Doña Gracia Nasi (c. 1510–1569) was among the most formidable figures of the Sephardi world in the sixteenth century. Her dramatic (indeed melodramatic) life began in Portugal, where she was born into a Jewish family whose members had recently been forcibly baptized. It ended in Constantinople after a career that brought her renown as a shrewd and resourceful businesswoman, a leader of the Sephardi diaspora, and a generous benefactor of Jewish enterprises. She became known among her contemporaries simply as “La Señora.”
Little is known of her early life. She was descended from a distinguished Spanish Jewish family bearing the name “Nasi.” Her parents may well have been among the Spanish-Jewish exiles who left Spain for Portugal in 1492, only to be forcibly baptized in Portugal in 1497. In any case, the family assumed “de Luna” as its Christian name. The child who was to become Gracia Nasi was born around 1510 and was named Beatrice.