Joaquín Lorenzo Villanueva

Joaquín Lorenzo Villanueva Astengo (10 August 1757 – 26 March 1837) was a Spanish priest, historian and writer. He was educated at the University of Valencia, and became a prominent historian of the Church. He was appointed court preacher at Madrid and confessor at the royal chapel. In 1823 he moved to Ireland, where ten years later he published Hibernia Phoenicea (English, "Phoenician Ireland"), an attempt to prove an ancient Phoenician colonization of the country. The work was translated into English in 1837 by Henry O'Brien.