Juan Bautista Diamante (29 August 1625? – 2 November 1687), minor

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Ben Jonson coined the term "playwri ...

of the school of

Calderón Calderón () is a Spanish and occupational surname. It is derived from the Vulgar Latin "''caldaria''" ("cauldron") and refers to the occupation of tinker. "Calderón" without any further specifics usually refers to Pedro Calderón de la Barca, t ...

, was the son of a Portuguese mother and a Sicilian merchant of Greek parentage who came to Madrid some time before 1631. He began writing for the stage in the early 1650s, gained favour at the courts of Philip IV and Charles II, and became a knight of St. John (of Malta) in 1660. It has been suggested that Juan Bautista may have been of Jewish stock, and that the Diamante family, including the playwright's half-brothers Pablo and Francisco Diamante who also achieved success in their different spheres, falsified public records of marriage, baptism, etc. in order to obscure their ''

marrano ''Marranos'' is a term for Spanish and Portuguese Jews, as well as Navarrese jews, who converted to Christianity, either voluntarily or by Spanish or Portuguese royal coercion, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but who continued t ...

'' origins. Thirty-nine plays were published in his lifetime, twenty-four of them as ''Comedias de Fr. Don Iuan Bautista Diamante'' . . . in two parts in 1670 and 1674; the remainder appeared between 1656 and 1672 in the series ''Comedias escogidas de los mejores de España'' . . . . Many plays (some of doubtful attribution, such as ''La devoción del rosario'', ''La Magdalena de Roma'' and ''La Judía de Toledo'' – see below) were printed or reprinted as '' sueltas'' in the eighteenth century. Diamante collaborated with other playwrights and poets of the time, notably Matos Fragoso,

Moreto Moreto is a red Portuguese wine grape variety that is planted primarily in the Alentejo. As a varietal, the grape makes neutral wines. J. Robinson ''Jancis Robinson's Wine Course'' Third Edition pg 144 Abbeville Press 2003 Synonyms Moreto is ...

Juan Vélez Juan Antonio Vélez (born August 2, 1983 in Ponce, Puerto Rico) is a Puerto Rican singer and songwriter, better known for being the winner of the fourth season of ''Objetivo Fama'', a Puerto Rican television singing talent contest in the form ...

, Sebastián de Villaviciosa, Lanini y Sagredo, Arce de los Reyes and

Francisco de Avellaneda Francisco Avellaneda (c. 1622 – c. 1684) was a playwright of the Spanish Golden Age. Biography Little record survives of Avellaneda's early life, although he achieved notoriety in his time as a playwright. In 1660, he is known to have been in ...

. In all, including works of collaboration, he produced around forty-five plays, plus two ''

autos A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one billio ...

'', a number of ''

zarzuela () is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular songs, as well as dance. The etymology of the name is uncertain, but some propose it may derive from the name o ...

s'', and a handful of minor pieces ('' loas'', ''

bailes Bailes is an English-language surname. People with the name include: * Alfred Shrapnell Bailes (1849–1928), Australian politician * Alyson Bailes (1949–2016), British diplomat * Barclay Bailes (1883–1955), Australian footballer * Ernest Ba ...

'' and '' entremeses''). According to Valbuena Prat, Diamante is historically interesting as the introducer of French dramatic methods into Spain. The originality of his work has however been questioned by critics. Much of his output is essentially a reworking or ''refundición'' of other dramatists' material. ''La Judía de Toledo'', which was long considered his best play, is really

Mira de Amescua Mira (), designation Omicron Ceti (ο Ceti, abbreviated Omicron Cet, ο Cet), is a red-giant star estimated to be 200–300 light-years from the Sun in the constellation Cetus. ο Ceti is a binary stellar system, consisting of a vari ...

's ''La Desgraciada Raquel'' under another title; and ''El Honrador de su padre'' (1658), is little more than a free translation (up to the end of the second act, at least) of

Corneille Pierre Corneille (; ; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great 17th-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. As a young man, he earned the valuable patronage o ...

's ''

Le Cid ''Le Cid'' is a five-act French tragicomedy written by Pierre Corneille, first performed in December 1636 at the Théâtre du Marais in Paris and published the same year. It is based on Guillén de Castro's play ''Las Mocedades del Cid''. Cast ...

''. His more successful playsE. Cotarelo y Mori, ''Don Juan Bautista Diamante y sus comedias'', in ''Boletín de la Real Academia Española'', vol. 3 (1916), pp. 272-97 and 454-97. were historical dramas such as ''El hércules de Ocaña'', on the fearless

Alonso de Céspedes Alonso is a Spanish name of Germanic origin that is a Castilian variant of ''Adalfuns''. The original Visigothic name ''Alfonso'' suffered the phonetic change of the phoneme /f/ into the mute /h/ in the Early Middle Ages (around 9th Century), ...

, ''el Alcides castellano'', and ''La reina María Estuarda'', on the life (and death) of

Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was List of Scottish monarchs, Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legit ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Diamante, Juan Bautista 1620s births 1687 deaths Spanish male dramatists and playwrights Conversos 17th-century Spanish writers 17th-century Spanish dramatists and playwrights 17th-century Spanish male writers