HERVÁS y PANDURO, LORENZO. - Jesuit, polygraph, b. at Horcajo de Santiago (Cuenca) on 10 May 1735, d. at Rome on 24 Aug. 1809. He was professor of letters at Cáceres, of philosophy at Madrid and at Murcia. After the Society of Jesus was banished from all territories of the Spanish crown, he went to Forlì (1763-73), where, surprised by the suppression of the Order (1773), he moved to Cesena, devoting himself there to the composition of almost all his works. Returning to Spain under the government indult of 1798, he was banished again 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, which contains the history of the life of the universe, cosmographic elements, an ecstatic journey to the planetary world, and the history of the earth (22 vols., of which I-XXI, Cesena 1778-87; XXII, Foligno 1792). Of this immense work, after so much time has passed, only vols. XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, and XXI have retained their importance and value: vol. XVII, Catalogo delle lingue conosciute e notizia delle loro affinità e diversità (Cesena 1784); vol. XVIII, Origine, formazione, meccanismo ed armonia degli idiomi (iv 1785); vol. XIX, Aritmetica delle nazioni e divisioni del tempo (iv 1786); vol. XX, Vocabolario poliglotta sopra più di CL lingue (iv 1787); vol. XXI, Saggio pratico delle lingue (iv 1787). Hervás gathered, to compose them, numerous indications from Jesuits banished from the Spanish missions, and from all the grammars and dictionaries he could obtain, and attempted a first classification of languages, preceding with his observations the constructions of modern philologists. The success he achieved induced him to make a Spanish translation, ordering the material better and blending it with more art and method. However, the plan was not fully carried out. The 259 pages of vol. XVII were, nevertheless, expanded into 6 volumes, known under the title of Catálogo de las lenguas (Madrid 1800-1805).
Hervás also devoted himself to the education of the deaf-mute, 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" (ibid. 1796). Indeed, during his brief return to Spain (1798-1802), he founded for them in Barcelona, in 1800, with the help of the priest G. Albert y Martí, an institute.