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Birth of Spinoza's sister, Miriam
Not much is known about Miriam. She died in childbirth in 1651. Portrait: Sephardic woman. -
Birth
Baruch de Espinoza was born on 24 November 1632 in the Jodenbuurt in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He was the second son of Miguel de Espinoza, a successful, although not wealthy, Portuguese Sephardic Jewish merchant in Amsterdam.
His mother, Ana Débora, Miguel's second wife, died when Baruch was only six years old. Spinoza's mother tongue was Portuguese, although he also knew Hebrew, Spanish, Dutch, perhaps French, and later Latin. -
Hana Debora Spinoza's Death
Spinoza’s mother, Hannah, died in 1638, shortly before his sixth birthday. -
Foundation of the Talmud-Torah school of Amsterdam
The Jewish community in Amsterdam was unique in its time. It originally comprised people who had been raised in Spain, Portugal, France, or Italy as Christians and who had fled to Amsterdam to escape persecution and to practice their ancestral religion freely. The community developed many social and educational institutions, including an all-male Talmud-Torah school founded in 1638. -
Death of Spinoza's older brother, Isaac
At the age of 17, after the death of his elder brother, Isaac, he cut short his formal studies in order to begin working in the family importing business. It is actually unclear if Isaac, Baruch's older brother, was the son of Rachel (Miguel's first wife) or the son of Hanna (his second wife). He was probably named after Spinoza's grandfather, Isaac de Spinoza. His birthdate is unknown. Portrait: Sephardic young man -
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First Anglo-Dutch War
The First Anglo-Dutch Warwas a conflict fought entirely at sea between the navies of the Commonwealth of England and the United Provinces of the Netherlands. Caused by disputes over trade, the war began with English attacks on Dutch merchant shipping, but expanded to vast fleet actions. Ultimately, it resulted in the English Navy gaining control of the seas around England, and forced the Dutch to accept an English monopoly on trade with England and her colonies. -
Spinoza begins studying Latin
Spinoza began studying Latin with Francis van den Enden (Franciscus van den Enden), a notorious free thinker, former Jesuit, and radical democrat who likely introduced Spinoza to scholastic and modern philosophy, including that of Descartes. Spinoza adopted the Latin name Benedictus de Spinoza. -
Death of Miguel Spinoza
Spinoza's father, Miguel, died in 1654 when Spinoza was 21. He duly recited Kaddish, the Jewish prayer of mourning, for eleven months as required by Jewish law.
When his sister Rebekah disputed his inheritance, he took her to court to establish his claim, won his case, but then renounced his claim in her favour. -
Spinoza relinquish responsibility for the business to his younger brother, choosing to devote himself to the study of philosophy and optics
After his father's death, Spinoza and his younger brother Gabriel ran the family importing business. The business ran into serious financial difficulties. In March 1656, Spinoza filed suit with the Amsterdam municipal authorities to be declared an orphan in order to escape his father's business debts. Spinoza was eventually able to relinquish responsibility for the business and its debts to his younger brother and devote himself chiefly to the study of philosophy and to optics. -
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Life in Amsterdam and Ouderkerk aan de Amstel
After the cherem, the Amsterdam authorities expelled Spinoza from Amsterdam, "responding to the appeals of the rabbis, and also of the Calvinist clergy, who had been vicariously offended by the existence of a free thinker in the synagogue". He spent a brief time in or near the village of Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, but returned soon afterwards to Amsterdam and lived there quietly for several years, giving private philosophy lessons and grinding lenses, before leaving the city in 1660 or 1661. -
Spinoza's Cherem
On 27 July 1656, the Talmud Torah congregation of Amsterdam issued a writ of cherem (Hebrew: חרם, a kind of ban, shunning, ostracism, expulsion, or excommunication) against the 23-year-old Spinoza. The exact reason for expelling Spinoza is not stated. The censure refers only to the "abominable heresies that he practised and taught," to his "monstrous deeds," and to the testimony of witnesses "in the presence of the said Espinoza." -
Short Treatise on God, Man, and His Well-Being
During this time in Amsterdam (between perhaps 1658 and 1660), Spinoza wrote his Short Treatise on God, Man, and His Well-Being, which he never published in his lifetime—assuming with good reason that it might get suppressed. Two Dutch translations of it survive, discovered about 1810. -
Spinoza move to Rijnsburg
Spinoza moved around 1660 or 1661 from Amsterdam to Rijnsburg (near Leiden), the headquarters of the Collegiants. In Rijnsburg, he began work on his Descartes' "Principles of Philosophy" as well as on his masterpiece, the Ethics. -
Spinoza publishes "The principles of Descartes' philosophy" and moves to Voorburg
In 1663, he returned briefly to Amsterdam, where he finished and published Descartes' "Principles of Philosophy," the only work published in his lifetime under his own name, and then moved the same year to Voorburg. -
Theological Political Treatise
He wrote and published his Theological Political Treatise in 1670, in defence of secular and constitutional government, and in support of Jan de Witt, against the Stadholder, the Prince of Orange. Leibniz visited Spinoza and claimed that Spinoza's life was in danger when supporters of the Prince of Orange murdered de Witt in 1672. De Witt's enemies characterized it as "forged in Hell by a renegade Jew and the Devil, and issued with the knowledge of Jan de Witt." -
Life in The Hague
In 1670, Spinoza moved to The Hague where he lived on a small pension from Jan de Witt and a small annuity from the brother of his dead friend, Simon de Vries. He worked on the Ethics, wrote an unfinished Hebrew grammar, began his Political Treatise, wrote two scientific essays ("On the Rainbow" and "On the Calculation of Chances"), and began a Dutch translation of the Bible (which he later destroyed). -
Spinoza meets Leibniz
On the journey from London to Hanover, Leibniz stopped in The Hague where he met Spinoza, who had just completed his masterwork, the Ethics. Leibniz admired Spinoza's powerful intellect, but he was also forthrightly dismayed by Spinoza's conclusions, especially when these were inconsistent with Christian orthodoxy. -
Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata (The Ethics, finished 1674, but published posthumously)
Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order (Latin: Ethica, ordine geometrico demonstrata), usually known as the Ethics, is a philosophical treatise written by Benedict de Spinoza. It was written between 1664 and 1665 and was first published in 1677. Themes: G.d or Nature (Deus Sive Natura), Structure of reality, Morality -
Compendium grammatices linguae hebraeae (Hebrew Grammar)
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Spinoza's Death
Spinoza's health began to fail in 1676, and he died on 21 February 1677 at the age of 44. His premature death was said to be due to lung illness, possibly silicosis as a result of breathing in glass dust from the lenses that he ground. Later, a shrine was made of his home in The Hague. -
Portugees-Israëlietische Gemeente te Amsterdam ask for Spinoza's Cherem to be reconsidered
In September 2012, the Portugees-Israëlitische Gemeente te Amsterdam asked the chief rabbi of their community Haham Pinchas Toledano to reconsider the cherem after consulting several Spinoza experts. However he declined to remove it, citing Spinoza's "preposterous ideas, where he was tearing apart the very fundamentals of our religion".
