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Spanish humanism on the verge of the picaresque
The 16th-century humanist Juan Maldonado in his Latin essays foreshadows the Spanish picaresque. Like Erasmus, with whom he corresponded,Maldonado advocated the use of Latin in a wide-range of activities. Maldonado's Pastor Bonus, a lengthy open letter to a bishop, reviews in a vivid and satirical style the abuses of the churchmen in his diocese. His ludus chartarum is framed as a colloquium similar to Vives' on the subject, entertaining while teaching a Latin terminology for card playing. His Bacchanalia,...