Abstract

OTTONE, Eduardo G. José Sánchez Labrador (1717-1798) and the Geology of Paraguay Natural. Ser. correl. geol. [online]. 2008, n.24, pp.43-54. ISSN 1666-9479.

Sánchez Labrador was a prolific author of texts on Catholic doctrine, art, Guaraní language, anthropology, agriculture and natural sciences. A title of worth in this last subject is Sánchez Labrador's Paraguay Natural (unpublished manuscript, Ravenna, 1771). The first part of Sánchez Labrador's Paraguay Natural is divided in three books. Book one, mostly dealing with minerals, also includes descriptions of rocks and fossil invertebrates. In book two, dealing with rivers and the water properties, Sánchez Labrador referred that the Paraná and Uruguay rivers were capable of petrifying wood and bone, and compared the great bones of the Carcarañá river mouth with the remains of elephants or whales. The book three deals with meteorology, earth-quakes and volcanoes. The first part of Paraguay Natural constitutes thus a bench-mark to the Cuenca del Plata geological knowledge.

Keywords : Jesuits; Sánchez Labrador; Geology; Cuenca del Plata.

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