He then devoted himself exclusively to Jewish literature and cognate subjects; he studied even the Kabbalah, but the more he studied it the greater grew his aversion to its mystical and illogical doctrines. Taking Moses Mendelssohn and Hartwig Wessely as guides, he next made his name celebrated in connection with religious philosophy, and became indeed to the Italian Jews what Mendelssohn was to his German co-religionists. In 1822 an imperial decree having been issued that no one might be appointed rabbi who had not graduated in philosophy, Reggio published at Venice an appeal, in Italian, for the establishment of a rabbinical seminary, arguing that just as the emperor did not desire rabbis devoid of philosophical training, neither did the Jews desire rabbis who had had no rabbinical education. This appeal resulted in the establishment of a rabbinical college at Padua, for which Reggio drew up the statutes and the educational program.