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 ''bibliograph ...

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

Biography

Beristain was born in

Puebla Puebla, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its capital is Puebla City. Part of east-centr ...

, Mexico, where he studied to become a secular priest. He completed his education in Spain, where he 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 Church, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denomina ...

of the Metropolitan church of Mexico (1813), and was afterwards its dean. He died in Mexico.

Works

Beristain 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. His

magnum opus A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) 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, skill, profundity, or workmanship. Historically, ...

is the , the last part of which was published after his death. For this he used as a basis the of Bishop

Juan José de Eguiara y Eguren ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish language, Spanish and Manx language, Manx versions of ''John (given name), John''. The name is of Hebrew origin and has the meaning "God has been gracious." It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-spea ...

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. Beristain's contains many errors in names and dates.

References

External links

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