Mariana, Juan de
Mariana, Juan de
(hwän dā märyä`nä), 1536?–1623?, Spanish historian and political philosopher, a Jesuit. He taught in Rome and in Paris before going to Toledo, where he wrote his two great works. His Historiae de rebus Hispaniae [history of Spain], a notable achievement in history, presented a unified and coordinated history rather than a simple chronicle. Although sometimes credulous, he was to some extent critical of sources; his ability to create a smooth-flowing narrative was remarkable. His De rege et regis institutione [on the king and the institution of kingship] achieved particular note because it condoned tyrannicide. Mariana argued that when the state violated the welfare of the people, a desperate remedy was justifiable. He extolled the natural simplicity of the communal life of a lost golden age. His humanitarian ideals were widely influential; he is supposed to have had a great effect on RousseauRousseau, Jean Jacques, 1712–78, Swiss-French philosopher, author, political theorist, and composer. Life and Works
Rousseau was born at Geneva, the son of a Calvinist watchmaker.
..... Click the link for more information. . His violent attack on debasement of the coinage, in which he expressed arguments later universally accepted, caused him to be imprisoned for a time.
Bibliography
See study by G. Lewy (1960).
Mariana, Juan de
Born in 1536 in Talavera; died Feb. 16, 1624, in Toledo. Spanish historian and theologian. Member of the Jesuit Order.
Mariana taught theology in Rome, Palermo, and Paris. In 1574 he moved to Toledo. In his treatise The King and the Education of the King (1599), Mariana set forth the idea of a monarchy whose rights would be limited by an assembly of representatives of the various social estates; he criticized absolutism as a “tyrannical distortion” of monarchical power. In his principal work, General History of Spain (written in Latin and subsequently translated by the author himself into Spanish; Russian translation, 1779-82), Mariana was the first to attempt to summarize the material of the Spanish chronicles. In the treatise On the Defects of the Order (published posthumously in 1625) he criticized certain faults in the Jesuit Order.