ARQUES y JOVER, AGUSTÍN de. - Spanish Mercedarian historian, b. at Cocentena (Alicante) on 30 Apr. 1734, d. at Valencia on 14 June 1808. He entered the Mercedarian convent of Elche in 1749; there he became a reader and later rector. Appointed general archivist of the Order in 1781, he was an indefatigable researcher and copyist. In 1787 he was named chronicler and definitor general; in 1796 provincial of Valencia; in 1801 general assistant.
Rico García lists 47 works by A., almost all of them unpublished. A. became famous among scholars for his *Colección de Pintores, Escultores y Arquitectos desconocidos*, published by Salvá in volume 55 of *Documentos Inéditos para la Historia de España*. The biography of certain artists, such as Juan de Juanes and Fray Agustín Leonardo, is known almost exclusively through A.’s work. His manuscripts are preserved in the Mercedarian libraries and in the National Library of Madrid.
Still living when St. Alphonsus Liguori was alive, he translated into Castilian, among other works, *Las Glorias de Maria* (Valencia 1779); the first of many editions has appended to it the *Historia de Nuestra Señora del Milagro de Cocentena*. He also translated spiritual works from the French by Blanchard and other authors. Of particular importance is his *Bibliotheca de escritores mercedarios*, preserved in manuscript at the Mercedarians in Madrid, which A. composed based on the bibliography by Hilda.