José Mariano Beristáin y Martín de Souza (22 May 1756 – 23 March 1817) was a Mexican

bibliographer Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

and author of one of the principal sources of knowledge of the bibliography of Mexico and Central America.

Biography

He was born in

Puebla Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...

, Mexico, but went to Spain and spent some time in the family of the former bishop of Puebla, then Archbishop of Toledo. Returning to Mexico (1811) he was made

archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that o ...

of the Metropolitan church of Mexico (1813), and was afterwards its

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

. Beristain was a secular priest who had made thorough studies in Mexico and perfected them in Spain under the favourable circumstances. He wrote a number of treatises, some of them on economic subjects, but hardly any were published, the manuscripts being mostly lost in sending them to Europe. He died in Mexico. His

magnum opus A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

is the ''Biblioteca hispano-americana septentrional'', the last part of which was published after his death. For this he used as a basis the ''Biblioteca mexicana'' of Bishop Juan José de Eguiara y Eguren of which only the first volume (as far as "J") appeared in print. Beristáin at first intended to republish Eguiara, completing the alphabet by means of sketches and notes left by the author, but, as he proceeded to carry out the idea, he found that it would be preferable to compose an independent bibliography, incorporating in it the material Eguiara had collected. of Beristain's ''Biblioteca'' contains many errors in names and dates. Taking into account the time when he wrote, and the distances from sources and their frequent inaccessibility, it has been considered by many as a monumental work.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beristain, Jose Mariano 19th-century Mexican historians 1756 births 1817 deaths Mexican people of Basque descent Writers from Puebla