onsiderably in trade, especially in maritime ventures. It seems that the
trading hobby, innate in most Dutchmen at that time, was also strong in
him; in an act of 1634 we see him already designated as "merchant" and not
as artist!

The house seems rather to have gone up in value, for it realised in these
bad times nearly as much as Rembrandt had originally paid for it. This is
not to be wondered at, as it stood in a very profitable quarter. The
street followed the course of a dike, called the St. Anthoniesdyk, from
which it derived its name; this dike was then and had always been an
important way of access to Amsterdam, as it was the only direct route to
Diemen, Weesp, and Muiden. In the beginning of the seventeenth century it
was inhabited by many aristocratic families, with whom gradually
intermingled Portuguese Jewish refugees, as this was a new quarter where
they could more easily find living accommodation. As time went on, Jewish
occupants began to dominate, and towards the close of the century the
street was for that reason rebaptised from St. Anthoniebreestraat into
Joden (= Jews') breestraat. We find this change illustrated in the fact
that, when Rembrandt bought this house, one of his neighbours was a Jew,
called Salvador Rodrigue, the other a Christian fellow-painter Nicolaes
Eliasz, but when he left the house, Eliasz had died in 1654 and been
succeeded by Daniel Pinto, again a noted Jewish name. These Portuguese
Jewish families were a great advantage to the town and should in no way be
placed on a par with the poor Jews, mostly of German and Polish descent,
now occupying this quarter. The Portuguese Jews were highly cultured,
well-to-do, orderly, and clean people; one of their most brilliant minds
was Menasseh-ben-Israel, Rabbi at the Synagogue situated on a canal just
behind Rembrandt's house, a great linguist, the first Hebraic printer in
the Netherlands, the teacher of the celebrated philosopher Spinoza, a
sympathetic and admirable figure, whom we see until the close of his life
in friendly relations with Rembrandt.

[Plate 17. The Bridge and Sluice called "St. Anthonie-sluis" in
Amsterdam, seen from the North. ]

Plate 17. The Bridge and Sluice called "St. Anthonie-sluis" in Amsterdam,
seen from the North. Rembrandt's home (_plate 16_) stood in the immediate
vicinity of this spot. After the drawing by A. Waterloo, in the Fodor
Museum, Amste