Zucuto, Abraham ben Samuel

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Zucuto, Abraham ben Samuel (1452–1515). Historian and astronomer. Zucuto was the author of the astronomical work, Ha-Hibbur ha-Gadol, under the patronage of the bishop of Salamanca. After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, he settled first in Portugal (where he advised Vasco da Gama) and then N. Africa. He also wrote Sefer ha-Yuhasin, a history of the oral law based largely on original research, on which Moses b. Israel Isserles subsequently wrote notes (publ. 1580).