ÁLVAREZ de TOLEDO, GABRIEL. - Spanish writer, born at Seville in 1662 of a noble family of Portuguese origin, and died in 1714. He was among the founders of the R. Academia Española, and held the office of chief librarian to the king. At the age of thirty he exchanged court life for an ascetic one, devoting himself to penance, prayer, and charity.
He wrote mystical poems, collected in vol. LXI (pp. 1-18) of the Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, and historical works (Historia de la Iglesia y del mundo antes del Diócesis), a burlesque poem (la Burromachia), and a romance in hendecasyllables on the martyrdom of s. Lorenzo; also of interest from the religious point of view is a paraphrase of the Miserere psalm.
A good prose writer, of broad culture, acquainted with classical and modern languages, and not infrequently felicitous in the inspiration of his religious lyrics, although inclined to create a form of sacred rhetoric in which the learned and humanistic effort is evident, he nevertheless has, in his best moments, something that recalls Luis de León.