Costa, Isaäc da [key], 1798–1860, Dutch poet and historian, b. Amsterdam, of an aristocratic Sephardic Jewish family. Deeply influenced by Bilderdijk, he entered (1822) the Reformed Church, and much of his poetry is fervently Christian. Da Costa's period of poetic maturity is placed between the publication of his political poem Vijf-en-twintig Jaren [twenty-five years] in 1849, which revealed unusual social consciousness, and the appearance of the narrative poem De Slag bij Nieuwpoort [the battle of Nieuport] in 1859. He was a distinguished scholar in Protestant biblical theology and the classics. His work on Jewish history was translated into English as Israel and the Gentiles (1855).
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