Inquisitor

The full title of the book held by the sitter is: La Familia regulada con doctrina de la Sagrada Escritura y Santos Padres de la Iglesia Católica para todos los que regularmente componen una casa seglar, a fin de que cada uno en su estudio y en su grado sirva a Dios nuestro Señor con toda perfección y salve su alma. This text was written by the Franciscan friar Antonio Arbiol.

The fact that on his breast the sitter has the insignia of the Holy Office of the Inquisition and the cross of Saint Dominic (known heraldically as a cross flory and gyronny of sable and argent) enables him to be identified as a member of the Tribunal of the Inquisition, while the fact that he is depicted holding this particular book suggests that he was associated with matters relating to its subject. Given the vagueness of the attribution to Goya in the inscription on the reverse, the identity of the sitter as the Toledan shopkeeper Diego Rodríguez Romero might also be questioned although the date does coincide with the style of the sitter’s clothes.