Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.
ISLA Y ROJO, José Francisco de. — Jesuit, preacher, and satirical writer, born in Vidanes in 1703, died on 2 November 1781 in Bologna, where he had moved after his Order was expelled from Spain. The fruit of his preaching, which he alternated with teaching, are the *Sermones* (6 vols., Madrid 1792–93), not free from that conceptismo which he would later combat in his *Historia del famoso predicador fray Gerundio de Campazas, alias Zotes* (ibid. 1758). A picaresque novel, yet without the conventions of the genre, and didactic in its discussions on sacred eloquence, which Isla sought to reform with the weapon of ridicule, though without alluding to specific Orders nor ever failing in reverence for religious life. The work caused such ferment that in 1760 the Inquisition forbade writing for or against II. The second volume was published in 1768 at the author’s behest and was quite corrupt.
His *Cartas familiares*, published posthumously by his sister María Francisca de Ayala (Madrid 1785–86), are precious. Other ascetical works remain unpublished in the archives of the Order. G. Baretti, who was his friend, called Isla “the modern Cervantes.”
BIBL.: Sommervogel, IV, cols. 635–86; *Fray Gerundio*, the *Cartas familiares*, and other writings were edited by P. F. Monlau, with a bio-bibliographical introduction, in vol. XV of *Biblioteca de autores españoles*, Madrid 1850 (reprint 1918); the *Fray Gerundio* alone in the Brockhaus edition, Leipzig 1858. Studies: *Compendio histórico de la vida, carácter moral y literario del celebre P. José Francisco de I.*, published by Doña María Francisca de Isla y Losada, Madrid 1803 (the work is by Fr. J. J. Tolra but revised by the priest’s sister); F. Brunetière, *La question de Gil Blas*, in *Histoire et littérature*, II, Paris 1891, pp. 235–60; B. Gaudeau, *Les prédicateurs burlesques en Espagne au XVIIIe siècle*, 1898; V. CAINAN, *L’immigrazione dei Gesuiti spagnoli letterati in Italia*, Turin 1895, passim; A. Baumgartner, *Der spanische Humorist p. José Francisco de I.*, in *Stimmen aus Maria Laach*, 68 (1905), pp. 82–92, 182–205, 299–315; U. Cosmo, *G. Baretti e J. F. de I.*, in *Giorn. st. lett. ital.*, 45 (1905), pp. 193–314; S. Gigli, *Contribución a la bibliografía del p. I.*, in *Rev. filol. esp.*, 10 (1923), pp. 65 ff.
