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Francisco Cervantes de Salazar (1514? – 1575) was a Spanish man of letters and rector of the
Catholic Encyclopedia article
1510s births 1575 deaths People from Toledo, Spain University of Salamanca alumni Spanish male writers Historians of Mesoamerica 16th-century Spanish historians Aztec scholars Spanish Mesoamericanists Novohispanic Mesoamericanists 16th-century Mesoamericanists {{Spain-writer-stub
Francisco Cervantes de Salazar (1514? – 1575) was a Spanish man of letters and rector of the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico
The Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico (in es, Real y Pontificia Universidad de México) was founded on 21 September 1551 by Royal Decree signed by Charles I of Spain, in Valladolid, Spain. It is generally considered the first university ...
, founded in 1551.
He was born and raised in Toledo, Spain
Toledo ( , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, capital of the province of Toledo and the ''de jure'' seat of the government and parliament of the autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha. Toledo was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESC ...
. He first attended Alejo Venegas’s Grammar School and then studied at the University of Salamanca
The University of Salamanca ( es, Universidad de Salamanca) is a Spanish higher education institution, located in the city of Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It was founded in 1218 by King Alfonso IX. It is t ...
. In 1539 he accompanied Licenciado Pedro Giron to the Low Countries
The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...
where he met Juan Luis Vives
Juan Luis Vives March ( la, Joannes Lodovicus Vives, lit=Juan Luis Vives; ca, Joan Lluís Vives i March; nl, Jan Ludovicus Vives; 6 March 6 May 1540) was a Spanish ( Valencian) scholar and Renaissance humanist wh ...
. In 1546 he published a collection of three works, ''Apólogo de la ociosidad y el trabajo'' by Luis Mejia, ''Introducción y camino de la sabiuduría'' by J. L. Vives, and'' Diálogo de la dignidad del hombre'' by Pérez de Oliva, which Cervantes completed by adding almost two-thirds to the original draft by Oliva.
After spending the first part of his life in Spain, he went to Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
around 1550, and lived there until his death. He had a successful academic career in the recently founded University of Mexico
The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...
, and was appointed rector twice. He published a collection of Latin dialogues describing the city of Mexico in 1554 and left unfinished a chronicle of the Mexican conquest ('' Crónica de la Nueva España'', about 1560), which remained unpublished until 1914. Recently, it has been suggested that he may be the author of the first picaresque novel
The picaresque novel ( Spanish: ''picaresca'', from ''pícaro'', for "rogue" or "rascal") is a genre of prose fiction. It depicts the adventures of a roguish, but "appealing hero", usually of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corru ...
, '' La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes'' (1554).
References
External links
*Catholic Encyclopedia article
1510s births 1575 deaths People from Toledo, Spain University of Salamanca alumni Spanish male writers Historians of Mesoamerica 16th-century Spanish historians Aztec scholars Spanish Mesoamericanists Novohispanic Mesoamericanists 16th-century Mesoamericanists {{Spain-writer-stub