AVENDAÑO, DIEGO DE

Jesuit specialist in law for the Indies; b. Segovia, Spain, Sept. 29, 1596; d. Lima, Peru, Aug. 30, 1688. After studying philosophy at Seville, he went to Lima in 1610, and while a student at its Colegio de San Martín, he entered the Society of Jesus on April 21, 1612. He completed his studies at the Jesuit college in Lima and taught philosophy in Cuzco, where he became rector in 1628. He made his profession on May 24, 1629. He was professor of theology in the Jesuit University of Chuquisaca (today Sucre, Bolivia), rector of the major seminary of Lima during two periods (1651, 1667), and provincial from 1663 to 1666. In his great work Thesaurus indicus he formulated, discussed, and resolved a varied range of legal topics, no doubt submitted to him for study, as an expert in canon, civil, and moral law, by the episcopal tribunals and the Spanish-American courts. In it he showed his fine speculative talent, his rigidly scholastic education, his eclecticism, and his extensive and up-to-date reading. He was an illustrious example of 17th-century education in Lima. He neither tried to be nor was original, but he was useful for the correct administration of justice. His intrinsic value lay in having adapted the traditional doctrine of both bodies of law to the native Peruvian environment and to its particular problems.

Bibliography: m. de mendiburu, Diccionario histórico-biográfico del Perú, 11 v. (2d ed. Lima 1931–34) 2:291–294. j. e. de uriarte and m. lecina, Biblioteca de escritores de la Compañía de Jesús … , 2 v. (Madrid 1925–30).

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