Gracian, Baltasar

Born in Spain in the village of Belmonte near Calatayud in the family of the doctor. He had three brothers and a sister. The future writer since childhood was destined to a spiritual career, which was so usual for then- Spain .

In 1619 in Tarragona becomes a novice of the Jesuit order.

In 1623 he studied theology in Zaragoza. At the age of 30 he leads a course of "moral theology" in the Catalan Lleida, and at the age of 32 begins to read a course of philosophy at the Jesuit College of Gandia ( Valencia ).

Gracian’s literary work began in 1636, when he moved to Huesca , one of the cultural centers of Aragon , where he received the post of preacher and confessor of the local Jesuit college. A year later he published his first significant work, the moral treatise “Hero”, which was met with interest in Spain and in Europe.

Since at that time there was a ban for members of the Jesuit Order to print anything without the prior approval of their superiors, Gracian published his essay under the name of his cousin Lorenzo Gracian.

In 1657, after the publication of Part III of the Kritikon, the rector of the Saragossa collegium issued a public reprimand to Baltasar, he was deprived of his pulpit, forbidden to teach, expelled from Zaragoza, and sentenced to strict repentance on water and bread. Gracian’s last year was filled with humiliation, misfortune and despair.

“Tendency to melancholy, bilious character, always irritated, disgruntled by all, stinging critic” - a comment of contemporaries (from the obligatory denunciations of each other in the Jesuit order).

Graciana was published in Russia in the period 1742-1792 - then a 200-year break. Thanks to Arthur Schopenhauer , in Germany, since 1861, there have already been 14 reprints.

• "Hero" (1637)
• The Politician (1640)
• "Wit, or the Art of Sophisticated Mind" (1642)
• The Prudent (1646)
• "Pocket Oracle, or the Science of Prudence" (fr. "Homme de cour" (The Court); rus. "The Court Man") (1647)
• The Criticon: Part I - 1651; Part II - 1653; Part III - 1657.
• Reflections on the Sacrament (1655) is the only work signed with this name.
• Obras completas. Estudio, bibliogr. y notas de A. del Hoyo. Madrid, Aguilar, 1960.
• The rules of Baltasar Graciana How to control fate

• The court man. Per. S. Volchkova . St. Petersburg, 1741; second edition - 1760.
• Ira Valtazar Gratian with critical, historical and moral notes by Mr. Courbeville. Moscow, in the University Printing House at V.Okorokov, 1792
• Pocket oracle. Criticon. Per. and comm. E.M. Lysenko and L.E. Pinsky. Moscow, "Science", 1984 (series " Literary monuments ").
• Wit, or the art of a sophisticated mind. Per. E. Lysenko, verses from Spanish and Portuguese translated by P. Grushko. “Spanish aesthetics. Renaissance. Baroque. Education". Moscow, "Art", 1977 (series " History of aesthetics in monuments and documents ").
• Pocket oracle. Per. E.M. Lysenko. Moscow, Astrel: Poligrafizdat, 2012 (Philosophy series) /

• Oganisyan M.Yu. Creativity Baltasar Gracian in the context of the baroque rhetorical tradition / / Cervantesovskie readings. 1988. L., pp. 244-228.
• Sergievskaya G.E. Conseptism as the basis of the convergence of two philosophical languages: Gracian and Quevedo // Cognitive styles of communication. Theory and applied models. Simferopol, 2004. C.154-156.