Note 208 — LETTER VI

Ludovico Antonio Muratori (1672-1750) was by many accounted the foremost scholar and antiquarian of his time. Born near Modena, he was appointed keeper of public archives at that place, and seldom left the city. His chief work was in the classics, publishing Anecdota Græca and Anecdota Latina, valuable collections of hitherto unedited fragments. Through a fellow-townsman who went as missionary to the Jesuit community in Paraguay, Father Muratori became interested in that land and wrote in Italian Il Christianesimo Felice nelle Missione dei Padri della Compagnia di Jesu nel Paraguai (Venice, 1743). He states in the preface that his information was derived from the memoirs of the Jesuits, and from conversations and correspondence with those who had lived in Paraguay. This work was translated into several languages, the English version having been published at London in 1759. Muratori represents the Jesuit community of converted Indians as a veritable earthly paradise. De Smet's reference to this work shows his ambition to establish a Paraguayan régime in the continent of America.—Ed.