HERVÁS y PANDURO, LORENZO. – Jesuit and polymath, born at Horcajo de Santiago (Cuenca) on 10 May 1735, died in Rome on 24 August 1809. He was professor of literature at Cáceres and of philosophy at Madrid and Murcia. When the Society of Jesus was expelled from all the territories of the Spanish crown, he went to Forlì (1763–73), whence, caught by the suppression of the Order (1773), he moved to Cesena, where he occupied himself with the composition of almost all his works. Returning to his homeland under the government amnesty of 1798, he was again expelled from it in 1801. This time he took refuge in Rome, where Pius VII appointed him director of the Quirinal Library.
His masterpiece is: Idea dell'universo, che contiene la storia della vita dell'uomo, elementi cosmografici, viaggio estatico al mondo planetario e storia della terra (22 vols., of which I–XXI, Cesena 1778–87; XXII, Foligno 1792). Of this immense work, after so much time, only vol. XVII, Catalogo delle lingue conosciute e notizia delle loro affinità e diversità (Cesena 1784); XVIII, Origine, formazione, meccanismo ed armonia degli idiomi (there 1785); XIX, Aristmetica delle nazioni e divisioni del tempo (there 1786); XX, Vocabolario poliglotta sopra più di CL lingue (there 1787); and XXI, Saggio pratico delle lingue (there 1787), have retained their importance and value. In composing them, H. collected numerous pieces of information from the Jesuits expelled from the Spanish missions, and from all the grammars and dictionaries he could obtain, and attempted a first classification of languages, anticipating through his observations the constructions of modern philologists. The success he achieved induced him to prepare a Spanish translation, arranging the material more effectively and combining it with greater art and method. The project, however, was not completed in its entirety. The 259 pages of vol. XVII nevertheless became six volumes, known under the title Catalogo de las linguas (Madrid 1800–1805).
H. also concerned himself with the education of deaf-mutes, for whom he wrote: Escuela española de sordomutos, o arte para enseñarles a escribir y hablar el idioma español (2 vols., Madrid 1795) and Catequismo de doctrina christiana para instrucción de los sordomutos (there 1796). Indeed, during his brief return to his homeland (1798–1802), he founded an institution for them in Barcelona in 1800, with the assistance of the priest G. Albert y Martí.