Mateo Aleman

Background

Ethnicity: Descended from Jews who had been forcibly converted to Catholicism.

Mateo Aleman was born in Seville and christened on September 28, 1547.

Education

Mateo later studied at Salamanca and Alcalá, and from 1571 to 1588 held a post in the treasury.

Career

Mateo was imprisoned for debt in 1580. He was a judge again in 1593, this time in the quicksilver mines of Almadén. The work was performed by criminals, whom he got to know well and about whom he wrote an unpublished confidential report.

The importance of this experience is evident in the genesis of his picaresque novel. The prologue to Proverbios morales (Moral Proverbs) of Alonso de Barros was Alemán's first published work.

The first part of Guzmán de Alfarache, which came out in 1599, was an immediate success, and 23 editions were published before 1605.

It was probably during these years that he visited Italy.

Back in Seville, Alemán was again imprisoned and was released after pawning 500 copies of Guzmán.

This period coincides with his very close friendship with the writers Lope de Vega and Vicente Espinel.

Alemán, who had finished in manuscript his second part, decided to rewrite it entirely (he gave Luján a place among his new characters), and it appeared in 1604.

Nothing is known of Alemán after that. Guzmán de Alfarache was the work that gave final form to the picaresque, which had been developing since Lazarillo de Tormes was published in 1554.

Alemán's novel profoundly influenced the German Simplicissimus, the English Moll Flanders, and the French Gil Blas, and many other works.

Guzmán was translated into many languages, and the English version by James Mabbe, entitled The Rogue (1622), had five editions in 11 years.

Guzmán de Alfarache, the literary character, is born in Seville and is almost predestined, by family and surroundings, to be a delinquent.

He tells the story of his life in the first person and with many digressive moralizations, which have been violently criticized.

Achievements

• In 1599 Mateo published the first part of Guzmdn de Alfarache, a celebrated picaresque novel which passed through not less than sixteen editions in five years; a spurious sequel was issued in 1602, but the authentic continuation did not appear till 1604.
  
  He is the author of a life (1604) of St Antony of Padua, and versions of two odes of Horace bear witness to his taste and metrical accom-plishment.
  
  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 in 1623.

Works

• book

  • HISTORIA DE LOS DOS ENAMORADOS OZMIN Y DARAJA

Connections

Aleman was married to Catalina de Espinosa.

Wife:

Catalina de Espinosa

Friend:

Lope de Vega