Iconic Authors of the Spanish Golden Age

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra: The Prince of Wits

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish soldier, novelist, poet, and playwright. It is believed he was born on September 29, 1547, in Alcalá de Henares and died on April 22, 1616, in Madrid. Although he was buried on April 23, that date is often incorrectly cited as his day of death. He is considered the greatest figure in Spanish literature.

The Legacy of Don Quixote

Cervantes is universally known for writing The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, which many critics describe as the first modern novel and one of the best works of world literature. Because of his mastery, he was given the nickname "Prince of Wits."

Notable Works by Cervantes

• La Galatea (1585)
• The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605)
• Exemplary Novels (1613)
• The Ingenious Knight Don Quixote de la Mancha (1615)
• The Travails of Persiles and Sigismunda (1617)

Luis de Góngora y Argote: Master of Culteranismo

Luis de Góngora y Argote (Córdoba, July 11, 1561 – May 23, 1627) was a Spanish poet and playwright of the Golden Age. He was the greatest exponent of the literary trend known as Culteranismo (or Gongorism), which influenced many later artists. His works were the subject of exegesis even in his own era.

The Evolution of Góngora’s Poetry

His poems are often divided into two distinct periods:

• The Traditional Period: Lasting until 1610, he used shorter meters and lighter topics, employing décimas, romances, and letrillas.
• The Culterano Period: This phase saw a dramatic shift toward complex metaphors, mythological allusions, cultisms, and hyperbatons.

Dámaso Alonso demonstrated that these stylistic complexities were present in his early work, and the second period was simply an intensification of these resources for aesthetic reasons.

Francisco de Quevedo: The Great Satirist

Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Villegas Santibáñez (Madrid, September 14, 1580 – September 8, 1645) was a Spanish nobleman, politician, and writer of the Golden Age. He remains one of the most prominent figures in Spanish literary history, holding the titles of Lord of La Torre de Juan Abad and Knight of the Order of Santiago.

The Rivalry Between Quevedo and Góngora

Quevedo abominated the aesthetics of Culteranismo. Its leader, Luis de Góngora, was violently attacked by Quevedo in personal satires. Opposing the pedantry and obscurity he perceived, Quevedo proposed and edited the works of Renaissance poets such as Francisco de la Torre and Fray Luis de León.