Spanish prose novel, published in 1554 and commonly regarded as the first picaresque novel, a genre that became popular in later 16th-century Spain. The name of the author is unknown, though the character of the work suggests a person of considerable education. It is written as an autobiography and follows the eponymous hero through a series of employments by disreputable masters from whom he learns that one can advance in society only through deception. The book exercised influence well beyond its country of origin, for it was soon translated into Latin and into several European vernaculars.
Historical Dictionary of Renaissance. Charles G. Nauert. 2004.