ABSTRACT
The role of the histories of America written by Jesuits exiled in Italy within the information counter-attack is almost unknown. Miguel Batllori called attention to the importance of the Americanism that the members of this religious order practiced in their confrontation with the theses of Robertson, Raynal, and de Pauw. The first and second volumes of Velasco's work, which treat, respectively, the natural history and ancient history of Quito, arrived at the Royal Academy of History in June 1789. The task of censoring them was entrusted to two members of the academy with established Americanist credentials: Antonio de Alcedo and Casimiro Gmez Ortega. Surprisingly, on 15 September 1789, Porlier had written a letter to Velasco to tell him that the first two volumes of his history had been approved by the Royal Academy of History, although with some objections that could be removed it will immediately go on to be printed and published.
