Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Ignacio, José de Jesu Maria

IGNACIO, José de Jesu Maria (ig-nath'-yo), German missionary, b. in Paderborn in 1721 ; d. in Bartenstein in 1780. His real name was Her- man Loessing. He became a Jesuit and went to New Spain in 1746, and for several years taught rhetoric and philosophy in the College of Mexico, but, having found in a journey some old stones covered with hieroglyphs, took such an interest in them that he obtained from his superiors permis- sion to devote his time to the study of hierology. He left Mexico in 1753, and for nine years ex- plored the country in its remotest parts, buying Aztec antiquities at any price. On his return to Germany he was appointed librarian of the Arch- bishop of Cologne in 1 768, and began to work on the materials that he had collected. He published "De Arte Hieroglyphum Mexicanorum," a key to the Mexican hieroglyphs, which, although incom- plete and incorrect in many ways, has nevertheless enabled the scientists to decipher some old inscrip- tions (Cologne, 1774) ; " Historia Novae Hispaniae " (1777) ; '• Reisen in Neu Spanien " (1778) ; " Historia regni Aztecorum " (1780) ; " Cosmographia " (3 vols., with charts, 1780). Father Ignacio had not made use of all his notes when he became blind. He then went to live in Bartenstein with a brother who was cham- berlain of the Prince of Hohenlohe. His notes were afterward utilized by Chastelard, who pub- lished " De la civilisation Azteque demontree par les monuments " (2 vols., Rouen, 1809) ; " Superi- ority des Azteques sur leurs conquerants" (1811) ; and several other works.