FLOREZ, ENRIQUE, a laborious contributor to the elucidation of Spanish history, was born at Valladolid on the 14th of February 1701, entered the order of Augustin monks in his fifteenth year, and after having published a course of theology, as professor of the science at Alcalh, devoted himself to a series of historical labours, which was only closed by his death at Madrid in 1773. his first historical work was his Cleve Material,' a compendium of universal history, published in 1743, which reached its tenth edition in 1780, not much to the credit of the Spanish reading public, as its merits are small and it is strongly tinctured with bigotry and prejudice. Fortunately for his reputation, Floras other works are of a kind in which he was better qualified to excel. The most celebrated is the 'Espana Sagrada,' a work, which like the ' Italia Sacra,' of Ughelli, and the 'Gallia Christiana' of Sainte-Marthe, was. to exhibit the history of each diocese of the country, with a notice of its successive occupants. Had Florez confined himself to the execution of this plan on a moderate scale, he might probably, as ho anticipated, have not only completed the work, but followed it up with a similar compila tion relating to the Spanish dioceses iu the oast and west. But ho allowed himself to be so diffuse on collateral subjects, that at his death, at the age of seventy, the work which had advanced to its twenty-seventh volume, was far from complete. It was continued
by two other Augustin monks, Risco and La Canal, and the last volume which has appeared is the forty-seventh, issued in 1350, under the editorship of Saiuz de Baranda, at the expense of the Spanish government, which had been memorialised by the Academy of Uisburg in 1835, at the time of the dissolution of the religious houses, to take the 'Esparta Sangrada ' under its patronage, as "a work classical of its kind, and enjoying a European reputation." Its chief value in the oyes of foreigners consists in its numerous appendices iu which ancient chronicles are often printed at length, which are not to be found elsewhere. Florez was also the author of '51cmorias do tan Reynas Catolicas,' or 'Lives of the Queens of Spain' (2 vols., 4W, 1770), containing plates of the costumes of the queens, which, siugu larly enough are omitted in a work ou the same subject by a lady, the ' Annals of the Queens of Spain,' by Anita George (New York 1850). His 'Medallas de las Colonies de Eapaiia ' (3 vols. 4to, Madri 1757-73), treats of the period of ancient history only when Spain w: occupied with Roman colonies. There are two portraits of the autbo one bearing the date of 1760, and the other of 1773, which a: usually inserted in the first and last volumes.