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. When the Society of Jesus was banished from all the territories of the Spanish crown, he moved to Forlì (1763-73), whence, overtaken by the suppression of the Order (1773), he transferred to Cesena, where he occupied himself with the drafting of almost all his works. Having returned to his homeland, by virtue of the government indult of 1798, he was banished from it 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, 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 long a time only the following have preserved their importance and their 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 (ibid. 1785); vol. XIX, Aritmetica delle nazioni e divisioni del tempo (ibid. 1786); vol. XX, Vocabolario poliglotta sopra più di CL lingue (ibid. 1787); vol. XXI, Saggio pratico delle lingue (ibid. 1787). In order to compose them, H. gathered numerous indications from the Jesuits banished from the Spanish missions and from all the grammars and dictionaries he could obtain, and he attempted a first classification of languages, anticipating with his observations the constructions of modern philologists. The success obtained induced him to make a Spanish translation of it, arranging the material better and fusing it with more art and method. However, the design was not fully carried out. The 259 pp. of vol. XVII, nevertheless, were transformed into 6 vols., known under the title of Catalogo de las linguas (Madrid 1800-1805).
H. also occupied himself with the education of the deaf and dumb, 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 his homeland (1798-1802) he founded for them at Barcelona, in 1800, with the help of the priest G. Albert y Martí, an institute.