FLÓREZ, ENRIQUE

Scholar; b. Villadiego (Burgos), July 21, 1702; d. Madrid, May 5, 1773. An Augustinian since 1718, he had moderate success as a theologian in Alcalá (Theologia, 5 v., 1732–38), but the chief result of the regime of study and seclusion he followed for the last 40 years of his life was the first 29 volumes of the España sagrada (1747–75), still in publication. In this gigantic task of putting order into Spanish history, diocese by diocese, he received the generous help of many other Spanish scholars, a subsidy from Ferdinand VI, and ecclesiastical privileges from Benedict XIV. The work is still valuable for the many sources edited therein and today is itself the object of historical study. Flórez's Clave historical (1743; 18th ed. 1854) is a handbook of European history. His Memorias de las reinas católicas (1761, 1945) is a scholarly work. In 1765 he published the Viage santo of Ambrosio de Morales (d. 1591), whose work he had inherited at Alcalá. The Medallas (3 v., 1757–73) is a study of Hispano–Roman and Visigothic coins. His edition of the Commentary on the Apocalypse by beatus of liÉbana (1770) was the only one in print until 1930. His fervent and purposeful scholarship was not entirely without fault. Flórez's voluminous correspondence is scattered.

Bibliography: f. mÉndez, Noticias sobre la vida, escritos y viajes del … Flórez (2d ed. Madrid 1860); Indice-catálogo de la biblioteca del padre E. Flórez, ed. a. c. vega (Madrid 1952). Enciclopedia universal illustrada Europeo-Americana, 70 v. (Barcelona 1908–30; suppl. 1934–) 24:150–152. b. sÁnchez alonso, Historia de la historiografía española, 3 v. (Madrid 1941–50) v.3. m. vallejo girves, "Enrique Florez y sus contemporaneos ante la Intervencion de Gregorio Magno en obispados de la Espana bizantina," Hispanica Sacra 49 (1997) 655–673.

[e. p. colbert]