The fragments of the Greek philosophers, especially of Pythagoras and Parmenides, whose metaphysics powerfully influenced his mind, had been assimilated.

Perhaps the writings of Cardinal Cusa, the theologian who applied mathematics to philosophy, were also in his hands at the same period.

Beside Italian, he possessed the Spanish language, could write and speak Latin with fluency, and knew something of Greek.
It is clear that he had practiced poetry in the vernacular under the immediate influence of Tansillo.

Theological studies had not been wholly neglected; for he left behind him at Naples editions of Jerome and Chrysostom with commentaries of Erasmus.

These were books which exposed their possessors to the interdiction of the Index.
It seems strange that a Dominican, escaping from his convent to avoid a trial for heresy, should have sought refuge at S.Maria Sopra Minerva, then the headquarters of the Roman Inquisition.