due to his membership in the jesuit order, he was forced to abandon spain. he found a teaching post in ferrara. in italy, he became involved in erudite, yet in retrospect petty, arguments about whether spanish literature was decadent or a cause of decadence in italy. his main writings were long tracts arguing mainly against the erudite italian clerics and historians, girolamo tiraboschi and saverio bettinelli, who attributed any decline in italian literature to corruption by spanish influences. he published his six volumes of "saggio storico-apologetico della letteratura spagnola" in genoa, in 1778-1781. the tests were translated into spanish by josefa de amar y borbón and published in zaragoza, 1782-1789, with further commentaries, with the title "ensayo histórico-apologético de la literatura española contra las opiniones preocupadas de algunos escritores modernos italianos". the work serves also as a critique and review of early spanish literature.