ROCAMORA, ISAAC (VICENTE) DE:
Spanish monk, physician, and poet; born about 1600 of Marano parents at Valencia; died April 8, 1684, at Amsterdam. Educated for the Church, he became a Dominican monk (assuming the name "Vicente de Rocamora") and confessor to the Infanta Maria of Spain, subsequently Empress of Austria, who honored him greatly. In 1643 he openly adopted Judaism, taking the name of Isaac. He studied medicine, and then settled in Amsterdam, where he engaged in the active practise of his profession. He became physician to and director of several philanthropic societies in that city, among them the Maskil el Dal and Abi Yetomim.
Rocamora was one of the judges of the academy of poetry, Los Sitibundos, founded by Manuel de Belmonte; but none of his poetical works, either in Spanish or in Latin, has been preserved. His son Solomon de Rocamora also was a physician in Amsterdam.
- De Barrios, Relacion de los Poetas, p. 60;
- Kayserling, Sephardim, pp. 291 et seq.;
- idem, Bibl. Esp.-Port. Jud. p. 94;
- Grätz, Gesch. x. 195.
