Martin Dobrizhoffer

Dobrizhoffer, Martin, 1717—1791

by Benjamin Colbert

Martin Dobrizhoffer was born in Graz, Styria (now Austria), on 7 September 1717. He became a Jesuit in 1736, and in 1848 was sent on a mission to Paraguay. He spent eighteen years among the indigenous Guarani and Abipone peoples, returning to Styria after the Jesuits were expelled from Spanish possessions in 1767. He established himself thereafter at Vienna, where he often related his adventures to the Empress Maria Theresa (1717-80), before publishing, in Latin, his Historia de Abiponibus (3 vols, 1784). Dobrizhoffer died at Vienna in 1791.

Sources:

Spillane, Edward. ‘Martin Dobrizhoffer’. The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. Web. 16 Oct. 2017.

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