POLANCO, JUAN ALONSO. – Jesuit, historian, b. at Burgos in 1516, d. at Rome on 21 Dec. 1576.
A “Magister artium” at Paris, apostolic secretary at Rome, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1541 and, after a brief period of study at Padua and ministry at Florence, was summoned to Rome in 1547 by St. Ignatius as his secretary. The office, which Fr. Polanco held until the death of St. Francis Borgia, gave him the opportunity to be the right hand of the founder in drafting the Constitutions and in corresponding with the various houses of the Order; and also to gather an extraordinary quantity of news and reports for a life of St. Ignatius and a chronicle of the history of the Society: *Vita Ignatii Loiolae et rerum Societatis Jesu historia* (Monum. Historica S. J., 6 vols. [Madrid 1894-97] with 2 vols. of *Polanci Complementa* [ibid. 1916-17]); this work is to be considered as the most incorrupt and sincere that could ever be desired (cf. Tacchi Venturi, *V. BIBLICA.*, p. XXXVI). To this work must be added: *Summarium de origine et progressu Societatis Jesu*, in two versions: Spanish and Italian, first published in *Fontes narrativi de s. Ignatio Loyolae*, I (Rome 1943, pp. 146-298); *Breve directorioum ad confessarii et poenitentis munus rite obeundum* (ibid.).