Francisco Delicado (or Delgado) (c. 1480 – c. 1535) was a Spanish writer and editor of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

. Little is known about his life. He was born in Cordoba, Spain and, for uncertain reasons, he moved to Rome, where he Italianized his surname to ''Delicado''. After the sack of Rome, he went to

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

where he wrote his novel '' Portrait of Lozana: The Lusty Andalusian Woman'' (''El retrato de la Loçana Andaluza'', 1528), that continues on the lines of the novel in dialogue exemplified by ''

Celestina Celestina may refer to: In arts and entertainment: *''La Celestina'', a 15th-century Spanish novel *Celestina (novel), ''Celestina'' (novel), an 18th-century English work by poet Charlotte Turner Smith *''La Celestina'', Spanish title of ''The Want ...

''. The book is a social and historical portrait of Rome and its dark side in the first years of the 16th century, and one of the first works of the

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 ...

. He was also a disciple of

Antonio de Nebrija Antonio de Nebrija (14445 July 1522) was the most influential Spanish humanist of his era. He wrote poetry, commented on literary works, and encouraged the study of classical languages and literature, but his most important contributions were i ...

(who wrote ''

Gramática de la lengua castellana () is a book written by Antonio de Nebrija and published in 1492. It was the first work dedicated to the Spanish language and its rules, and the first grammar of a modern European language to be published. When it was presented to Isabella ...

'', the first extensive work on Spanish language

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes doma ...

) and editor of books such as '' Amadis de Gaula'' (1533), ''Celestina'' (1531–1534), ''Primaleon'' (1534) and some medical treatises like ''El modo de adoperare el legno de India'' (about the use of leño de Indias in the treatment of

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium '' Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, a ...

) and De consolatione infirmorum (a work that is only mentioned at the end of ''Portrait of Lozana'' but of which no copies are known). He himself suffered of syphilis. His favourable portrait of Jews has led some to suspect that he was a

Converso A ''converso'' (; ; feminine form ''conversa''), "convert", () was a Jew who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries, or one of his or her descendants. To safeguard the Old Christian p ...

External links

La lozana Andaluza di Francisco Delicado

References

1480s births 1530s deaths People from Córdoba, Spain Writers from Andalusia Renaissance Rome 16th-century Spanish writers 16th-century male writers 16th-century Spanish novelists Spanish male novelists {{Spain-writer-stub