ARQUES y JOVER, AGUSTÍN de. - Spanish Mercedarian historian, born at Cocenteina (Alicante) on 30 April 1734, died at Valencia on 14 June 1808. He entered the Mercedarian convent of Elche in 1749; there he was lector, then rector. Appointed general archivist of the Order (1781), he was an indefatigable researcher and copyist. In 1787 he was appointed chronicler and general definitor; in 1796 provincial of Valencia; in 1801 general assistant.
Rico García lists 47 works by A., nearly all of which remain unpublished. A. became famous among scholars through the Colección de Pintores, Escultores y Arquitectos desconocidos, published by Salva in volume 55 of Documentos Inéditos para la Historia de España. The biographies of certain artists, such as Juan de Juanes and Fray Agustín Leonardo, are known to us almost exclusively through the work of A. His manuscripts are preserved in Mercedarian libraries and in the National Library of Madrid.
While St. Alfonso de' Liguori was still living, he translated into Castilian, together with other works, Las Glorias de María (Valencia 1779); the first of its many editions contains in an appendix the Historia de Nuestra Señora del Milagro de Cocenteina. He also translated from French spiritual works by Blanchard and other authors. Of particular importance is his Biblioteca de escritores mercedarios, preserved in manuscript by the Mercedarians of Madrid, which A. compiled on the basis of Harda’s bibliography.