ALEGRE, FRANCISCO-XAVER. - Mexican historian and man of letters, born at Vera Cruz on 12 Nov. 1729; entered the Society of Jesus in 1747. He was in Messico as historiographer of his religious province when he was overtaken by Carlo III’s ban against the Jesuits (1767). Deported to Italy,
he spent his final 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, Roma 1788). Other compositions of the same kind were later collected by the well-known historian J. Garcia Icazbalceta: Opúsculos inéditos latinos y castellanos del p. F. J. Alegre (Messico 1889). Another posthumous work by the A. is the Institutum Theologicarum libri XVIII (7 vols., Venezia 1789-90), published by Fr Em. Fabri. But the greatest monument to his literary activity is his Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en Nueva España (up to 1763), published by C. A. Bustamante (3 vols., Messico 1841-42): a work which still retains considerable value for the history of the missions. The continuation, edited by J. M. Davila y Arillaga (2 vols., Puebla 1888-89), is of lesser merit.