Baltasar Gracian

Baltasar Gracián was a Spanish Jesuit and a prominent figure of the Spanish Golden Age literature. He was born in Belmonte de Gracián, a village in Aragón, on January 8, 1601. He was the son of a doctor and his second wife, and had three brothers who also joined religious orders. He studied at a Jesuit school in Calatayud and at the University of Huesca, where he received a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1619. He then entered the Society of Jesus and took his final vows in 1635. Gracián dedicated himself to teaching in various Jesuit schools, where he taught grammar, theology, and rhetoric. He also befriended the local scholar Vincencio Juan de Lastanosa, who helped him publish some of his works and introduced him to the intellectual circles of Aragón. Gracián was influenced by the Spanish Baroque literary style of conceptism, which involved the use of witty and subtle expressions to convey complex ideas. He wrote several works of moral philosophy, political theory, and literary criticism, as well as novels, poems, and aphorisms. Some of his most famous works are El héroe (The Hero), a treatise on the ideal qualities of a leader; El político don Fernando el Católico (The Politician King Ferdinand the Catholic), a biography of the Spanish monarch; El discreto (The Complete Gentleman), a manual on prudence and social etiquette; Oráculo manual y arte de prudencia (The Art of Worldly Wisdom), a collection of 300 maxims on how to succeed in life; and El criticón (The Critick), a three-part allegorical novel that depicts the journey of two characters, Critilo and Andrenio, through the stages of human life. Gracián's writings were admired by many philosophers and writers, such as Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Kafka, Borges, and Foucault. However, he also faced criticism and censorship from his superiors in the Jesuit order, who disapproved of his worldly and independent style. He was reprimanded several times and transferred to different locations. He died of dropsy in Tarazona, near Zaragoza, on December 6, 1658. He is buried in the Tarazona Cathedral.