the work already cited, and the Zodiaco Mariano, Mex., 1755, a posthumous work of considerable importance for the ecclesiastical history of Spanish North America, in which the details are narrated with great fulness, with names, dates, and circumstances, and with authorities and bibliographical citations. Nicolás Antonio, Bib. Hisp. Nova, i. 426, makes no mention of these two works, only two of his earlier and less important publications being cited. Of the author he says 'tum Roma, tum Hispali omnium Indicarum provinciarum procurator.' Alcedo, Bib. Am., MS., i. 400-1, who follows Antonio, adds to the latter's list two more works of the same class. While Beristain's list of this author's works is very complete, Sabin gives some valuable information relative to the various editions.
Florencia's incompleted task was destined to be continued by one greater than he, but who. like him, was also fated to leave the work unfinished. His successor, Francisco Javier Alegre, was born in 1729 at Vera Cruz, where ho received his early education and studied Latin. Thence he passed to Puebla, where, having distinguished himself in the study of philosophy and the other branches taught at that period, he began a course of canonical law at the capital. On the 19th of March 1794 he took the habit at the Jesuit college of Tepozotlan. During his novitiate he committed to memory the works of St Francis of Sales, and the ascetic writings of Friar Luis de Granada and others, and, after professing, diligently devoted himself to the study of the Latin writers of the golden age. Later he dedicated himself with such earnestness to the study of theology that his astonishing progress in this science gained for him the applause of his companions, but so affected his health as to compel his transfer to Habana. There he taught philosophy, and perfected himself in Greek, mathematics, and the modern languages. Seven years later he passed to the Jesuit college recently opened in Mérida, Yucatan, where after a few years, his superiors recognizing his fitness for the work, he was called to Mexico to continue the history of the society.
Availing himself of the work of Florencia, the valuable writings of Ribas, Kino, Fray Martin Perez, Friar Ignacio Trysk, and an immense mass of annual reports and private correspondence, he described in a simple but correct and elegant style the extensive labors of bis order from their establishment in Florida in 1566 to about 1765, when its members had already completed the conquest of the north-western provinces of New Spain. Two volumes in manuscript had thus far been completed, when two years later the further continuation of the work was prevented by the expulsion of the society. Having, with the majority of his exiled companions, taken up his residence at Bologna, he continued his studies and teachings, published a translation of the Iliad, wrote Alexandriada, a poem on the conquest of Tyre by Alexander, and finished fourteen books on Elementos de Geometria, and four lectures on Secciones Cónicas. Here also he wrote the most famous of his works, the Instituciones Teológicas, consisting of eighteen books in seven volumes, and published a year after his death, which occurred August 16, 1788, near Bologna. In all, he wrote twenty works, which are enumerated by Beristain, Bib. Hisp.-Am., i. 54. Alegre's early studies are evident in his various works, his good taste and judgment being everywhere apparent. His expressions against the enemies of the society are moderate, and
