Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645) created modern satire in Spanish.

Of the 110 letters pertaining to the last seven years of his life (1639-1645), 42 were carefully copied by two early 18th-century scholars in a hitherto unpublished manuscript of great interest and accuracy. Dated from the period of Quevedo's shattering four-year imprisonment in San Marcos de Leon, they are extensive and addressed to two distinguished Jesuits with whom Quevedo shared frankly (but under pseudonyms) news received in prison, including literary activity, military campaigns, politics and even his own parodies of the intrigues of the most powerful nobles at Court.

This critical edition documents the authentic texts of the letters, corrects erroneous attributions, identifies Quevedo's correspondents and establishes the chronology and diagnosis of his long mortal illness. We now have dates which reorder episodes, and we know the identity of the powerful inquisitor who salvaged so much of Quevedo's poetry (published in 1648).