Jerónimo Román de la Higuera
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Jerónimo Román de la Higuera (28 August 1538 – 14 November 1611) was a Spanish Jesuit archaeologist, historian and forger. He is the creator of the so-called false chronicles.
Higuera was born in Toledo on 28 August 1538.[1] His parents were María Álvarez Romano y Cuéllar and Alonso Fernández de la Higuera. He had a twin brother named Hernando, who died in Mariquita in Peru in the 1590s.[2] Higuera studied arts and theology from the Royal University of Toledo, seemingly graduating with a doctorate in theology.[3][4] He was ordained a priest and, in December 1562, entered the Jesuit order in Alcalá de Henares as a novice.[3] He taught Latin grammar and the humanities in several Jesuit colleges in Madrid, Ocaña, Plasencia and Toledo and also served as a priest in Toledo and Murcia.[3][4]
In 1590, Higuera took the fourth vow and became a Jesuit profeso in Ocaña.[5] In 1594, he proposed, on the basis of a document he had recently discovered, that the remains of a building recently excavated by Juan Bautista Monegro on the site of a future hospital in Toledo belonged to a Mozarabic chapel dedicated to Saint Thyrsus (San Tirso). His questionable historical reasoning and his insistence that Thyrsus be recognized as a patron saint of the city and that the hospital project be shelved in favour of a new chapel made him many enemies in Toledo.[6] One of his allies, Alonso de Cárcamo, the corregidor of Toledo, commissioned a play from Lope de Vega about Thyrsus' martyrdom. Higuera read it, but it was neither published nor staged.[7]
Higuera died on 14 November 1611.[3]
