are the "Alexandriadas" (1773, Italy), the "Iliad" in Latin (Rome, 1788), "Homeri Batrachiomachia" in Latin (Mexico, 1789), together with fragments of Horace and a good translation into Spanish of the first three cantos of the "Art Poétique" of Boileau. But the work for which he is especially noted is his History of the Society of Jesus in New Spain (ed. Carlos María Bustamante, Mexico, 1841). Although composed at a time when the order was persecuted in Spanish colonies, and often with great rigor, the tone of this most valuable work, indispensable for the study of the colonial history of Mexico and of many of its Indian tribes, is, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia "dignified and free from attacks upon Spain and the Spaniards". He published Carta geográfica del hemisferio mexicano, which introduced some information about New Spain previously unknown to European scholars. In 1889, Joaquín García Icazbaleta published his lyrical works under the title Opúsculos inéditos latinos y castellanos del P. Francisco Xavier Alegre (Unedited Latin and Spanish tracts of Father Francisco Xavier Alegre). His Latin writing style was pure and classical, comparing well with theologians of the Renaissance. References Alegre, Francisco Javier, Historia de la Provincia de la Compañía de Jesús de Nueva España, 5 vols, edition and notes by Ernest J. Burrus and Félix Zubillaga. 1956. "Alegre, Francisco Javier", Enciclopedia de México, v. 1. Mexico City, 1987. González Peña, Carlos, Historia de la literature mexicana. 1928. Méndez Plancarte, Gabriel, Humanistas del siglo XVIII. 1941 Further reading Alva Rodríguez, Inmaculada. (2011). “Francisco Javier Alegre (1729-1788): una aproximación a su obra teológica.” Anuario de Estudios Americanos 68(1): 283–314. http://estudiosamericanos.revistas.csic.es/index.php/estudiosamericanos/article/view/540/544/. 1729 births 1788 deaths Mexican Jesuits Colonial Mexico 18th-century Mexican historians Mexican translators People of New Spain Historians of Baja California Translators of Homer Jesuits expelled from the Americas