: ''Aleman is sometimes used to refer to German.''
Mateo Alemán y del Nero (September 15471615?) was a Spanish
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...
and writer.
Biography
Alemán was born in
Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...
, Andalucía, where he graduated from
the University in 1564. He later studied at
Salamanca
Salamanca () is a city in western Spain and is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on several rolling hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritag ...
and
Alcalá, and from 1571 to 1588 held a post in the treasury; in 1594 he was arrested on suspicion of
malversation
Malfeasance in office is often grounds for a just cause removal of an elected official by statute or recall election. Malfeasance in office contrasts with "misfeasance in office", which is the commission of a ''lawful'' act, done in an offici ...
, but was speedily released. According to some authors, he was descended from Jews forcibly converted to Catholicism after 1492, and one of his forebears had been burned by the
Inquisition
The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...
for secretly continuing to practice Judaism. In 1599, he published the first part of ''
Guzmán de Alfarache
''Guzmán de Alfarache'' () is a picaresque novel written by Mateo Alemán and published in two parts: the first in Madrid in 1599 with the title , and the second in 1604, titled '.
The works tells the first person adventures of a ''picaro'', a ...
'', a celebrated
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 corrup ...
which passed through no less than sixteen editions in five years; a spurious sequel was issued in 1602, but the authentic continuation did not appear until 1604.
In 1571, Alemán married, unhappily, Catalina de Espinosa, and was constantly in money difficulties, being imprisoned for debt at
Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...
at the end of 1602.
In 1608, Alemán emigrated to
America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, and is said to have carried on business as a printer in Mexico, where he is assumed to have remained for the rest of his life. His ''Ortografía castellana'' (1609), published in Mexico, contains ingenious and practical proposals for the reform of Spanish spelling. Nothing is recorded of Alemán after 1609, but it is sometimes asserted that he was still living in 1617.
Works
In addition to the works already mentioned, Alemán is the author of a life (1604) of
St. Anthony of Padua
Anthony of Padua ( it, Antonio di Padova) or Anthony of Lisbon ( pt, António/Antônio de Lisboa; born Fernando Martins de Bulhões; 15 August 1195 – 13 June 1231) was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. He was bor ...
, and versions of two odes of
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...
bear witness to his taste and metrical accomplishment. His most famous work, however, is ''
Guzmán de Alfarache
''Guzmán de Alfarache'' () is a picaresque novel written by Mateo Alemán and published in two parts: the first in Madrid in 1599 with the title , and the second in 1604, titled '.
The works tells the first person adventures of a ''picaro'', a ...
'', which was translated into French in 1600, into Italian in 1606, into German in 1615, into English in 1622 by
James Mabbe
James Mabbe or Mab (1572–1642) was an English scholar, translator, and poet, and a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. He was involved in translations from Spanish, notably of the Picaresque novel by Mateo Alemán, ''Guzmán de Alfarache'', in 1 ...
, and into
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
in 1623.
References
;Attribution
* Endnotes:
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External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aleman, Mateo
Spanish novelists
Baroque writers
Spanish Baroque people
Spanish Golden Age
1547 births
1610s deaths
Writers from Seville
Spanish people of Italian descent
Spanish people of Jewish descent
University of Alcalá alumni
University of Salamanca alumni
University of Seville alumni
People imprisoned for debt
Spanish male dramatists and playwrights
Spanish male novelists
16th-century Spanish dramatists and playwrights
16th-century Spanish novelists
16th-century Spanish writers
16th-century male writers
17th-century Spanish dramatists and playwrights
17th-century Spanish novelists