Baltasar Gracián

Baltasar Gracián (1601–1658) was a Spanish Jesuit, Baroque writer and philosopher, born at Belmonte in Aragon. Ordained in 1627, he became a noted preacher and rector of the Jesuit college at Tarragona, and served as an army chaplain at the 1646 siege of Lleida.

His works on courtly conduct include The Hero and The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647), while his allegorical novel El Criticón appeared 1651–1657. Publishing without his order's leave, he was exiled to Graus and died at Tarazona in 1658.