Alegre, Francisco-Xaver

ALEGRE, FRANCISCO-XAVER. - Mexican historian and man of letters, b. at Vera Cruz on 12 Nov. 1729, a Jesuit in 1747. He was in Mexico as historiographer of his religious province when Charles III's decree of banishment against the Jesuits (1767) overtook him. Deported to Italy, he spent his last years in study at Bologna, where he died on 16 Aug. 1788.

He left several literary writings, Spanish translations of classical works, and a Latin version of the Iliad (Bologna 1776, Rome 1788). Other compositions of the same kind were collected later by the well-known historian J. Garcia Icazbalceta: Opúsculos inéditos latinos y castellanos del p. F. J. Alegre (Mexico 1889). Another posthumous work by the A. is the Institutum Theologicarum libri XVIII (7 vols., Venice 1789-90), published by Fr. Em. Fabri. But the greatest monument of his literary activity is his Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en Nueva España (down to 1763), published by C. A. Bustamante (3 vols., Mexico 1841-42): a work that still retains a serious value for the history of the missions. The continuation, edited by J. M. Davila y Arillaga (2 vols., Puebla 1888-89), is of lesser worth.

Edmondo Lamalle