José Sánchez Labrador (1717-1798) y la Geología del Paraguay Natural

JOSE SANCHEZ LABRADOR (1717-1798) AND THE GEOLOGY OF PARAGUAY NATURAL.Sanchez Labrador was a prolific author of texts on Catholic doctrine, art, Guarani language, anthropology, agriculture and natural sciences. A title of worth in this last subject is Sanchez Labrador’s Paraguay Natural (unpublished manuscript, Ravenna, 1771). The first part of Sanchez 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, Sanchez Labrador referred that the Parana and Uruguay rivers were capable of petrifying wood and bone, and compared the great bones of the Carcarana river mouth with the remains of elephants or whales. The book three deals with meteorology, earthquakes and volcanoes. The first part of Paraguay Natural constitutes thus a bench-mark to the Cuenca del Plata geological