Education
University of Salamanca.
University of Salamanca.
After taking his degree in Salamanca (1636–1639), he returned to his native city, wrote his treatise De Exilio (which was not printed till 1659), and began his monumental register of Spanish writers. The fame of his learning reached Philip IV, who conferred the Order of Santiago on him in 1645, and sent him as General Agent to Rome in 1654. Returning to Spain in 1679, Antonio died at Madrid in the spring of 1684.
A fine edition of both parts, with additional matter found in Antonio"s manuscripts, and with supplementary notes by Francisco Perez Bayer, was issued at Madrid in 1787–1788.
This great work, incomparably superior to any previous bibliography, is still unsuperseded and indispensable. Of Antonio"s miscellaneous writings the most important is the posthumous Censura de historias fabulosas (Valencia, 1742), in which erudition is combined with critical insight.
His Bibliotheca Hispana rabinica has not been printed. The manuscript is in the national library at Madrid.