Jose d' Acosta , born about the 1539, dead on February 15th, 1600, was a Spanish Jésuite of the 16th century, missionary and Naturaliste in Latin America.

Biography

Born with Medina del Campo in Spain towards 1539, it became there beginner of the Society of Jesus at the thirteen years age. Four of his/her brothers had already joined this same order before him. Teaching in Theology with Ocana, it left the Spain, in April 1569, to be sent to Lima, the Peru, where the Jesuits had been established the previous year. In Lima, Acosta occupied the pulpit of theology again; its reputation of speaker had preceded it. In 1571, it went to Cuzco as a visitor of the college of the Jesuits which there had just been founded. It turned over to Lima, three years later, to occupy the pulpit of theology again, and was elected there Provincial in 1576. It founded a certain number of colleges, of which those of Arequipa, Potosí, Chuquisaca, Panama and La Paz, but it met a considerable opposition on behalf of the viceroy, Francisco de Toledo, count d' Oropesa.

Its load obliging it to furrow in person a great extent of territory, it acquired a practical knowledge of this vast province and its population aboriginal. He played a very important part with the council of province of 1582 with Lima. Called in Spain by the King in 1585, it was retained with the Mexico, where it was devoted to the study of this country and its inhabitants. On its return in Spain in 1588, it gained the good graces of Philippe II by maintaining it what looked at the New World. Then, to give an account of its work in this area, it went to Rome near its general Aquaviva, who returned it to Spain in 1589 with the load of visitor of the Aragon and the Andalusia. In 1594, it occupied the pulpit of theology to the Gregorian pontifical Université with Rome, then occupied the place of superior with Valladolid. At the time of its death, on February 15th, 1600, he was vice-chancellor of the college of Salamanque.

Works

In addition to its publication of the official minutes of the Councils of province of 1567 and 1583 and several work of exclusively theological importance, Acosta is especially known like the author of De Natura Novi Orbis, promulgatione Evangelii apud Barbaros, sive De Procuranda Indorum salute and above all, of the Historia natural there moral of mow Indias. The two first appeared in Salamanque in 1588, the last with Seville in 1590, and they were shortly after their publication translated in various languages. It is mainly the Historia natural there moral which established its reputation. In a form more concise than that employed by its predecessors, Gómara and Oviedo, it treated the natural history and philosophical New World from a broader point of view. For example, more than one century before Europeans had heard of the Bering Strait, Acosta had put forth the assumption that the indigenous populations of the Latin America had migrated from Asia. It divided them into three cruel categories. The Historia describes also the habits and the history of the INCA S and the Aztèque S, also giving other information like the agricultural practical .

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