Baltasar Gracián y Morales, S.J., better known as Baltasar Gracián, was a Spanish Jesuit and Baroque prose writer and philosopher. He was born in Belmonte, near Calatayud (Aragón). His writings were lauded by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.
Baltasar Gracián
El Criticón, first edition (1651).
Title page of the Manual Oracle and Art of Discretion, 1647
Spanish Baroque literature
Spanish Baroque literature is the literature written in Spain during the Baroque, which occurred during the 17th century in which prose writers such as Baltasar Gracián and Francisco de Quevedo, playwrights such as Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Calderón de la Barca and Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, or the poetic production of the aforementioned Francisco de Quevedo, Lope de Vega and Luis de Góngora reached their zenith. Spanish Baroque literature is a period of writing which begins approximately with the first works of Luis de Góngora and Lope de Vega, in the 1580s, and continues into the late 17th century.
Works from don Francisco de Quevedo Villegas, 1699
The Dance of Death. Monument to Calderón, Madrid.
Miguel de Cervantes
Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas