José de Acosta

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José de Acosta (detail), around 1580

José de Acosta (also José d'Acosta , * September / October 1539 (or 1540 ) in Medina del Campo ; † February 15, 1599 or 1600 in Salamanca ) was a Spanish Jesuit , missionary and scholar. He became famous for his Historia natural y moral de las Indias , the oldest overview of the New World and its relationship to the old.

life and work

José de Acosta entered the Jesuit order in 1570 and went as a missionary to the Spanish viceroyalty of Peru the following year . a. the present Andean countries Bolivia , Peru and Ecuador included. As a superior ( provincial ) from 1576 to 1581, he took part as theological advisor at the Third Provincial Council in Lima in 1582 and later wrote a catechism in several local dialects, the first book ever printed in Peru.

Historia natural and De Indorum salute

Original title page of the Historia natural

After his return to Spain in 1587, he wrote the above-mentioned Historia natural (1590), in which he presented his observations on the physical geography and natural history of today's Mexico and Peru as well as on the local religious and political institutions within the framework of the Jesuit scholarly worldview. Having spent more than 16 years in western South America and being an eyewitness , his observations are of particular interest.

He developed the theory that the American indigenous population must have immigrated from Asia or other parts of the world via a land bridge or a narrow sea connection; as a justification, he cited that according to the Bible , only one man and a few wild animals survived the Flood . It is therefore unthinkable that someone could have brought the wild animals to America by ship. According to Acosta, America is not completely cut off from the rest of the world, the Indians did not cross the Atlantic and were not descended from the Jews , but rather looked more like the Tatars : they came from Northeast Asia.

His reports, which were evaluated by Alexander von Humboldt , also gave us early knowledge of the crops of South America. For example, he reports on the potato culture in Peru and mentions, among other things, diseases in this crop. He describes this as “ fire ” and “ powdery mildew ”. Presumably this is the first news about Phytophthora .

Another important work of Acosta is his work De promulgatione Evangelii apud barbaros sive de procuranda Indorum salute from 1588, in which he systematically examines the problems of missionary work among the newly converted " pagans " of the New World.

Leader of the order opposition, death

Acosta led in his order the opposition to the then Jesuit general Claudio Acquaviva (1543-1615), who, at the age of 38 years, elected the fifth general since the founding, led a tight regiment. His complaints and reform proposals were rejected at the fifth Jesuit congress, however, Acosta remained imprisoned for two years (1592–1593). After submission, he became Superior of the Jesuits of Valladolid and Rector of the Jesuit College in Salamanca (1598), where he lived until his death.

Others

D'Acosta first described altitude sickness , which is also called d'Acosta's disease, after self- observation .

Works

Spanish first editions

  • De promulgatione Evangelii apud barbaros , Salamanca, 1588
  • De natura novi orbis , Salamanca, 1589
  • Historia natural y moral de las Indias , Seville 1591

German editions of the Historia natural y moral de las Indias

  • America, or as one calls it in German Die Neuwe Welt / or West India. Described by Mr. Josepho De Acosta in seven books / one partly in Latin / and one partly in Hispanic language /. Sutorius, Ursel 1605.
  • The gold of the condor. Reports from the New World 1590 and atlas on the history of its discovery. Edited and transferred by Rudolf Kroboth and Peter H. Meurer , Edition Erdmann in K. Thienemanns Verlag, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-522-60750-3 . According to the copy from the Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin (contains only part of America, or as one calls it in German Die Neuwe Welt ; there is a formulation on the Landbrücke on p. 138 that does not correspond to the underlying German edition on p. 229 ).

literature

  • Helga Gemegah: The theory of the Spanish Jesuit José de Acosta (approx. 1540–1600) about the origin of the Indian peoples from Asia . Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1999. ISBN 3-631-34862-2 .
  • Francisco Javier Gómez Díez: La Compañía de Jesús y la Fundación de América. El Padre José de Acosta (1540-1600) . In the S. (Ed.): La Compañía de Jesús en la América Española (siglos XVI-XVIII) . Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid) 2005. ISBN 84-89552-87-8 . Pp. 27-70.
  • Johan Leuridan Huys: José de Acosta y el origen de la idea de misión. Perú, siglo XVI . Centro de Estudios Regionales Andinos Bartolomé de Las Casas, Cuzco 1997 (= Cuadernos para la Historia de la Evangelización en América Latina, vol. 19). ISBN 84-8387-058-4 .
  • Michael Sievernich : Vision and Mission of the New World America with José de Acosta . In: Michael Sievernich, Günter Switek (ed.): Ignatianisch. Character and method of the Society of Jesus . Herder, Freiburg 1990. ISBN 3-451-21842-9 . Pp. 293-313.
  • Agustín Udías SJ: José de Acosta (1539–1600): Un Pionero de la geofísica . In: Jesuitas (Madrid), Vol. 9 (1986) of the NF (Segunda época), Issue Enero-Marzo, pp. 22-24.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Catholic Encyclopedia gives 1600, the Lexicon of Medicine 1599.
  2. ↑ After 1583, printing found its way into Lima; Bernard Lavallé: Cultural Life. In: Handbook of the History of Latin America. Vol. 1, p. 510 ff.
  3. ↑ Book 1, chap. 16, p. 27 and 30 of the German translation from 1605

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Acosta, José de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Acosta, José d '
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish Jesuit, missionary
DATE OF BIRTH 1539 or 1540
PLACE OF BIRTH Medina del Campo
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1599 or February 15, 1600
Place of death Salamanca