[1] He practiced literary criticism in the Semanario de Salamanca under the pseudonym Pablo Zamalloa.

He settled in Madrid in 1796 and entered the service of the Philippine Company, where he first obtained the job of secretary.

On 2 October of that same year he was elected an honorary member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando; he was in charge of studying and reforming the teaching of the arts and on 1 May 1807, he was appointed its secretary, a position from which he resigned due to incompatibilities with other jobs in 1815, although he continued as a chaplain.

[1] He was a friend of the liberal poet Manuel José Quintana and published numerous verses in the daily press, but was known above all for his translations, especially the Lecciones sobre la Retórica y las Bellas Letras (1798-1799),[1] published in 1783 by the Scottish Hugh Blair, to which he added a study on six poems of Spanish cultured epics; in the third reissue of 1822 he also added an essay on Spanish literature, anticipating Romanticism in some respects.

[2][1] With the liberal revolution of Rafael del Riego, he was a member of the Patriotic Society of Pamplona in 1820.