FIGUEROA
71
FILELFO
Siena and seven Franciscan Beati; (7) S. Girolamo,
the home of Venerable Carlo dei Conti Guidi, founder
of the Hieroiiymitcs of Fiesole (13(30); (8) .S. Donien-
ico, the novice-home of Fra Angelico da Fiesole and
of St. Antoninus of Florence; (9) Fontanelle, a villa
near S. Domenico where St. Aloysius came to live in
the liot summer months, when a page at the court of
Grand Duke Francesco de' Medici; (10) Fonte Lu-
cente, where a miraculous crucifix is greatly revered.
A few miles distant is (11) Monte Senario, the cradle
of the Servite Order, where its seven holy founders
lived in great austerity and were cheered at their deatli
by the songs of angels; also (12) S. Martino di Men-
sola, with the body of St. Andrew, an Irish samt, still
incorrupt.
Cappelletti, Le chiese (Vltalia (Venice, 1846), XVIT, 7-72; Ammieato, Gli Vescovi di Fiesole (Florence, 1637); Phillimore, Fra Angelico (London, 1881).
U. Benigni.
Figueroa, Francisco de, a celebrated Spanish poet, surnamed " the Divine ", b. at Alcala de Henares, c. 1540; d. there, 1620. Little is known of his life, except that he was of noble family, received his educa- tion at the University of Alcala, and followed a mili- tary career for a time, taking part in campaigns in Italy and Flanders. From a very early age Figueroa showed unusual poetical talent, and his poems are full of fire and passion. His work first attracted atten- tion in Italy, where he resided for a time, but it was not long before he had earned a brilliant reputation in his own country. Following in the footsteps of Bos- can Almogaver and Garcilaso, to whose school lie be- longed, he wrot« pastoral poems in the Italian metres, and was one of the first Spanisli poets who used with much success blank verse, which had been introduced by Boscan in 1543. His best-known and most highly praised work is the eclogue "Tirsis", written entirely in blank verse. He was highly praised by Cervantes in his " Galatea". It is unfortunate that but a small part of the works of this brilliant poet have reached us, the greater portion having been burned by his direc- tion just before his death. A small part, however, was preserved and published by Luis Tribaldos de Toledo, at Lisbon in 1625. They were reprinted in 1785 and again in 1804. The best of Figueroa's works appear in "La Biblioteca de Autores Espaiioles" of Rivadeneira, vol. XLII.
TicKNOR, History o/ Spanish Literature (3 vols.. New York, 1849).
Ventura Fuentes.
Figueroa, Francisco Garcia de la Rosa, Fran- ciscan; b. in the latter part of the eighteenth century at Toluca, in the Archdiocese of Mexico; date of ilcath unknown. Figueroa possessed extraordinary admin- istrative powers and for more than forty years directed the affairs of his order with singular prudence and abil- ity, being lector emeritus of his order, prefect of studies of the college of Tlaltelulco, superior of several convents, definitor, cu.stodian, twice provincial of the province of Santo Evangelio, and visitor to the other provinces of New Spain. He was much beloved by the people, and highly esteemed by the viceroys and bishops. On 21 Feb., 1790, a royal order was received directing that all documents shedding light on the his- tory of New Spain should be copied and sent to Spain, the order designating in some instances special docu- ments which were wanted. D. Juan Vicente de Giiemes Pacheco do Padilla, second Count of Revilla- gigedo, viceroy from 1789 to 1794, entrusted to Father Figueroa the work of selecting, arranging, and copying these manuscripts. To this task Father Figueroa brought such marvellous activity and rare judgment, both in selecting the material and the copyists, that in less than three years he turned over to the Govern- ment thirty-two folio volumes of almost a thousand pages each, in duplicate, containing copies of original
documents collected from the archives of convents and
from private collections, for the most part almost for-
gotten, and of the greatest value for the knowledge of
the political and ecclesiastical lii.story of the provinces.
Such a collection contained quite inevitably some ma-
terial not of the first importance; there were docu-
ments of all kinds, but the collection as a whole was
one of great value. One copy, which was sent to
Spain and examined by the chronicler Munoz, is pre-
served in the Academia de Historia; the other was
kept in Mexico in the Secretarfa del Virreinado, and
from there was transferred to the general archives of
the Palacio Nacional, where it is still kept. The first
volume of this was missing, but about 1872 a copy of it
was made from that preserved in Madrid. To the orig-
inal thirty-two volumes another was added, compiled
years afterwards by some Franciscans, which contains
a minute index of the contents of the work. Two other
copies of the thirty-two volumes were found; one is
in Mexico, the property of Senor Agueda, and the other
in the United States in the H. H. Bancroft collection.
As this work of Figueroa's has never been published
it may be of interest to summarize the contents of the
different volumes. They are as follows: I. Thirty
fragments from the Museo r'e Boturini, among them
four letters from Father Salvatierra. II. Treatise on
political virtues by D. Carlos Sigtienza; life and mar-
tyrdom of the children of Tlaxcala; narrative of New
Mexico by Father Ger6nimo Salmeron, Father Velez,
and others. III. Report of Father Posadas on Texas;
three fragments on ancient history. Canticles of Netzah-
ualcoyotl, etc. IV. Na.iative of IxtlLxochitl. V-VI.
Conquest of the Kingdom of New Galicia by D.
Matias de la Mota Padilla. VII-VIII. Introduction
to the history of Michoacan. IX-X-XI. Chronicle of
Michoacdn by Fray Pablo Beaumont. XII. Mexi-
can Chronicle by D. Hernando Alvarado Tezozomoc.
XIII. History of the Chichimecs by Ixtlilxochitl.
XIV. Reminiscences of the City of Mexico. XV. Reminiscences for the history of Sinaloa. XVI-XVII. Notes for the history of Sonora. XVIII. Important letters to elucidate the history of Sonora and Sinaloa. XIX-XX. Documents for the history of New Vizcaya (Durango). XXI. Establishment and progress of the Missions of Old California. XXII-XXIII. Notes on New California. XXIV. Log-book kept by the Fathers Garc^s, Barbastro, Font, and Capetillo; voyage of the frigate " Santiago " ; " Diario " of Llrrea and of D. J. B. Anza, etc. XXV-XXVI. Documents for the ecclesi- astical and civil history of New Mexico. XXVII- XXVIII. Documents for the civil and ecclesiastical history of the Province of Texas. XXIX. Documents for the history of Coahuila and Central Mexico (Seno Mexicano). XXX. Tampico, Rfo Verde, and Nuevo Leon. XXXI. Notes on the cities of Vera Cruz, Cor- dova, Oaxaca, Puebla, Tepotzotlan, Quer^'taro, Guana- juato, Guadalajara, Zacatecas, and Nootka. XXXII. Pious reminiscences of the Indian nation.
Beristain, BibL hisp, amer. septentrional (2d ed., Mexico, 1883); Diccionario Univ. deUist. y Geog., published in Spain by a society; revised and enlarged by D. LncAS AlamXn, D. J. Gab- ci'a Icazbalzeta, and others (Mexico, 1853), III; Antonio Garci'a Cubas, Diccionario geog,, hist, y biog. de los Estados XJnidos Mexicanos (Mexico, 1888), I; Leon, Hist. Gen. de Mexico (Mexico, 1902).
C.^^MILLUS CrIVELU.
Filcock, Robert. See Line, Anne
Filelfo, Francesco, humanist, b. at Tolentino, 25 July, 1.398; d. at Florence, 31 July, 1481. He studied grammar, rhetoric, and Latin literature at Padua, where he was appointed professor at the age of eigh- teen. In 1417 he was invited to teach eloquence and moral philosophy at Venice, where the rights of cit- izenship were conferred upon him. Two years later he was appointed secretary to the Venetian consul- general at Constantinople. Arriving there in 1420, he at once began the study of Greek under John Chry-
