Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Abad, Diego José

ABAD, or ABADIANO, Diego José, Mexican poet, b. near Jiquilpan, between Michoacan and Guadalajara, 1 July, 1727; d. in Italy, 30 Sept., 1779. He became a Jesuit in early youth, and afterward taught philosophy and civil and canon law in Zacatecas and the city of Mexico. When forty years old, and while rector of the college of Querétaro, he began the study of medicine, in the practice of which he was successful. Then he went to Italy and published a volume of Latin poetry, under the title of "Heroica Deo carmina," to which he owes his greatest fame. Among other works he wrote descriptions of the principal rivers of the world in a book called "Geografia hidráulica." Several editions of the "Heroica Deo carmina" were published, in Madrid (1769), Venice (1774), Ferrara (1776), and Cecina (1780).