Libraries

Andrés Ferrer de Valdecebro nació en Albarracín (Teruel) en 1620, en el seno de una familia instruida en la que encontró los primeros estímulos para las letras. Tras ingresar en la Orden de Predicadores y obtener el grado de Maestro en Sagrada Teología en el convento madrileño de Santo Tomás, marchó a Nueva España, donde fue Rector del Real Colegio de San Luis de Puebla de los Ángeles y publicó sus primeros libros. A su regreso impartirá Teología Moral en Alcalá de Henares y quedará vinculado a la Corte, llegando a ser Calificador del Consejo de la Suprema Inquisición. Su muerte acaeció en 1680.

 This brief biographical sketch of Andrés Ferrer, taken from the page Deleitando enseña. Una lección de emblemática of the University of Navarra, gives account of the variety of his work. From his angelopolitan stay must proceed his hagiography Historia de la vida de Sor Rosa de Santa Maria, de la tercera orden de Santo Domingo. It was printed in Madrid by Pablo de Val in 1666.

 

The story of this volume is as wonderful as the hagiographic prodigies. In the prologue, Ferrer de Valdecebro tells how, instead of translating Leonardo Hansen’s Vita, set out to write his own version. For this task, the dominican had an extensive santarrosino bibliographic material: the aforementioned Hansen’s Latin hagiography, the respective versions of Vargas Machuca and González de Acuña, as well as various manuscript material related to the process of beatification. With that, Ferrer de Valdecebro declares to have composed the work in only 6 days. However, it took a year to send that first slur diary.

This work is the most complete hagiography of the saint, since it includes diverse testimonial material such as the observations and exams that different clerics made to the revelations and visions. Such is the case of the examinations carried out by Juan de Lorenzana and Juan del Castillo. This work is therefore of great value to scholars and devotees who seek to enter the fascinating personality of the patron of the New World.