ZACUTO, ABRAHAM BEN SAMUEL (ca. 1450-ca. 1510).
Astronomer, scientist, professor, and rabbinical scholar. A native of Spain, Zacuto lived in Portugal after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. Fleeing the Inquisition, he left Portugal for Tunis and Turkey. Zacuto perfected the astrolabe, the forerunner of the sextant, used by Vasco da Gama. He was the author of the Almanach Perpetuum, nautical tables, and works on astronomy.