: ''Aleman is sometimes used to refer to German.'' Mateo Alemán y del Nero (Seville, September 1547 –

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

, 1614) 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 wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

and writer.

Biography

Alemán was born in

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

, Andalucía, where he graduated from the University in 1564. He later studied at

Salamanca Salamanca () is a Municipality of Spain, municipality and city in Spain, capital of the Province of Salamanca, province of the same name, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is located in the Campo Charro comarca, in the ...

and Alcalá, and from 1571 to 1588 held a post in the treasury; in 1594 he was arrested on suspicion of malversation, 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 Catholic Inquisitorial system#History, judicial procedure where the Ecclesiastical court, ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases in their jurisdiction. Popularly it became the name for various med ...

for secretly continuing to practice Judaism. In 1599, he published the first part of '' Guzmán de Alfarache'', 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

at the end of 1602. In 1608, Alemán emigrated to

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, 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, and versions of two odes of

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

bear witness to his taste and metrical accomplishment. His most famous work, however, is '' Guzmán de Alfarache'', which was translated into French in 1600, into Italian in 1606, into German in 1615, into English in 1622 by James Mabbe, and into

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

in 1623.

References

;Attribution * Endnotes: ** **

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aleman, Mateo Spanish novelists Spanish Baroque writers 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 Spanish male writers 17th-century Spanish dramatists and playwrights 17th-century Spanish novelists