Lorenzo Hervás

Defunct Lorenzo Hervás y Panduro was a Spanish Jesuit and philologist; born at Horcajo, 1 May 1735; died at Rome, 24 August 1809.

He is one of the most important authors, together with Juan Andrés, Antonio Eximeno or Celestino Mutis, of the Spanish Universalist School of the 18th century.

Having entered the Jesuit order at Madrid, he studied at Alcalá de Henares, devoting himself with special zeal to architecture and linguistics.

He was held in high honour; Pope Pius VII made him prefect of the Quirinal library, and he was a member of several learned academies.

He availed himself diligently of the exceptional opportunity thus afforded him of gaining information about remote and unknown idioms that could not be studied from literary remains.