Pablo Maroni (Paul; born 1 November 1695) was a

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

missionary to the

Viceroyalty of Peru The Viceroyalty of Peru ( es, Virreinato del Perú, links=no) was a Spanish imperial provincial administrative district, created in 1542, that originally contained modern-day Peru and most of the Spanish Empire in South America, governed from ...

Life

He entered the Austrian province of the Jesuits on 27 October 1712, and, like many German and Austrian missionaries of that time, went in 1723 on the mission in Upper Marañón that belonged to the Audience of Quito, province of the order. He worked for several years as professor of theology at Quito and then with great success as Indian missionary on the rivers Napo and Aguarico. He converted a number of tribes to the Christian faith and founding a series of new ''

reducciones Reductions ( es, reducciones, also called ; , pl. ) were settlements created by Empire of Spain, Spanish rulers and Roman Catholic missionaries in Spanish America and the Spanish East Indies (the Philippines). In Portuguese America, Portugues ...

'' (i.e. settlements of converted Indians). At the same time he carefully explored those regions, as acknowledged by the French geographer

Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville (; born in Paris 11 July 169728 January 1782) was a French geographer and cartographer who greatly improved the standards of map-making. D'Anville became cartographer to the king, who purchased his cartographic ...

, in his Letter to the Editors “on a map of Southern America he had just published” (“Lettre de Monsieur d’Anville à Messieurs du Journal des sçavans sur une Carte de l’Amérique Méridionale qu’il vient de publier”), in

Journal des sçavans The ''Journal des sçavans'' (later renamed ''Journal des savans'' and then ''Journal des savants,'' lit. ''Journal of the Learned''), established by Denis de Sallo, is the earliest academic journal published in Europe. It is thought to be the ear ...

, March 1750, p. 183, where D’Anville said he had received Maroni’s map from

Charles Marie de La Condamine Charles Marie de La Condamine (28 January 1701 – 4 February 1774) was a French explorer, geographer, and mathematician. He spent ten years in territory which is now Ecuador, measuring the length of a degree of latitude at the equator and prepar ...

Works

Maroni left behind him a number of works. Two of them are: *"Diario de la entrada que hizo el P. Pablo Maroni de Ia C. d. J. por el rio coriño ó Pastaza ... el año 1737", published by P. Sanvicente, S. J. in ''El Industrial'' (Quito, 1895), año IV., num 132, 133, 135; *''Noticias autenticas del famoso rio Marañon y misión apóstolica de la Compañia de Jesús de la provincia de Quito en los dilatados bosques de dicho rio escribilas por los anos de 1738 un misinero de la misma compania y las publicas ahora por primera vez Marcos Jimenez de la Espada'' (Madrid, 1889), with maps drawn up by Maroni. It contains, among other documents, the personal diaries of the cartographer and missionary

Samuel Fritz Samuel Fritz SJ (9 April 1654 – 20 March 1725, 1728 or 1730) was a Czech Jesuit missionary, noted for his exploration of the Amazon River and its basin. He spent most of his life preaching to Indigenous communities in the western Amazon r ...

, compiled after Fritz's death and interspersed with commentary.

References

;Attribution * The entry cites: **''Neuer Welt-Bott'', No 210, 282, 333, 565; **Chantrey-Herera, ''Hist. de las Misiones de la Compania de J. en el Maranon Espanol'' (Madrid, 1901) {{DEFAULTSORT:Maroni, Pablo 1695 births Austrian Roman Catholic missionaries Year of death unknown 18th-century Austrian Jesuits Jesuit missionaries in Ecuador Jesuit missionaries in New Granada Austrian emigrants to Ecuador