Cerda, John Lewis

, a Spanish Jesuit, and native of Toledo, who entered among the Jesuits in 1574, was a man of great learning, and, as his brethren have represented him, of as great simplicity and candour. He distinguished himself by several productions; and the fame of his parts and learning was so great, that Urban VIII. is said to have had his picture in his cabinet; and, when that pope sent his nephew cardinal Barberini ambassador into Spain, it was part of his business to pay Cerda a visit, and to assure him of the pope’s esteem. Cerda’s “Commentaries upon Virgil,” Paris, 1624 1641, 3 vols. fol. contain many useful and learned remarks, buried, however, in a multitude of what are superfluous and trifling. Baillet says, there are some good things in them, and some very moderate. His Commentaries upon the works of “Tertullian,” begun in 2 vols. but not finished, have not been so much esteemed; Dupin says, they are long and tedious, full of digressions and explications of passages which are too clear to need any explaining. There is also of Cerda’s a volume of “Adversaria Sacra,” printed in folio at Lyons, in 1626. He died in 1643, aged above 80. ²