Juan Antonio Hernández Pérez de Larrea (September 30, 1730 – April 21, 1803) was a Spanish

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

, director of the

Sociedad Económica de los Amigos del País The ''Sociedades Económicas de Amigos del País'' (Economic Societies of Friends of the Country) were private associations established in various cities throughout Enlightenment Spain, and to a lesser degree in some of Spain's overseas territories ...

, and

Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

Valladolid Valladolid ( ; ) is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and ''de facto'' capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the pr ...

.Hormingo, A. S., Juan Antonio Hernández y Pérez de Larrea. Retrieved from http://dbe.rah.es/biografias/28730/juan-antonio-hernandez-y-perez-de-larrea.

Biography

Larrea was born into a noble family. Excelling in theological studies, he became a pastor in the town of Terriente in 1760. In 1775, he was appointed

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

. Here he became invested in the botanical garden of the city, and experimented on the making of

carmine Carmine ()also called cochineal (when it is extracted from the Cochineal, cochineal insect), cochineal extract, crimson Lake pigment, lake, or carmine lake is a pigment of a bright-red color obtained from the aluminium coordination complex, compl ...

dye and the spinning of silk. In 1788, he was anointed as a knight of the

Order of Charles III The Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III, originally Royal and Much Distinguished Order of Charles III (, originally ; Abbreviation, Abbr.: OC3) is a knighthood and one of the three preeminent Order of merit, orders of merit bes ...

. In 1792 he began to collaborate with the (Royal Academy of Nobles and Fine Arts of San Luis). In 1798, he became the director of the Academy. Larrea was appointed bishop of the diocese of

in 1801. It was here he died in 1803.

Legacy

The plant genus ''

Larrea ''Larrea'' is a genus of flowering plants in the caltrop family, Zygophyllaceae. It contains five species of evergreen shrubs that are native to the Americas. The generic name honours Bishop Juan Antonio Hernández Pérez de Larrea, a patron of ...

'' was named in his honor.

Publications

*
Oración panegirica que en la translación del Santísimo Sacramento a su nueva parroquia de Santa Cruz, executada en el 8 de octubre de 1780
'. Zaragoza

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hernández y Pérez de Larrea, Juan Antonio 1730 births 1803 deaths Bishops of Valladolid 19th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Spain