ANTONIO DE ARANDA. - Spanish Franciscan theologian of the 16th century, born at Aranda de Duero, died about 1555. He was confessor to Maria, queen of Hungary and Bohemia, and to Giovanna, infanta of Portugal, daughters of Emperor Carlo V. In 1520-30 he made a journey to the Holy Land, during which he also visited the Maronites of Lebanon, and was then sent by Giovanni, guardian of Mount Sion, as ambassador to Carlo V on matters of the greatest importance.
He published a detailed description of the Holy Land in two treatises, carefully analysed by Röhrich. Tobler gives it the following title: Verdadera descripción de la Tierra Santo como estaba en MDXXX (Alcalá de Henares 1531), reprinted several times. He also published at Alcalá the Vite of St. Amaro and St. Maria Maddalena; Las siete palabras que se leen en el Evangelio haber dicho N. Señora (1552 and 1557); Monte Calvario (1552); and a Vida de D. Fr. Francisco Ximenes de Cisneros, which Alvaro Gomez de Castro used for his biography of the celebrated cardinal archbishop of Toledo.