onepage&q=curiel%20ennobled&f=false|title=Conflicts of Empires: Spain, the Low Countries and the Struggle for World Supremacy, 1585-1713|last=Israel|first=Jonathan|date=1997-01-01|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=9781852851613}}</ref>

== Notable members ==

*[[Abraham Curiel]] (1545-1609), Portuguese physician<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=AKEdN0NEE-UC&pg=PT246&dq=curiel+family#v=onepage&q=curiel%20family&f=false|title=Conflicts of Empires: Spain, the Low Countries and the Struggle for World Supremacy, 1585-1713|last=Israel|first=Jonathan|date=1997-01-01|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=9781852851613}}</ref>
* [[David Curiel]] (1594-1666), Portuguese merchant and diplomat<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=NGdjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA402&dq=david+curiel+jew#v=onepage&q=david%20curiel%20jew&f=false|title=Portuguese Jews, New Christians, and 'New Jews': A Tribute to Roberto Bachmann|last=Stuczynski|first=Claude B.|last2=Feitler|first2=Bruno|date=2018-06-14|publisher=BRILL|isbn=9789004364974}}</ref>
* [[Israel ben Meir di Curiel]] (1501–1573), rabbi at Safed, Ottoman Palestine<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=SPQLAQAAMAAJ&q=israel+ben+meir+curiel&dq=israel+ben+meir+curiel|title=The Sephardic Onomasticon: an etymological research on Sephardic family names of the Jews living in Turkey|last=Pinto|first=Baruh B.|date=2004|publisher=Gözlem Gazetecilik Basın ve Yayın}}</ref>
* [[Jacob Curiel]] (1587-1664), Portuguese merchant and diplomat<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=ShYX4qoEYPYC&pg=PA352&dq=jacob+curiel+family#v=onepage&q=jacob%20curiel%20family&f=false|title=Empires and Entrepots: Dutch, the Spanish Monarchy and the Jews, 1585-1713|last=Israel|first=Jonathan|date=1990-01-01|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=9781852850227}}</ref>
* [[Moses Curiel]] (1620-1697), Portuguese merchant and diplomat<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=2VzJHjw_iecC&pg=PA37&dq=moses+curiel+family#v=onepage&q=moses%20curiel%20family&f=false|title=Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation: Conversos and Community in Early Modern Amsterdam|last=Bodian|first=Miriam|date=1999|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=9780253213518}}</ref>

== References ==
<references />

== Further reading ==

* I. Da Costa, ''Noble Families Among the Sephardi Jews,'' (Gordon Press Publishers, 1976), {{ISBN|0849023491}}
* Daniel M. Swetschinski, ''Reluctant Cosmopolitans: The Portuguese Jews of Seventeenth-century Amsterdam'', (Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2004), {{ISBN|1904113125}}

[[Category:Curiel family]]
[[Category:Jewish Portuguese history]]
[[Category:Jewish Dutch history]]
[[Category:Jewish Spanish history]]
[[Category:Sephardi Jews]]
[[Category:Jewish families]]
[[Category:Banking families]]
[[Category:Spanish Jews]]
[[Category:Portuguese Jews]]
[[Category:Dutch Sephardi Jews]]
[[Category:British Jews]]
[[Category:Egyptian Jews]]
[[Category:Italian Jews]]
[[Category:French Jews]]
[[Category:European noble families]]
[[Category:Portuguese noble families]]
[[Category:European nobility]]
[[Category:British Jewish families]]