Antonio Machoni (1671 - 1753) was a Sardinian Jesuit missionary and scholar. Upon ordination in 1698, he was sent to the Missions of Paraguay. He participated in Esteban de Urízar's 1708 exploration of the Chaco, west of the Paraguay River. Thereafter, he lived and worked in the Gran Chaco region. During this period, he produced a grammar of the Lulé people of the Chaco, whose mission Machoni was in charge of. In 1728 he was sent back to Spain and Rome to serve as representative there for the Paraguayan missions. While in Europe he published (in 1732) his Lulé grammar; it is probably this period in which he applied corrections to D'Avila's cartography of the Chaco region, which would remain in that foundational work in its 1732 and later editions. In 1733, he returned to South America, eventually becoming Provincial of the Jesuit Province of Paraguay, a position he would hold until 1743.
