Nathan Curiel (1666-1737), alias Alvaro Nunes da Costa, was a member of the Curiel family and Agent of the Portuguese Crown in Amsterdam.
[2] Curiel had an early interest in botany and sponsored exploration to discover new flowers in the Far East.
Jonathan Israel wrote, 'The effort which went into cultivating fine gardens, we may conclude, was yet another means of seizing the attention of visiting envoys and aristocrats.
'[3] Israel notes that Curiel possessed a 'medieval illuminated Hebrew Bible of expectational beauty' which his father, Moses Curiel, had purchased from a Spanish Jew from North Africa.
According to Israel, this Bible is considered 'the oldest and most venerable item possessed by Dutch Jewry.