R. Joseph ben Hayyim Jabez (d. 1507) Hebrew homilist and exegete appears, from the prefaces to some of his works, to have traveled after the expulsion from Spain in 1492, to Lisbon, to Sicily, and then to northern Italy, after a brief stay in Naples, arriving in 1493 or 1494 in Mantua, one of the largest and most cultured Italian-Jewish communities. There he remained and was honorably accepted as part of that community, apparently as its official preacher. Both in his travels and in Mantua, he preached about the meaning of the catastrophe that had befallen Spanish Jewry. Among his published works, in addition to Or ha-Hayyim, most of which were written after the expulsion, are three other theological-homiletic compositions, which treat three main questions: Hasdei ha-Shem (Constantinople, 1533), on the Diaspora and messianic expectations; and two short treatises (published with the first edition of Or ha-Hayyim), Ma’amar ha-Ahdut (Ferrara, 1554) and Yesod ha-Emunah (appended to Ma’amar ha-Ahdut), on the ikkarim, the dogmas of Judaism. In asserting that philosophical rationalism was to blame for the choice by so many Spanish Jews of conversion rather than exile and suffering, he expressed the feeling of many of his contemporaries. Jabez - who hated philosophy - maintained that the philosophical intellectuals did not consider the observance of the commandments as the most important aspect of religious life, and therefore were not prepared to sacrifice themselves for that observance. He did not attack Maimonides directly, but accused Maimonides' pupils and followers of distorting his views and thus of bringing the religious catastrophe upon Spanish Jewry. Besides theological works, all he also wrote a commentary on the tractate Avot, on Psalms, and many other works still in manuscript.

The printer Abraham ibn Usque was a Marrano. Born in Portugal and known there as Duarte Pinel (Pinhel), Usque fled from the Inquisition shortly after 1543, established himself at Ferrara, and became associated with the press established by the Spanish ex-Marrano, Yom-Tov ben Levi Athias (Jeronimo de Vargas). He followed Athias' plan of publishing Jewish liturgies in the vernacular, as well as other texts intended to facilitate the Marranos' return to Judaism. Usque's name first appears in connection with the famous Bible translation of 1553, the so-called Ferrara Bible. This Bible was published in two forms: one intended for a Jewish audience, bearing a Hebrew date (14 Adar 5313) and a dedication to Dona Gracia Nasi, and listing the Hebrew names of the printer and publisher (Usque and Athias); the other for the Christian world, dated March 1, 1553, with a dedication to Duke Ercole d'Este of Ferrara and the names of Duarte Pinel and Jeronimo de Vargas. Books published by Usque also include the enigmatic Menina e Moga, by Bernardim Ribeiro, Samuel Usque's Consolagam as tribulagoens de Israel (1553), and various works in Hebrew. The fury of the Counter-Reformation gradually halted Usque's printing activities. He published no books in Spanish or Portuguese after 1555 and continued the publication of Hebrew books only to 1558.

מעבר לשער: אמר יצחק אלחכים החבור הזה חברו ... רבי יוסף יעבץ ז"ל. השתדלתי להדפיסו אחר השנים הראשונים שחבר והם מאמר האחדות, ויסוד האמונה ... וקראו לזה השלישי ארח החיום[!] כי הוא מסקל ומרים מכשול ... ומאיר עיני ההולכים בעוורון שכלם.