Name Juan Eguiara | ||
Juan Jose Eguiara y Eguren (c. 1696, Mexico – 29 January 1763) was a Mexican Catholic scholar and bishop.
Contents
Life
He received his education in the Jesuit College of San Ildefonso of Mexico and later was named rector of the University of Mexico. His learning was extensive, covering theology, canon law, philosophy, mathematics, and letters; and he was a gifted orator.
Eguiara was elected Bishop of Yucatan, but resigned to continue his literary work.
Works
Resenting the levity with which the Dean of Alicante, Manuel Marti, had characterized the attainments of the men of letters of the New World in his "epistolas latinas" printed in Madrid in 1735, denying them any merit, Eguiara, began his work Biblioteca Mexicana.
He published the first volume, which comprised the letters A, B, and C, and left in manuscript many biographies down to J. In the preface he refutes the charges of Dean Marti with much spirit and patriotism. The Biblioteca Mexicana is written in Latin and, besides the fact that it is incomplete, a pompous style detracts from it. It was, though, the first work of its kind published in Mexico and perhaps in the whole of Spanish-America. The complete title is Biblioteca Mexicana sive eruditorum historia virorum qui in America Boreali nati, vel alibi geniti, in ipsam domicilio aut studiis asciti, quavis lingua scripto aliquid tradiderunt. Ferdinando VI Hispaniarum Regi Catholico, Nuncupata Mexici 1755.
He also published "Panegiricos", printed separately in Mexico (1727–57); "Elogios funebres" (1755–66); "Praelectiones" (Mexico, 1746); fourteen volumes in theological and juridical questions; twenty volumes of sermons and instructions; and several other treatises.