Miguel de Cervantes: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia
Article Images
Line 1:
{{Short description|Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright (1547–1616)}}
{{redirect|Cervantes}}
{{Redirect|Cervantes}}
{{Infobox Writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]] -->
{{Redirect|Miguel Cervantes|the American actor and singer|Miguel Cervantes (actor)}}
| name = Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}}
| image = Cervates jauregui.jpg
{{Infobox writer
| caption = Portrait of Cervantes,{{Ref_label|A|a|none}} by [[Juan Martínez de Jáuregui y Aguilar]] (c. 1600)
| name = Miguel de Cervantes
| birthdate = {{birth-date|September 19, 1547|September 29, 1547}} <!-- 1582 was Spain's switch to Gregorian. The Julian date is displayed. microformats requires gregorian form, and the offset to gregorian at the time was 10 days, giving September 19. -->
| image = Cervantes Jáuregui.jpg
| birthplace = [[Alcalá de Henares]], Spain
| caption = This portrait, attributed to [[Juan de Jáuregui]],{{efn|Although Cervantes wrote in his preface to ''[[Novelas ejemplares|Exemplary Novels]]'' that Jáuregui did paint his portrait: "el cual amigo bien pudiera, como es uso y costubre, grabarme y esculpirme en la primera hoja de este libro, pues le diera mi retrato el famoso D. Juan de Jauregui".}} is unauthenticated. No authenticated image of Cervantes exists.<ref>
| deathdate = {{death-date and age|April 23, 1616|September 19, 1547}}
{{cite journal |first=José María |last=Chacón y Calvo |title=Retratos de Cervantes |journal=Anales de la Academia Nacional de Artes y Letras |language=es |volume=27 |date=1947–1948 |pages=5–17}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Enrique Lafuente |last=Ferrari |title=La novela ejemplar de los retratos de Cervantes |language=es |year=1948}}</ref>
| deathplace = [[Madrid]], Spain
| birth_date = {{birth date|1547|9|29}}
| occupation = Novelist, poet and playwright
| birth_place = [[Alcalá de Henares]], Spain
| influences = [[Chivalric romance]], [[Italian Renaissance]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1616|4|22|1547|9|29}}<ref name= Engines>{{cite web |url=https://www.uh.edu/engines/epi2368.htm |work=Engines of Our Ingenuity |author=Armstrong, Richard |others=Lienhard, John (host, producer) |number=2368 |title=Time Out of Joint |via=UH.edu |access-date=9 December 2019}}</ref>
| influenced = the [[novel]], [[Guram Dochanashvili]]
| death_place = [[Madrid]], Spain
| resting_place = [[Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians]], Madrid
| occupation = Soldier, [[Farm (revenue leasing)|tax collector]], accountant, purchasing agent for Navy<br />(writing was an [[avocation]] which did not produce much income)
| language = [[Spanish language|Spanish]]
| movement = [[Renaissance literature]], [[Mannerism]], Baroque
| notableworks = ''[[Don Quixote]]''<br />''Entremeses''<br />''[[Novelas ejemplares]]''
| children = Isabel {{circa|1584}} (illegitimate){{sfn|McCrory|2006|p=112}}
| signature = Miguel de Cervantes signature.svg
| spouse = Catalina de Salazar y Palacios
}}
'''Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra'''{{Ref_label|B|b|none}} ({{IPA-es|miˈɣel ðe θerˈβantes saˈβeðɾa}} in modern [[Spanish language|Spanish]]; September 29, 1547 – April 23, 1616) was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His [[magnum opus]], ''[[Don Quixote]]'', considered the first [[modern novel]] by many,<ref>[http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1105510,00.html Harold Bloom on Don Quixote, the first modern novel | Books | The Guardian<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> is a classic of [[Western literature]] and is regularly regarded among the best novels ever written. His work is considered among the most important in all of literature.<ref name="Br">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Cervantes, Miguel de|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|date=2002}}</ref> His influence on the [[Spanish language]] has been so great, that Spanish is often called ''la lengua de Cervantes'' (The language of Cervantes).<ref>{{cite journal|title=La lengua de Cervantes| language =Spanish| url = http://www.cepc.es/rap/Publicaciones/Revistas/2/REP_031-032_288.pdf| publisher =Ministerio de la Presidencia de España|format=PDF| accessdate =2008-08-24}}</ref> He has been dubbed ''el Príncipe de los Ingenios''{{ndash}} the Prince of Wits.
'''Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra''' ({{IPAc-en|s|əːr|ˈ|v|æ|n|t|iː|z|,_|-|t|ɪ|z}} {{respell|sur|VAN|teez|,_-|tiz}},<ref>{{EPD|18|Cervantes|page=83|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KQXL_uRxUN4C&printsec=frontcover&q=cervantes&f=false}}</ref> {{IPA|es|miˈɣel de θeɾˈβantes saaˈβeðɾa|lang}}; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 [[Old Style and New Style dates|NS]])<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://dbe.rah.es/biografias/11973/miguel-de-cervantes-saavedra |title=Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra |encyclopedia=Diccionario biográfico España |first=Martín |last=de Riquer Morera |publisher=[[Real Academia de la Historia]] |language=es}}</ref> was an [[Early Modern Spanish]] writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the [[Spanish language]] and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best known for his novel ''[[Don Quixote]]'', a work considered as the first modern [[novel]].<ref name=bloom>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/dec/13/classics.miguelcervantes |title=The knight in the mirror |author=Bloom, Harold |website=[[The Guardian]] |date=13 December 2003 |access-date=5 July 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-don-quixote-the-worlds-first-modern-novel-and-one-of-the-best-94097 |title=Guide to the classics: Don Quixote, the world's first modern novel – and one of the best |last1=Puchau de Lecea |first1= Ana |first2= Vicente |last2=Pérez de León |website=[[The Conversation (website)|The Conversation]] |date=25 June 2018 |access-date=1 July 2020}}</ref><ref name=bbcdon/> The novel has been labelled by many well-known authors as the "best book of all time"{{efn|[[Milan Kundera]], [[John le Carré]], [[John Irving]],<ref name=bbcdon/> [[Doris Lessing]], [[Salman Rushdie]], Miriam Lebwohl, [[Nadine Gordimer]], [[Wole Soyinka]], [[Seamus Heaney]], [[Carlos Fuentes]], [[Norman Mailer]], and [[Astrid Lindgren]]<ref name=chrisafis/> were among the authors polled.}} and the "best and most central work in world literature".<ref name=chrisafis>{{cite news |last=Chrisafis |first=Angelique |title=Don Quixote is the world's best book say the world's top authors |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/08/humanities.books |access-date=13 October 2012 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=21 July 2003}}</ref><ref name=bbcdon>{{cite news |title=Don Quixote gets authors' votes |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1972609.stm |publisher=BBC News |date=7 May 2002 |access-date=3 January 2010}}</ref>
Cervantes, born at [[Alcalá de Henares]], was the fourth of seven children of Rodrigo de Cervantes, a surgeon born at Alcalá de Henares in a family whose origins may have been of the minor [[gentry]], and wife, married in 1543, Leonor de Cortinas, who died on October 19, 1593. The family moved from town to town, and little is known of Cervantes's early years. In 1569, Cervantes moved to Italy, where he entered as valet into the service of Giulio Acquaviva, a wealthy priest who was elevated to [[cardinal (Catholicism)|cardinal]] the next year. By then Cervantes had enlisted as a soldier in a Spanish infantry regiment and continued his military life until 1575, when he was captured by Algerian pirates. He was ransomed by his captors and the [[Trinitarians]] and returned to his family in [[Madrid]].
Much of his life was spent in relative poverty and obscurity, which led to many of his early works being lost. Despite this, his influence and literary contribution are reflected by the fact that Spanish is often referred to as "the language of Cervantes".<ref>{{cite web |title=La lengua de Cervantes |author=[[Gerardo Diego|Diego, Gerardo]] |language=es |url=http://www.cepc.es/rap/Publicaciones/Revistas/2/REP_031-032_288.pdf |publisher=Ministerio de la Presidencia de España |access-date=14 September 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081003083955/http://www.cepc.es/rap/Publicaciones/Revistas/2/REP_031-032_288.pdf |archive-date=3 October 2008}}</ref>
In 1585, Cervantes published a pastoral novel, ''[[La Galatea]]''. Because of financial problems, Cervantes worked as a [[purveyor]] for the [[Spanish Armada]], and later as a [[tax collector]]. In 1597 discrepancies in his accounts of three years previous landed him in the Crown Jail of Seville. In 1605 he was in [[Valladolid]], just when the immediate success of the first part of his ''Don Quijote'', published in Madrid, signaled his return to the literary world. In 1607, he settled in Madrid, where he lived and worked until his death. During the last nine years of his life, Cervantes solidified his reputation as a writer; he published the ''Exemplary Novels'' (''Novelas ejemplares'') in 1613, the ''[[Viaje al Parnaso|Journey to Parnassus]]'' in 1614, and in 1615, the ''Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses'' and the second part of ''Don Quixote''. [[Carlos Fuentes]] noted that, "Cervantes leaves open the pages of a book where the reader knows himself to be written."<ref>Fuentes, Carlos. ''Myself with Others: Selected Essays.'' (1988).</ref>
[[File: An Incident in the story of Don Quixote, by Robert Hillingford.jpg|thumb|''An incident in the story of'' Don Quixote (1870), by [[Robert Hillingford]].]]
==Biography==
===Birth and early life===
In 1569, Cervantes was forced to leave Spain and move to [[Rome]], where he worked in the household of a [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|cardinal]]. In 1570, he enlisted in a [[Spanish Marine Infantry|Spanish Navy infantry]] regiment, and was badly wounded at the [[Battle of Lepanto]] in October 1571 and lost the use of his left arm and hand. He served as a soldier until 1575, when he was captured by [[Barbary pirates]]; after five years in captivity, he was ransomed, and returned to [[Madrid]].
Miguel de Cervantes was born in [[Alcalá de Henares]], a Castilian city about 15 miles from [[Madrid]], probably on September 29 (the feast day of [[St. Michael]]) 1547. The actual date of his birth was determined from records in the church register. He was baptized on October 9.<ref name="Br" /> Miguel's father Rodrigo was a [[barber-surgeon]], who set bones, performed bloodlettings, and attended "lesser medical needs". <ref>William Byron, "Cervantes. A Biography", Doubleday & Company: Garden City, NY, 1978, pp. 23-32.</ref> His mother was the third daughter of a nobleman, who lost his fortune and had to sell his daughter into matrimony. This led to a very awkward marriage and several affairs on the father's part.<ref>Moorcock p 386</ref>
His first significant novel, titled ''[[La Galatea]]'', was published in 1585, but he continued to work as a purchasing agent, and later as a government [[Farm (revenue leasing)|tax collector]]. Part One of ''Don Quixote'' was published in 1605, and Part Two in 1615. Other works include the 12 ''[[Novelas ejemplares]]'' (''Exemplary Novels''); a long poem, the ''[[Viaje del Parnaso]]'' (''Journey to Parnassus''); and ''Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses'' (''Eight Plays and Eight [[wikt:interlude|Interlude]]s''). The novel ''[[Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda]]'' (''The Travails of Persiles and Sigismunda''), was published posthumously in 1616.
Little is known of Cervantes' early years. He was a brash young man and possessed a very idealistic nature. This is later reflected in his literary work, such as ''El Trabajo de San Juan''. It seems that he spent much of his childhood moving from town to town with his family. During this time he met a young barmaid, Josefina Catalina De Parez. The couple fell madly in love and plotted to run away together. Sadly her father discovered their plans and forbade Josefina from ever seeing Cervantes again. It seems that, much like Dickens' father, Miguel's father was embargoed for debt. The court records of the proceedings show a very poor household. While some of his biographers argue that he studied at the [[University of Salamanca]], there is no solid evidence for supposing that he did so.{{Ref_label|C|c|none}} There has been speculation also that Cervantes studied with the [[Jesuit]]s in [[Córdoba, Spain|Córdoba]] or [[Sevilla]].<ref name="Am">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Cervantes, Miguel de|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia Americana|date=1994}}</ref>
The cave of [[Medrano]] (also known as the casa de Medrano) in Argamasilla de Alba, which has been known since the beginning of the 17th century, and according to the tradition of Argamasilla de Alba, was the prison of Don Miguel de Cervantes and the place where he conceived and began to write his famous work "''[[Don Quixote|Don Quixote de la Mancha]]''".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-01-06 |title=Casa – Cueva de Medrano - Ruta del Vino de La Mancha |url=https://www.rutadelvinodelamancha.com/argamasilla-de-alba/casa-cueva-de-medrano/,%20https://www.rutadelvinodelamancha.com/argamasilla-de-alba/casa-cueva-de-medrano/ |access-date=2024-07-01 |language=es-ES}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Visita Museo Casa de Medrano {{!}} TCLM |url=https://www.turismocastillalamancha.es/patrimonio/museo-casa-de-medrano-4361/descripcion/ |access-date=2024-09-13 |website=www.turismocastillalamancha.es |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Casa de Medrano |url=https://www.ellugardelamancha.es/turismo/casa-de-medrano/ |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=Turismo Argamasilla de Alba |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=CERVANTES en la BNE - Casa de Medrano que sirvió de prisión a Cervantes en Argamasilla de Alba |url=http://cervantes.bne.es/es/exposicion/obras/casa-medrano-que-sirvio-prision-cervantes-argamasilla-alba |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=cervantes.bne.es |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Cueva Prisión de Medrano {{!}} Portal de Cultura de Castilla-La Mancha |url=https://cultura.castillalamancha.es/patrimonio/catalogo-patrimonio-cultural/cueva-prision-de-medrano |access-date=2024-09-13 |website=cultura.castillalamancha.es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Cueva Prisión de Medrano (Argamasilla de Alba). Turismo Ciudad Real |url=https://www.turismociudadreal.com/ruta/30/cueva-prision-de-medrano |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=Turismo Ciudad Real |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-04-27 |title=Cueva de Medrano: leyenda y realidad del origen del Quijote |url=https://www.lanzadigital.com/cultura/cueva-de-medrano-leyenda-y-realidad-del-origen-del-quijote/ |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=www.lanzadigital.com |language=es}}</ref>
===Military history and captivity===
==Biography==
[[Image:The Battle of Lepanto by Paolo Veronese.jpeg|thumb|right|The ''Battle of Lepanto'' by [[Paolo Veronese]] (c. 1572, oil on canvas, 169 x 137 cm, [[Gallerie dell'Accademia]], [[Venice]])]]
[[File:Alcalá de Henares (RPS 08-11-2014) Plaza de Cervantes.png|thumb|''Santa María la Mayor'', in [[Alcalá de Henares]], where Cervantes was reputedly baptised; the square in front is named ''Plaza Cervantes'']]
The reasons that forced Cervantes to leave [[Castilla]] remain uncertain. Whether he was a "student" of the same name, a "sword-wielding fugitive from justice", or fleeing from a royal warrant of arrest, for having wounded a certain Antonio de Sigura in a duel, is another mystery.<ref>'The Enigma of Cervantine Genealogy'', 118</ref> In any event, in going to Italy, Cervantes was doing what many young [[Spaniards]] of the time did to further their careers in one way or another. Rome would reveal to the young artist its ecclesiastic pomp, [[ritual]], and majesty. In a city teeming with ruins Cervantes could focus his attention on [[Renaissance]] art, architecture, and poetry (knowledge of [[Italian literature]] is so readily discernible in his own productions) and on rediscovering antiquity. He could find in the ancients "a powerful impetus to revive the contemporary world in light of its accomplishments".<ref name="Ar32">F.A. de Armas, ''Cervantes and the Italian Renaissance'', 32<br>* F.A. de Armas, ''Quixotic Frescoes'', 5</ref> Thus, Cervantes' continuing desire for Italy, as revealed in his later works, was in part a desire for a return to the Renaissance.<ref name="Ar33">F.A. de Armas, ''Cervantes and the Italian Renaissance'', 33</ref>
Despite his subsequent renown, much of Cervantes' life is uncertain, including his name, background and what he looked like. Although he signed himself ''Cerbantes'', his printers used ''Cervantes'', which became the common form. In later life, Cervantes used ''Saavedra'', the name of a distant relative, rather than the more usual ''Cortinas'', after his mother.{{sfn|Garcés|2002|p=189}} But historian [[Luce López-Baralt]], claimed that it comes from the word ''shaibedraa'' that in Arabic dialect means "one-handed", his nickname during his captivity.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.abc.es/cultura/cultural/abci-luce-lopez-baralt-ante-quijote-y-san-juan-cruz-siento-vertigo-asomarme-abismo-sin-201611170144_noticia.html |title=Luce López-Baralt: "Ante el 'Quijote' y San Juan de la Cruz siento el vértigo de asomarme a un abismo sin fin" |author=Iglesias, Amalia |date=17 November 2016 |website=abc |language=es}}</ref>
Another area of dispute is his religious background. It has been suggested that not only Cervantes' father but also his mother may have been [[New Christians]].{{sfn|Byron|1978|p=32}}{{sfn|Lokos|2016|p=116}} Anthony Cascardi writes, "While the family might have had some claim to [[Spanish nobility|nobility]] they often found themselves in financial straits. Moreover, they may have been of converso origin, that is, [[Conversion to Catholicism|converts to Catholicism]] of [[Jewish]] ancestry. In the Spain of Cervantes' days, this meant living under clouds of official suspicion and social mistrust, with far more limited opportunities than were enjoyed by members of the 'Old Christian' caste."{{sfn|Cascardi|2002|p=4}} According to Charles D. Presberg, there is no wide following for the view that Cervantes had converso origins.<ref name="Cruz Johnson 2018 p. 89">{{cite book |editor1-last=Cruz |editor1-first=Anne J. |editor2-last=Johnson |editor2-first=Carrol B. |last=Presberg |first=Charles D. |title=Cervantes and His Postmodern Constituencies |chapter=Chapter 5: Anatomy of Contemporary Cervantes Studies: A Romance of "Two Cities" |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-317-94451-5 |chapter-url={{GBurl|3nt0DwAAQBAJ|pg=PA89}} |access-date=10 December 2023 |page=89 |quote=Though the thesis of Cervantes, ''converso'', has yet to gain a wide following among Cervantes scholars, ''El pensamiento'' stood as the sponsoring text for most criticism on Cervantes, whose other writings were judged in relation to ''Don Quixote'', for over fifty years.}}</ref> Cuban writer [[Roberto González Echevarría|Roberto Echevarría]] asserts that the claims of Cervantes' converso origins are based on "very flimsy evidence", namely Cervantes' lack of social and financial progression in a time when such rewards were denied to most Spaniards regardless of social group.<ref name="Echevarria 2010 p. 13">{{cite book |last=Echevarria |first=Roberto G. |title=Cervantes' Don Quixote: A Casebook |chapter=Introduction |publisher=Oxford University Press |series=Casebooks in Criticism |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-996046-0 |chapter-url={{GBurl|mvPQCwAAQBAJ|pg=PA13}} |access-date=10 December 2023 |page=13}}</ref>
By 1570 Cervantes had enlisted as a soldier in a regiment of the Spanish naval elite corps, [[Infantería de Marina]], stationed in [[Naples]], then a possession of the Spanish crown. He was there for about a year before he saw active service. In September 1571 Cervantes sailed on board the ''Marquesa'', part of the [[galley]] fleet of the [[Holy League (Mediterranean)|Holy League]] (a coalition of the [[Pope Pius V|Pope]], Spain, [[Republic of Venice|Venice]], [[Republic of Genoa]], [[Duchy of Savoy]], the [[Knights Hospitaller|Knights of Malta]], and others, under the command of [[John of Austria]]) that defeated the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] fleet on October 7 in the [[Battle of Lepanto|Gulf of Lepanto]] near [[Gulf of Lepanto|Corinth]]. Though taken down with fever, Cervantes refused to stay below, and begged to be allowed to take part in the battle, saying that he would rather die for his God and his king than keep under cover. He fought bravely on board a vessel, and received three gunshot wounds – two in the chest, and one which rendered his left arm useless, resulting in amputation. In ''Journey to Parnassus'' he was to say that he "had lost the movement of the left hand for the glory of the right" (he was thinking of the success of the first part of ''Don Quixote''). Cervantes always looked back on his conduct in the battle with pride: he believed that he had taken part in an event that would shape the course of [[European history]].
{| class="toccolours" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; background:#c6dbf7; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="5"
| style="text-align: left;" | "What I cannot help taking amiss is that he{{Ref_label|D|d|none}} charges me with being old and one-handed, as if it had been in my power to keep time from passing over me, or as if the loss of my hand had been brought about in some tavern, and not on the grandest occasion the past or present has seen, or the future can hope to see. If my wounds have no beauty to the beholder's eye, they are, at least, honourable in the estimation of those who know where they were received; for the soldier shows to greater advantage dead in battle than alive in flight."
|-
| style="text-align: left;" | Miguel de Cervantes ('''''Don Quixote{{ndash}} Part II''''', "The Author's Preface" translated by [[John Ormsby]])
|}
It is generally accepted Miguel de Cervantes was born around 29 September 1547, in [[Alcalá de Henares]]. He was the second son of [[barber-surgeon]] Rodrigo de Cervantes and his wife, Leonor de Cortinas ({{circa|1520–1593}}).{{sfn|McCrory|2006|p=35}} Rodrigo came from [[Córdoba, Andalusia]], where his father Juan de Cervantes was an influential lawyer.
After the [[Battle of Lepanto (1571)|Battle of Lepanto]] Cervantes remained in hospital for around six months, before his wounds were sufficiently healed to allow his joining the colors again.<ref name="F33">J. Fitzmaurice-Kelly, ''The Life of Cervantes'', 9</ref> From 1572 to 1575, based mainly in Naples, he continued his soldier's life: he participated in expeditions to [[Corfu]] and [[Pylos|Navarino]], and saw the fall of [[Tunis]] and [[La Goletta]] to the [[Ottoman Turks|Turks]] in 1574.<ref name="G220">M.A. Garcés, ''Cervantes in Algiers'', 220</ref>
===1547 to 1566: Early years===
On 6 or 7 September 1575 Cervantes set sail on the [[galley]] ''Sol'' from Naples to [[Barcelona]], Spain, with letters of commendation to the king from the duke de [[Sessa]] and Don Juan himself.<ref name="F41">J. Fitzmaurice-Kelly, ''The Life of Cervantes'', 41</ref> On the morning of September 26, as the ''Sol'' approached the Catalan coast, it was attacked by [[Algeria]]n corsairs. After significant resistance, in which the captain and many crew members were killed, the surviving passengers were taken to [[Algiers]] as captives.<ref name="G236">M.A. Garcés, ''Cervantes in Algiers'', 236</ref> After five years spent as a [[slave]] in Algiers, and four unsuccessful escape attempts, he was ransomed by his parents and the [[Trinitarians]] and returned to his family in Madrid. Not surprisingly, this period of Cervantes' life supplied subject matter for several of his literary works, notably the Captive's tale in ''Don Quixote'' and the two plays set in Algiers{{ndash}} ''El Trato de Argel'' (''The Treaty of Algiers'') and ''Los Baños de Argel'' (''The Baths of Algiers''){{ndash}} as well as episodes in a number of other writings, although never in straight autobiographical form.<ref name="Br" />
Rodrigo was frequently in debt, or searching for work, and moved constantly. Leonor came from [[Arganda del Rey]], and died in October 1593, at the age of 73; surviving legal documents indicate she had seven children, could read and write, and was a resourceful individual with a keen eye for business. When Rodrigo was imprisoned for debt from October 1553 to April 1554, she supported the family on her own.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|p=34}}
Cervantes' siblings were Andrés (born 1543), Andrea (born 1544), Luisa (born 1546), Rodrigo (born 1550), Magdalena (born 1554) and Juan. They lived in Córdoba until 1556, when his grandfather died. For reasons that are unclear, Rodrigo did not benefit from his will and the family disappears until 1564 when he filed a lawsuit in [[Seville]].{{sfn|McCrory|2006|p=36}}
[[Image:Miguel de Cervantes at the National Library.jpg|200ppx|thumb|right|"The pen is the language of the soul; as the concepts that in it are generated, such will be its writings."{{ndash}} Miguel de Cervantes at the National Library, Spain -]]
Seville was then in the midst of an economic boom, and Rodrigo managed rented accommodation for his elder brother Andres, who was a junior magistrate. It is contended that Cervantes attended the [[Jesuits|Jesuit]] college in Seville, where one of the teachers was Jesuit playwright Pedro Pablo Acevedo, who moved there in 1561 from Córdoba.{{sfn|Egginton|2016|p=23}} However, legal records show his father got into debt once more and in 1566 the family moved to [[Madrid]].{{sfn|McCrory|2006|pp=40–41}}
===Literary pursuits===
===1566 to 1580: Military service and captivity===
{{main|Don Quixote}}
[[File:Madrid - Monumento a Miguel de Cervantes (35231601834).jpg|thumb|left|Monument of Cervantes erected in 1929 ([[Madrid]])]]
In [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]], [[Esquivias]], on 12 December 1584, he married the much younger Catalina de Salazar y Palacios ([[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]], [[Esquivias]] – [[Madrid]], 31 October 1626) daughter of Fernando de Salazar y Vozmediano and wife Catalina de Palacios, and whose uncle Alonso de Quesada y Salazar is said to have inspired the character of ''Don Quixote''. During the next 20 years he led a nomadic existence, working as a purchasing agent for the [[Spanish Armada]] and as a tax collector. He suffered a bankruptcy and was imprisoned at least twice (1597 and 1602) for irregularities in his accounts. Between the years 1596 and 1600 he lived primarily in [[Seville]]. In 1606 Cervantes settled permanently in Madrid, where he remained for the rest of his life. In 1585 Cervantes published his first major work, ''La Galatea'', a pastoral romance, at the same time that some of his plays, now lost{{ndash}} except for ''El Trato de Argel'' (wherein he dealt with the life of Christian slaves in Algiers) and ''El Cerco de Numancia''{{ndash}} were playing on the stages of Madrid. ''La Galatea'' received little contemporary notice; and Cervantes never wrote the continuation for it, which he repeatedly promised. Cervantes next turned his attention to the drama, hoping to derive an income from that source; but the plays which he composed failed to achieve their purpose. Aside from his plays, his most ambitious work in verse was ''Viaje del Parnaso'' (1614){{ndash}} an allegory which consisted largely of a rather tedious though good-natured review of contemporary poets. Cervantes himself realized that he was deficient in poetic gifts.
In the 19th century, a biographer discovered an [[arrest warrant]] for a Miguel de Cervantes, dated 15 September 1569, who was charged with wounding Antonio de Sigura in a duel.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|p=48}} Although disputed at the time, largely on the grounds such behaviour was unworthy of so great an author, it is now accepted as the most likely reason for Cervantes leaving Madrid.{{sfn|Lokos|2016|p=118}}
He eventually made his way to Rome, where he found a position in the household of [[Giulio Antonio Acquaviva|Giulio Acquaviva]], an Italian bishop who spent 1568 to 1569 in Madrid, and was appointed [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|Cardinal]] in 1570.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|p=50}} When the 1570 to 1573 [[Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573)|Ottoman–Venetian War]] began, Spain formed part of the [[Holy League (1571)|Holy League]], a coalition formed to support the [[Republic of Venice|Venetian Republic]]. Possibly seeing an opportunity to have his arrest warrant rescinded, Cervantes went to [[Kingdom of Naples|Naples]], then part of the [[Crown of Aragon]].{{sfn|McCrory|2006|p=52}}
If a remark which Cervantes himself makes in the prologue of ''Don Quixote'' is to be taken literally, the idea of the work (though hardly the writing of its First Part, as some have maintained) occurred to him in prison at [[Argamasilla de Alba]] in La Mancha. Cervantes' idea was to give a picture of real life and manners, and to express himself in clear language. The intrusion of everyday speech into a literary context was acclaimed by the reading public. The author stayed poor until 1605, when the first part of ''Don Quixote'' appeared. Although it did not make Cervantes rich, it brought him international appreciation as a man of letters. (He wrote many plays, only two of which have survived, and short novels.) The vogue obtained by Cervantes's story of ''Don Quixote'' led to the publication of a continuation of it by an unknown writer, who masqueraded under the name of [[Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda]]. In self-defence Cervantes produced his own continuation, or Second Part, of ''Don Quixote'', which made its appearance in 1615. (Nota Bene: Cervantes had already promised the publication of a second part of ''Don Quixote'' in 1613 in the foreword to the ''Novelas Ejemplares'', a year before the publication of Avellanda's book. It is therefore anachronistic to say that he produced his continuation "in self-defence".)
[[File:Nafpaktos evlahos.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Statue of Miguel de Cervantes at the harbour of [[Naupactus]] (Lepanto)]]
The military commander in Naples was Álvaro de Sande, a friend of the family, who gave Cervantes a commission in the [[Tercio of Sicily]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ejercito.defensa.gob.es/en/noticias/2015/06/4343_Honores_militares_a_Cervantes.html?__locale=en |title=Military honours for Miguel de Cervantes |website=Gobierno de España. Ministerio de Defensa. |date=16 June 2015 |access-date=24 April 2024}}</ref> under the [[Álvaro de Bazán, 1st Marquess of Santa Cruz|Marqués de Santa Cruz]]. At some point, he was joined in Naples by his younger brother Rodrigo.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|p=52}} In September 1571, Cervantes sailed on board the ''Marquesa'', part of the Holy League fleet under Don [[John of Austria]], illegitimate half brother of [[Philip II of Spain|Phillip II of Spain]]; on 7 October, they defeated the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] fleet at the [[Battle of Lepanto]].{{sfn|Davis|1999|p=199}}
[[File:Cervantes en Lepanto.jpg|thumb|upright|''Cervantes at the battle of Lepanto'', by [[Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau]]]] This landmark sea battle, the most significant naval conflict since the Roman [[Battle of Actium]] (32 B.C.), stopped Muslim incursion into Europe, and for the first time allowed European Christians to feel that they were not to be overrun by Islam.
According to his own account, although suffering from malaria, Cervantes was given command of a 12-man [[skiff]], a small boat used for assaulting enemy galleys. The ''Marquesa'' lost 40 dead, and 120 wounded, including Cervantes, who received three separate wounds, two in the chest, and another that rendered his left arm useless, this last wound is the reason why he later was called "''El Manco de [[Battle of Lepanto|Lepanto]]''" (English: "The one-handed man of Lepanto", "The one-armed man of Lepanto"), a title that followed him for the rest of his life. His actions at Lepanto were a source of pride to the end of his life,{{efn|In the Preface to Volume 2 of ''Don Quixote'', he writes "the loss of my hand (came about) on the grandest occasion the past or present has seen, or the future can hope to see. If my wounds have no beauty to the beholder's eye, they are, at least, honorable in the estimation of those who know where they were received".{{sfn|Cervantes|1615|p=20}}}} while Don John approved no less than four separate pay increases for him.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|p=58}}
In ''[[Viaje del Parnaso|Journey to Parnassus]]'', published two years before his death in 1616, Cervantes claimed to have "lost the movement of the left hand for the glory of the right".{{sfn|Ma|2017|p=99}} As with much else, the extent of his disability is unclear, the only source being Cervantes himself, while commentators cite his habitual tendency to praise himself.{{efn|According to scholar Nicolás Marín: "No hay ocasión en que Cervantes no se elogie, bien que excusándose por salir de los límites de su natural modestia; tantas veces ocurre esto que no es posible verla nunca ni creer en ella". [There is no occasion in which Cervantes does not praise himself, even if he excuses himself for going beyond the limits of his natural modesty; this happens so many times that it is never possible to see it or believe in it].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Marín |first=Nicolás |year=1973 |title=Belardo furioso. Una de Lope mal leída |url=https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/la-interpretacin-cervantina-del-quijote-0/html/ffcf2960-82b1-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_50.html |journal=Anales Cervantinos |volume=12 |page=21 |issn=0569-9878 |via=Cervantes Virtual}}</ref>}}{{sfn|Eisenberg|1996|pp=32–53}} However, they were serious enough to earn him six months in the Civic Hospital at [[Messina]], Sicily.{{sfn|Fitzmaurice-Kelly|1892|p=33}}
For the world at large, interest in Cervantes centers particularly on ''Don Quixote'', which has been regarded chiefly as a novel of purpose. It is stated again and again that he wrote it in order to satirize the [[romance of chivalry|romances of chivalry]], and to challenge the popularity of a form of literature, which for much more than a century had been a [[fad]] with the general public.
Although he returned to service in July 1572 in the ''Tercio de Figueroa'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ejercitotierra.blog/2015/04/17/la-tumba-de-cervantes-y-el-tercio-viejo-de-sicilia/ |title=La Tumba de Cervantes y El "Tercio Viejo de Sicilia." |website=Ejercito de Tierra |access-date=24 April 2024 |language=es}}</ref> records show his chest wounds were still not completely healed in February 1573.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|p=60}} Based mainly in Naples, he joined expeditions to [[Corfu]] and [[Pylos|Navarino]], and took part in the 1573 occupation of [[Tunis]] and [[La Goulette]], which were [[Conquest of Tunis (1574)|recaptured]] by the Ottomans in 1574.{{sfn|Garcés|2002|pp=191–192, 220}} Despite Lepanto, the war overall was an Ottoman victory, and the loss of Tunis a military disaster for Spain. Cervantes returned to [[Palermo]], where he was paid off by the [[Duke of Sessa]], who gave him letters of commendation.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|p=63}}
''Don Quixote'' certainly reveals much narrative power, considerable humor, a mastery of dialogue, and a forceful style. Of the two parts written by Cervantes, the first is the more popular with the general public{{ndash}} containing the famous episodes of the tilting at windmills, the attack on the flock of sheep, the vigil in the courtyard of the inn, and the episode with the barber and the shaving basin. The second part is inferior in humorous effect, but shows more constructive insight, better delineation of character, improved style, and more realism and probability in its action.
In early September 1575, Cervantes and Rodrigo left Naples on the [[galley]] ''Sol''; as they approached [[Barcelona]] on 26 September, their ship was captured by [[Ottoman corsairs]], and the brothers taken to [[Algiers]], to be sold as [[Slavery in the Ottoman Empire|slaves]], or – as was the case of Cervantes and his brother – held for ransom, if this would be more lucrative than their sale as slaves.{{sfn|Fitzmaurice-Kelly|1892|p=41}} Rodrigo was ransomed in 1577, but his family could not afford the fee for Cervantes, who was forced to remain.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|pp=65–68, 78}} Turkish historian [[Rasih Nuri İleri]] found evidence suggesting Cervantes worked on the construction of the [[Kılıç Ali Pasha Complex]], which means he spent at least part of his captivity in [[Istanbul]].<ref name="dergi">{{cite magazine |last=Eren |first=Güleren |title=The Heritage of a Sailor |magazine=Beyoğlu |issue=3 |pages=59–64 |date=June 2006}}</ref><ref name="kitap">{{cite book |last=Bayrak |first=M. Orhan |title=Türkiye Tarihi Yerler Kılavuzu |publisher=İnkılâp Kitabevi |year=1994 |location=İstanbul |pages=326–327 |language=es |isbn=975-10-0705-4}}</ref><ref name="john">{{cite book |last1=Sumner-Boyd |first1=Hilary |last2=Freely |first2=John |title=Strolling Through Istanbul: A Guide to the City |publisher=SEV Matbaacılık |year=1994 |edition=6 |location=İstanbul |pages=450–451 |isbn=975-8176-44-7}}</ref> This is yet to be proven and no evidence has been published on the matter.<ref name="archivo">{{cite magazine |last=Vielva Diego |first=Héctor |title=Cervantes in Istanbul, history or fiction? |magazine=Archivo de la Frontera |date=September 2016 |isbn=978-84-690-5859-6 |url=http://www.archivodelafrontera.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/VIELVA_Cervantes-en-Estambul.pdf |access-date=12 December 2023 |language=es}}</ref>
In 1613 he published a collection of tales, the ''Exemplary Novels'', some of which had been written earlier. On the whole, the ''Exemplary Novels'' are worthy of the fame of Cervantes: they bear the same stamp of genius as ''Don Quixote'' does. The [[Picaresque novel|picaroon]] strain, already made familiar in Spain through the Picaresque novels of [[Lazarillo de Tormes]] and his successors, appears in one or another of them, especially in the ''Rinconete y Cortadillo'', which is the best of all. In 1614 he published the ''Viaje del Parnaso'' and in 1615 the ''Eight Comedies and Eight New Interludes''. At the same time, Cervantes continued working on ''Los Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda'', a [[Byzantine novel|novel of adventurous travel]], completed just before his death, and appearing posthumously in January 1617.
By 1580, Spain was occupied with integrating [[Portuguese Empire|Portugal]], and suppressing the [[Dutch Revolt]], while the Ottomans were at [[Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–1590)|war with Persia]]; the two sides agreed a truce, leading to an improvement of relations.{{sfn|Glete|2001|p=84}} After almost five years, and four escape attempts, in 1580 Cervantes was set free by the [[Trinitarian Order|Trinitarians]], a religious charity that specialised in ransoming [[Barbary slave trade|Christian captives]], and returned to Madrid.{{sfn|Parker|Parker|2009|p=?}}
===Death===
===1580 to 1616: Later life and death===
Cervantes died in Madrid on 23 April 1616.<ref>C. Calvo, ''Shakespeare and Cervantes in 1916'', 78.</ref> In honour of the date on which both Miguel de Cervantes and [[William Shakespeare]] died, [[UNESCO]] established April 23 as the [[International Day of the Book]].<ref>[http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=5125&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html World Book and Copyright Day — April 23, 2006], United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)</ref>
[[File:Miguel de Cervantes at the National Library.jpg|thumb|left|Statue of Cervantes outside the [[Biblioteca Nacional de España|National Library of Spain]]]]
While Cervantes was in captivity, both Don John and the Duke of Sessa died, depriving him of two potential patrons, while the Spanish economy was in dire straits. This made finding employment difficult; other than a period in 1581 to 1582, when he was employed as an intelligence agent in North Africa, little is known of his movements prior to 1584.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|pp=100–101}}
In April of that year, Cervantes visited [[Esquivias]], to help arrange the affairs of his recently deceased friend and minor poet, Pedro Laínez. There he met Catalina de Salazar y Palacios ({{circa|1566 – 1626}}), eldest daughter of the widowed Catalina de Palacios; her husband died leaving only debts, but the elder Catalina owned some land of her own. This may be why in December 1584, Cervantes married her daughter, then between 15 and 18 years old.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|pp=115–116}} The first use of the name ''Cervantes Saavedra'' appears in 1586, on documents related to their marriage.{{sfn|Garcés|2002|p=189}}
The Encyclopedia Hispanica claims that the date widely quoted as Cervantes' date of death, namely April 23, is actually the date on his [[tombstone]], which, in accordance with the traditions of the time, would be the date of his burial, rather than the date of his death. If this is true, then, according to Hispanica, it means that Cervantes probably died on April 22 and was buried on April 23, but the true date of his death is unknown.
Shortly before this, his illegitimate daughter Isabel was born in November. Her mother, Ana Franca, was the wife of a Madrid innkeeper; they apparently concealed it from her husband, but Cervantes acknowledged paternity.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|p=113}} When Ana Franca died in 1598, he asked his sister Magdalena to take care of his daughter.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|p=206}}
Of his burial-place nothing is known, except that he was buried, in accordance with his will, in the neighboring convent of Trinitarian nuns. Isabel de Saavedra, Cervantes' daughter, was supposedly a member of this convent. A few years afterwards the nuns moved to another convent and carried their dead with them. Whether the remains of Cervantes were included in the removal or not no one knows, and the clue to their final resting place is now lost.
[[File:Trinitmad.jpg|thumb|upright|Cervantes was buried at the [[Convento de las Monjas Trinitarias Descalzas|Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians]] in Madrid.]]
[[Image:Nafpaktos evlahos.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The statue of Miguel de Cervantes at the harbor of Nafpactos]]
In 1587, Cervantes was appointed as a government purchasing agent, ''Commissary of the Royal Galleons'' in Seville, obtaining wheat and oil for the doomed [[Spanish Armada]].{{sfn|Cascardi|2002|p=6}} He became a tax collector in 1592 and was briefly jailed for 'irregularities' in his accounts, but quickly released.{{sfn|Cascardi|2002|p=6}} Several applications for positions in Spanish America were rejected i.e. to the [[Council of Indies]] in 1590, though modern critics note images of the colonies appear in his work.{{sfn|Ma|2017|p=99}}
From 1596 to 1600, he lived primarily in Seville, then returned to Madrid in 1606, where he remained for the rest of his life.{{sfn|Close|2008|p=12}} In later years, he received some financial support from the [[Pedro Fernández de Castro y Andrade|Count of Lemos]], although he was not included in the retinue Lemos took to Naples when appointed [[List of viceroys of Naples|Viceroy]] in 1608.{{sfn|Ma|2017|p=99}} In July 1613, he joined the [[Secular Franciscan Order|Third Order Franciscans]], then a common way for Catholics to gain spiritual merit.{{sfn|Fitzmaurice-Kelly|1892|p=179}} It is generally accepted Cervantes died on 22 April 1616 (NS; the [[Gregorian calendar]] had superseded the [[Julian calendar|Julian]] in 1582 in Spain and some other countries); the symptoms described, including intense thirst, correspond to [[diabetes]], then untreatable.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|p=264}}
==Works==
===Novels===
In accordance with his will, Cervantes was buried in the [[Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians]], in central Madrid.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ca-Ch/Cervantes-Miguel-de.html |title=Miguel de Cervantes Biography – life, family, children, name, story, death, history, wife, son, book |website=Notablebiographies.com |access-date=3 February 2012}}</ref> His remains went missing when moved during rebuilding work at the convent in 1673, and in 2014, historian [[Fernando de Prado]] launched a project to rediscover them.<ref>{{cite news |last=Tremlett |first=Giles |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jul/25/cervantes-bones-madrid-convent-search |title=Madrid begins search for bones of Don Quixote author Miguel de Cervantes | Books |newspaper=The Guardian |date=25 July 2011 |access-date=18 March 2014}}</ref>
Cervantes's novels, listed chronologically, are as follows:
In January 2015, Francisco Etxeberria, the [[forensic anthropologist]] leading the search, reported the discovery of caskets containing bone fragments, and part of a board, with the letters 'M.C.'.<ref>{{cite news |agency=Agence France-Presse |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/27/casket-find-could-lead-to-remains-of-don-quixote-author-miguel-de-cervantes |title=Casket find could lead to remains of Don Quixote author Miguel de Cervantes | Books |newspaper=The Guardian |date=27 January 2015 |access-date=17 March 2015}}</ref> Based on evidence of injuries suffered at Lepanto, on 17 March 2015 they were confirmed as belonging to Cervantes along with his wife and others.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-31852032 |title=Spain finds Don Quixote writer Cervantes' tomb in Madrid |publisher=BBC News |date=17 March 2015 |access-date=17 March 2015}}</ref> They were formally reburied at a public ceremony in June 2015.<ref>{{cite news |first=Ciaran |last=Giles |date=11 June 2015 |title=Spain formally buries Cervantes, 400 years later |url=http://bigstory.ap.org/article/2ab3c6f5e8684cada0ce22819ecccc36/spain-gives-formal-burial-cervantes-400-years-later |agency=Associated Press |access-date=11 June 2015 |archive-date=13 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150613045058/http://bigstory.ap.org/article/2ab3c6f5e8684cada0ce22819ecccc36/spain-gives-formal-burial-cervantes-400-years-later |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* ''[[La Galatea]]'' (1585): a [[pastoral]] [[Romance (genre)|romance]] in prose and verse, based upon the genre introduced into Spain by [[Jorge de Montemayor]]'s ''Diana'' (1559). Its theme is the fortunes and misfortunes in love of a number of shepherds and shepherdesses, who spend their life singing and playing musical instruments.
* ''El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha'' (1605): First volume of ''[[Don Quixote]]''.
* ''Novelas Ejemplares'' (1613): a collection of twelve short stories of varied types about the social, political, and historical problems of Cervantes' Spain:
==Supposed likenesses==
# ''La Gitanilla'' (''The Gypsy Girl'')
No authenticated portrait of Cervantes is known to exist. The one most often associated with the author is attributed to [[Juan de Jáuregui]], but both names were added at a later date.{{sfn|Byron|1978 |p=131}} The [[El Greco]] painting in the {{Lang|es|[[Museo del Prado]]|italic=no}}, known as ''[[Retrato de un caballero desconocido]]'' (''Portrait of an Unknown Gentleman''), is cited as 'possibly' depicting Cervantes, but there is no evidence for this.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/online-gallery/on-line-gallery/obra/a-nobleman-2/ |title=Portrait of a Gentleman |work=[[Museo del Prado]] |access-date=25 June 2013 |publisher=[[Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte]], [[Gobierno de España]] |language=es}}</ref> It has been suggested that the portrait ''[[The Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest]]'', also by El Greco, may possibly depict Cervantes.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.artehistoria.com/en/artwork/portrait-nobleman-his-hand-his-chest |title=Portrait of a Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest | artehistoria.com |website=www.artehistoria.com |access-date=12 December 2022 |archive-date=12 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221212171418/https://www.artehistoria.com/en/artwork/portrait-nobleman-his-hand-his-chest |url-status=dead}}</ref>
# ''El Amante Liberal'' (''The Generous Lover'')
# ''Rinconete y Cortadillo'' (''Rinconete & Cortadillo'')
# ''La Española Inglesa'' (''The English Spanish Lady'')
# ''El Licenciado Vidriera'' (''The Lawyer of Glass'')
# ''La Fuerza de la Sangre'' (''The Power of Blood'')
# ''El Celoso Extremeño'' (''The Jealous Old Man From Extremadura'')
# ''La Ilustre Fregona'' (''The Illustrious Kitchen-Maid'')
# ''Novela de las Dos Doncellas'' (''The Two Damsels'')
# ''Novela de la Señora Cornelia'' (''Lady Cornelia'')
# ''Novela del Casamiento Engañoso'' (''The Deceitful Marriage'')
# ''El Coloquio de los Perros'' (''The Dialogue of the Dogs'')
However, [[Museo del Prado|The Prado]] itself, while mentioning, in passing, that "specific names have been proposed for the sitter, including that of Cervantes",<ref name=ruiz/> and even "that the painting could be a self-portrait [of El Greco]",<ref name=ruiz/> goes on to state that "Without doubt, the most convincing suggestion has connected this figure with the Second Marquis of Montemayor, Juan de Silva y de Ribera, a contemporary of El Greco who was appointed military commander of the Alcázar in Toledo by Philip II and Chief Notary to the Crown, a position that would explain the solemn gesture of the hand, depicted in the act of taking an oath."<ref name=ruiz>Ruiz, L. (2008). [https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-nobleman-with-his-hand-on-his-chest/9cb73bdf-66e8-4826-a79c-5de2b15a1da6 "El caballero de la mano en el pecho" En: ''El retrato del Renacimiento'', Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, pp. 326-327.] Museo del Prado. Retrieved 12 December 2022.</ref>
* ''Segunda Parte del Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha'' (1615): Second volume of ''Don Quixote''.
* ''Los Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda'' (1617).
:''Los Trabajos'' is the best evidence not only of the survival of [[Byzantine novel]] themes but also of the survival of forms and ideas of the Spanish novel of the second [[Renaissance]]. In this work, published after the author's death, Cervantes relates the ideal love and unbelievable vicissitudes of a couple, who, starting from the Arctic regions, arrive in Rome, where they find a happy ending to their complicated adventures.
The portrait by [[Luis de Madrazo]], at the {{lang|es|[[Biblioteca Nacional de España]]|italic=no}}, painted in 1859, was based on his imagination.<ref>{{cite web |language=es |url=http://www.fnmt.es/index.php?cha=collector&scha=14&page=548&spage=552 |title=Programa Europa – Cervantes |access-date=25 June 2013 |work=[[Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre]] |year=2013 |publisher=Real Casa de la Moneda |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130629094408/http://www.fnmt.es/index.php?cha=collector&scha=14&page=548&spage=552 |archive-date=29 June 2013}}</ref> The image that appears on [[Spanish euro coins]] of €0.10, €0.20 and €0.50 is based on a bust, created in 1905.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/cash/national/spain_en.htm |title=Euro notes and coins: national sides |work=[[European Commission]] |access-date=25 June 2013 |date=8 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100207105016/http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/cash/national/spain_en.htm |archive-date=7 February 2010}}</ref>
====''La Galatea''====
==Literary career and legacy==
''[[La Galatea]]'', the [[pastoral]] romance, which Cervantes wrote in his youth, is an imitation of the ''Diana'' of [[Jorge de Montemayor]] and bears an even closer resemblance to [[Gil Polo]]'s continuation of that romance. Next to ''Don Quixote'' and the ''Novelas Ejemplares'', it is particularly worthy of attention, as it manifests in a striking way the poetic direction in which the genius of Cervantes moved even at an early period of life.
[[File:Don Quijote Illustration by Gustave Dore VII.jpg|thumb|upright|The windmill scene from ''Don Quijote'', by [[Gustave Doré]]]]
Cervantes claimed to have written over 20 plays, such as ''El trato de Argel'', based on his experiences in captivity. Such works were extremely short-lived, and even [[Lope de Vega]], the best-known playwright of the day, could not live on their proceeds.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|p=112}} In 1585, he published ''La Galatea'', a conventional [[pastoral]] romance that received little contemporary notice; despite promising to write a sequel, he never did so.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|pp=110–111}}
Aside from these, and some poems, by 1605, Cervantes had not been published for 20 years. In ''Don Quixote'', he challenged a form of literature that had been a favourite for more than a century, explicitly stating his purpose was to undermine 'vain and empty' [[chivalric romance]]s.{{sfn|Close|2008|p=39}} His portrayal of real life, and use of everyday speech in a literary context was considered innovative, and proved instantly popular. First published in January 1605, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza featured in masquerades held to celebrate the birth of [[Philip IV of Spain|Philip IV]] on 8 April.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|p=206}}
====''Don Quixote''====
[[File:Don Quijote illustrated by Gustav Dore V.jpg|thumb|upright|right|An illustration from ''Don Quijote'', by [[Gustave Doré|Doré]]]]
{{mainarticle|Don Quixote}}
He finally achieved a degree of financial security, while its popularity led to demands for a sequel. In the foreword to his 1613 work, ''Novelas ejemplares'', dedicated to his patron, the Count of Lemos, Cervantes promises to produce one, but was pre-empted by an unauthorised version published in 1614, published under the name [[Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda]]. It is possible this delay was deliberate, to ensure support from his publisher and reading public; Cervantes finally produced the second part of ''Don Quixote'' in 1615.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|pp=234–235}}
{{FixBunching|beg}}
[[Image:Don Quixote.jpg|right|thumb|Statues of Don Quixote (left) and Sancho Panza (right)]]
{{FixBunching|mid}}
[[Image:QuijoteIVCentenario.JPG|right|thumb|IV centenary of Don Quixote of La Mancha (1605-2005)]]
{{FixBunching|end}}
The two parts of ''Don Quixote'' are different in focus, but similar in their clarity of prose and their realism. The first was more comic, and had greater popular appeal.{{sfn|Mitsuo|Cullen|2006|pp=148–152}} The second part is often considered more sophisticated and complex, with a greater depth of characterisation and philosophical insight.{{sfn|Putnam|1976|p=14}}
''Don Quixote'' (spelled "Quijote" in modern Spanish) is two separate books that cover the adventures of ''Don Quixote'', also known as the knight or man of [[La Mancha]], a hero who carries his enthusiasm and self-deception to unintentional and comic ends. On one level, ''Don Quixote'' works as a [[satire]] of the romances of [[chivalry]], which ruled the literary environment of Cervantes' time. However, the novel also allows Cervantes to illuminate various aspects of human nature, by using the ridiculous example of the delusional Quixote. Because the novel, particularly the first part, was written in individually published sections, the composition includes several incongruities. Cervantes himself however pointed out some of these errors in the preface to the second part; but he disdained to correct them, because he conceived that they had been too severely condemned by his critics.
In addition to this, he produced a series of works between 1613 and his death in 1616. They include a collection of tales titled ''Exemplary Novels''. This was followed by ''[[Viaje del Parnaso]]'', ''Eight Comedies and Eight New Interludes'', and ''[[Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda]]'', completed just before his death, and published posthumously in January 1617.
Cervantes felt a passion for the vivid painting of character. ''Don Quixote'' is noble-minded, an enthusiastic admirer of everything good and great, yet having all these fine qualities accidentally blended with a relative kind of madness. He is paired with a character of opposite qualities, [[Sancho Panza]], a man of low self-esteem, who is a compound of grossness and simplicity.
Cervantes was rediscovered by English writers in the mid-18th century. The literary editor [[John Bowle (writer)|John Bowle]] argued that Cervantes was as significant as any of the Greek and Roman authors then popular, and published an annotated edition in 1781. Now viewed as a significant work, at the time it proved a failure.{{sfn|Truman|2003|pp=9–31}} However, ''Don Quixote'' has been translated into all major languages, in 700 editions. Mexican author [[Carlos Fuentes]] suggested that Cervantes and his contemporary [[William Shakespeare]] form part of a narrative tradition that includes [[Homer]], [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]], [[Daniel Defoe|Defoe]], [[Charles Dickens|Dickens]], [[Honoré de Balzac|Balzac]], and [[James Joyce|Joyce]].{{sfn|Fuentes|1988|p=69–70}}
''Don Quixote'' is cited as the first classic model of the modern romance or novel, and it has served as the prototype of the comic novel. The humorous situations are mostly burlesque, and it includes satire. ''Don Quixote'' is one of the Encyclopedia Britannica's [[Great Books of the Western World]], and the Russian author [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]] called it "the ultimate and most sublime work of human thinking".{{Fact|date=August 2008}}<!-- Citations needed for direct quotations. -->
[[Sigmund Freud]] claimed he learnt Spanish to read Cervantes in the original; he particularly admired ''[[The Dialogue of the Dogs]]'' (''El coloquio de los perros''), from ''Exemplary Tales'', in which two dogs, Cipión and Berganza, share their stories; as one talks, the other listens, occasionally making comments. From 1871 to 1881, Freud and his close friend Eduard Silberstein wrote letters to each other, using the pen names Cipión and Berganza.{{sfn|Riley|1994|pp=13–14}}
====''Novelas Ejemplares''====
In 1905, the tricentennial of the publication of ''Don Quixote'' was marked with celebrations in Spain;<ref>{{cite book |last1=Leerssen |first1=J. |last2=Rigney |first2=A. |title=Commemorating Writers in Nineteenth-Century Europe: Nation-Building and Centenary Fever |year=2014 |url={{GBurl|IElvBAAAQBAJ|pg=PT207}} |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-137-41214-0 |page=207}}</ref> the 400th anniversary of his death in 2016, saw the production of ''Cervantina'', a celebration of his plays by the Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico in Madrid.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.centroculturalmva.es/6871/com1_fb-0/com1_md3_cd-13713/cervantina-compania-nacional-teatro-clasico-lala |title=Cervantina de Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico y Ron Lalá |date=19 April 2020 |website=www.centroculturalmva.es |language=es |access-date=19 April 2020}}</ref> ''[[Man of La Mancha]]'', the 1965 musical, was loosely based on Cervantes' life.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/cervante/csa/artics99/wasserma.htm |title=Don Quixote as Theatre, Cervantes |journal=Journal of the Cervantes Society of America |volume=19 |issue=1 |year=1999 |pages=125–130 |doi=10.3138/Cervantes.19.1.125 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231939/http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/cervante/csa/artics99/wasserma.htm |archive-date=3 March 2016 |access-date=25 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/cervante/csa/articf01/diary.pdf |title=A Diary for ''I, Don Quixote'', ''Cervantes'' |journal=Journal of the Cervantes Society of America |volume=21 |issue=2 |year=2001 |pages=117–123 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303211807/http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/cervante/csa/articf01/diary.pdf |archive-date=3 March 2016 |access-date=25 September 2014}}</ref> The [[Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library]], is the world's largest [[digital archive]] of Spanish-language historical and literary works.
It would be scarcely possible to arrange the other works of Cervantes according to a critical judgment of their importance, for the merits of some consist in the admirable finish of the whole, while others exhibit the impress of genius in the invention, or some other individual feature.
==Works==
A distinguished place must however be assigned to the ''[[Novelas Exemplares|Novelas Ejemplares]]''<ref name="Novelas">. The Spanish title of ''novelas'' is misleading. In modern Spanish it means [[novels]], but Cervantes used it to mean the shorter Italian ''[[novella]]''. Read the [[Novel]] article for the terminological problem.</ref> ("Moral or Instructive Tales"). They are unequal in merit as well as in character. Cervantes doubtless intended that they should be to the Spaniards nearly what the [[novella]]s of [[Giovanni Boccaccio|Boccaccio]] were to the Italians. Some are mere anecdotes; some are romances in miniature; some are serious, some comic; and all are written in a light, smooth, conversational style.
[[File:La Galatea First Edition Title Page.jpg|thumb|upright|The original title page of Cervantes's ''La Galatea'' (1585) ]]
As listed in ''Complete Works of Miguel de Cervantes'':<ref>{{cite book |url=http://cervantes.dh.tamu.edu/V2/CPI/index.html |title=OBRAS COMPLETAS de Miguel de Cervantes |trans-title=Complete Works of Miguel de Cervantes |editor1-first=Florencio |editor1-last=Sevilla Arroyo |editor2-first=Antonio |editor2-last=Rey Hazas |publisher=Centro de Estudios Cervantinos |year=1995 |via=Proyecto Cervantes, [[Texas A&M University]]}}</ref>
* ''[[La Galatea]]'' (1585);
* ''El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha'' (1605): First volume of ''[[Don Quixote]]''.
* ''[[Novelas ejemplares]]'' (1613): a collection of 12 short stories of varied types about the social, political, and historical problems of Cervantes's Spain:
** "[[La gitanilla]]" ("The Gypsy Girl")
** "El amante liberal" ("The Generous Lover")
** "[[Rinconete y Cortadillo]]" ("Rinconete & Cortadillo")
** "La española inglesa" ("The English Spanish Lady")
** "[[El licenciado Vidriera]]" ("The Lawyer of Glass")
** "La fuerza de la sangre" ("The Power of Blood")
** "[[El celoso extremeño]]" ("The Jealous Man from Extremadura")<ref name="Br">{{Britannica|103673 |author=Riley, Edward C.; Cruz, Anne J.}}</ref>
** "[[La ilustre fregona]]" ("The Illustrious Kitchen-Maid")
** "Novela de las dos doncellas" ("The Novel of the Two Damsels")
** "Novela de la señora Cornelia" ("The Novel of Lady Cornelia")
** "Novela del casamiento engañoso" ("The Novel of the Deceitful Marriage")
** "[[El coloquio de los perros]]" ("The Dialogue of the Dogs")
* ''Segunda Parte del Ingenioso Cavallero [sic] Don Quixote de la Mancha'' (1615): Second volume of ''[[Don Quixote]]''.
* ''[[Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda]]'' (1617).
===Other works===
Four of them are perhaps of less interest than the rest: ''El Amante Liberal'', ''La Señora Cornelia'', ''Las Dos Doncellas'', and '' La Española Inglesa''. The theme common to these is basically the traditional one of the [[Byzantine novel]]: pairs of lovers separated by lamentable and complicated happenings are finally reunited and find the happiness they have longed for. The heroines are all of most perfect beauty and of sublime morality; they and their lovers are capable of the highest sacrifices; and they exert their souls in the effort to elevate themselves to the ideal of moral and aristocratic distinction which illuminates their lives.
[[File:Viaje del Parnaso.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Book frontispiece|frontispiece]] of the ''Viaje'' (1614)]]
Cervantes is generally considered a mediocre poet; few of his poems survive. Some appear in ''[[La Galatea]]'', while he also wrote ''Dos Canciones à la Armada Invencible''.
His [[sonnets]] include ''Al Túmulo del Rey Felipe en Sevilla'', ''Canto de Calíope'' and ''Epístola a Mateo Vázquez''. ''[[Viaje del Parnaso]]'', or ''Journey to Parnassus'', is his most ambitious verse work, an [[allegory]] that consists largely of reviews of contemporary poets.
In ''El Amante Liberal'', to cite an example, the beautiful Leonisa and her lover Ricardo are carried off by Turkish pirates. Both fight against serious material and moral dangers. Ricardo conquers all obstacles, returns to his homeland with Leonisa, and is ready to renounce his passion and to hand Leonisa over to her former lover in an outburst of generosity; but Leonisa's preference naturally settles on Ricardo in the end.
He published a number of dramatic works, including ten extant full-length plays:
Another group of "exemplary" novels is formed by ''La Fuerza de la Sangre'', ''La Ilustre Fregona'', ''La Gitanilla'', and ''El Celoso Extremeño''. The first three offer examples of love and adventure happily resolved, while the last unravels itself tragically. Its plot deals with the old Felipe Carrizales, who, after traveling widely and becoming rich in America, decides to marry, taking all the precautions necessary to forestall being deceived. He weds a very young girl{{ndash}} and isolates her from the world, by having her live in a house with no windows facing the street. But in spite of his defensive measures, a bold youth succeeds in penetrating the fortress of conjugal honour; and one day Carrizales surprises his wife in the arms of her seducer. Surprisingly enough he pardons the adulterers, recognizing that he is more to blame than they, and dies of sorrow over the grievous error he has committed. Cervantes here deviated from literary tradition, which demanded the death of the adulterers; but he transformed the punishment inspired, or rather required, by the social ideal of [[honour]] into a criticism of the responsibility of the individual.
* ''Trato de Argel''; based on his own experiences, deals with the life of Christian slaves in Algiers;
* ''[[La Numancia]]''; intended as a patriotic work, dramatization of the long and brutal siege of [[Numantia]], by [[Scipio Aemilianus]], completing the transformation of the [[Iberian Peninsula]] into the Roman province [[Hispania]], or España.
* ''El gallardo español'',<ref>{{cite web |title=Comedia Famosa del Gallardo Español |website=Página de inicio del web de Cervantes |url=http://cervantes.uah.es/teatro/GALLARDO/gallardo.html |language=es |access-date=19 April 2020}}</ref>
* ''Los baños de Argel'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://miguelde.cervantes.com/pdf/Los%20Banos%20de%20Argel.pdf |title=Los Baños de Argel |website=miguelde.cervantes.com |access-date=16 November 2015 |archive-date=26 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200826140410/http://miguelde.cervantes.com/pdf/Los%20Banos%20de%20Argel.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* ''La gran sultana, Doña Catalina de Oviedo'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://miguelde.cervantes.com/pdf/La%20Gran%20Sultana.pdf |title=La Gran Sultana |publisher=miguelde.cervantes.com |access-date=10 December 2019 |archive-date=18 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171118091835/http://miguelde.cervantes.com/pdf/La%20Gran%20Sultana.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* ''La casa de los celos'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://miguelde.cervantes.com/pdf/La%20casa%20de%20los%20celos.pdf |title=La casa |publisher=miguelde.cervantes.com |access-date=10 December 2019 |archive-date=18 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171118123159/http://miguelde.cervantes.com/pdf/La%20casa%20de%20los%20celos.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* ''El laberinto de amor'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://miguelde.cervantes.com/pdf/El%20Laberinto%20de%20Amor.pdf |title=El Laberinto |publisher=miguelde.cervantes.com |access-date=10 December 2019 |archive-date=25 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125192014/http://miguelde.cervantes.com/pdf/El%20Laberinto%20de%20Amor.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* ''La entretenida'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://miguelde.cervantes.com/pdf/La%20Entretenida.pdf |title=La Entretenida |publisher=miguelde.cervantes.com |access-date=10 December 2019 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304071846/http://miguelde.cervantes.com/pdf/La%20Entretenida.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* ''El rufián dichoso'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cervantes.tamu.edu/V2/textos/fsevilla/8comedias_rufiandichoso.htm |title=Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses / El rufian dichoso |website=cervantes.tamu.edu |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100609021212/http://cervantes.tamu.edu/V2/textos/fsevilla/8comedias_rufiandichoso.htm |archive-date=9 June 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* ''Pedro de Urdemalas'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://miguelde.cervantes.com/pdf/Pedro%20de%20Urdemales.pdf |title=Pedro Urdamles |publisher=miguelde.cervantes.com |access-date=10 December 2019 |archive-date=26 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200826140411/http://miguelde.cervantes.com/pdf/Pedro%20de%20Urdemales.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref> a sensitive play about a ''picaro'', who joins a group of Gypsies for love of a girl.
He also wrote eight short farces ([[Entremés|''entremeses'']]):
''[[Rinconete y Cortadillo]]'', ''El Casamiento Engañoso'', ''El Licenciado Vidriera'', and ''El Coloquio de los Perros'', four works of art which are concerned more with the personalities of the characters who figure in them than with the subject matter, form the final group of these stories. The protagonists are two young vagabonds, Rincón and Cortado, Lieutenant Campuzano, a student{{ndash}} Tomás Rodaja (who goes mad and believes himself to have been changed into a witty man of glass, offering Cervantes the opportunity to ?chain? witty jokes) and finally two dogs, Cipión and Berganza, whose wandering existence serves to mirror the most varied aspects of Spanish life.
* ''El juez de los divorcios'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cervantes.uah.es/teatro/Entremes/entre_1.html |title=Entremes: el Juez de los Divorcios |website=cervantes.uah.es |language=es}}</ref>
* ''El rufián viudo llamado Trampagos'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.comedias.org/cervantes/trampa.html |title=El Rufián Viudo Llamado Trampagos |website=comedias.org |language=es}}</ref>
* ''La elección de los Alcaldes de Daganzo'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://miguelde.cervantes.com/pdf/La%20Eleccion%20de%20los%20alcaldes%20de%20Daganzo.pdf |title=Daganzo |publisher=miguelde.cervantes.com |access-date=10 December 2019 |archive-date=18 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180418011026/http://miguelde.cervantes.com/pdf/La%20Eleccion%20de%20los%20alcaldes%20de%20Daganzo.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* ''La guarda cuidadosa''<ref name="biblioteca.org.ar">{{cite web |url=http://www.biblioteca.org.ar/libros/70718.pdf |title=Info |publisher=biblioteca.org.ar |access-date=10 December 2019}}</ref> (The Vigilant Sentinel),<ref name="biblioteca.org.ar"/>
* ''El vizcaíno fingido'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cervantes.uah.es/teatro/Entremes/entre_5.html |title=Entremes: Del Vizcaíno Fingido |website=cervantes.uah.es}}</ref>
* ''El retablo de las maravillas'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cervantes.uah.es/teatro/Entremes/entre_6.html |title=Entremes: Del Retablo de las Maravillas |website=cervantes.uah.es}}</ref>
* ''[[La cueva de Salamanca (The Cave of Salamanca)|La cueva de Salamanca]]''
* ''El viejo celoso''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cervantes.uah.es/teatro/Entremes/entre_8.html |title=Entremes: Del Viejo Celoso |website=cervantes.uah.es}}</ref> (The Jealous Old Man).
These plays and short farces, except for ''Trato de Argel'' and ''La Numancia'', made up ''Ocho Comedias y ocho entreméses nuevos, nunca representados''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cervantes.tamu.edu/english/ctxt/cec/ocho.html |title=Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses |website=cervantes.tamu.edu |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100105132443/http://cervantes.tamu.edu/english/ctxt/cec/ocho.html |archive-date=5 January 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> (''Eight Comedies and Eight New Interludes, Never Before Performed''), which appeared in 1615.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ocho comedias, y ocho entremeses nuevos {{!}} work by Cervantes |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ocho-comedias-y-ocho-entremeses-nuevos |access-date=23 May 2023 |website=www.britannica.com}}</ref> The dates and order of composition of Cervantes's short farces are unknown. Faithful to the spirit of Lope de Rueda, Cervantes endowed them with novelistic elements, such as simplified plot, the type of descriptions normally associated with a novel, and character development. Cervantes included some of his dramas among the works he was most satisfied with.
''Rinconete y Cortadillo'' is one of the most delightful of Cervantes' works. Its two young vagabonds come to [[Seville]], attracted by the riches and disorder that the sixteenth-century commerce with the Americas had brought to that metropolis. There they come into contact with a brotherhood of thieves, the [[Thieves' Guild]], led by the unforgettable Monipodio, whose house is the headquarters of the Sevillian underworld. Under the bright Andalusian sky, people and objects take form with the brilliance and subtle drama of a [[Diego Velázquez|Velázquez]]. A distant and discreet irony endows the figures, insignificant in themselves, as they move within a ritual pomp that is in sharp contrast with their morally deflated lives. When Monipodio appears, serious and solemn among his silent subordinates, "all who were looking at him performed a deep protracted bow." Rincón and Cortado had initiated their mutual friendship beforehand "with saintly and praiseworthy ceremonies." The solemn ritual of this band of ruffians is all the more comic for being ?concealed? presented in Cervantes' drily humorous style.
==Influence==
==== ''Los Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda''====
{{further|List of works influenced by Don Quixote}}
{{expand section|small=no|date=January 2021}}
[[Image:Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda (1617).png|thumb|Title page of Persiles and Segismunda.]]
The romance of ''Persiles and Sigismunda'', which Cervantes finished shortly before his death, must be regarded as an interesting appendix to his other works. The language and the whole composition of the story exhibit the purest simplicity, combined with singular precision and polish. The idea of this romance was not new, and scarcely deserved to be reproduced in a new manner; but it appears that Cervantes, at the close of his glorious career, took a fancy to imitate [[Heliodorus]]. He has maintained the interest of the situations; but the whole work is merely a romantic description of travels, rich enough in fearful adventures, both by sea and land. Real and fabulous geography and history are mixed together in an absurd and monstrous manner; and the second half of the romance, in which the scene is transferred to Spain and Italy, does not exactly harmonize with the spirit of the first half.
===Poetry Places ===
* [[Cervantes, Lugo|Cervantes]]. A municipality in the [[province of Lugo]], Galicia, Spain, but the name of the town is not based on Miguel de Cervantes (nor is there any evidence tying him or his family to this town).
* [[Cervantes, Ilocos Sur|Cervantes]]. A [[Municipalities of the Philippines|municipality]] in the province of [[Ilocos Sur]], Philippines.
* [[Cervantes, Western Australia|Cervantes]]. A township situated north of the [[Western Australian]] state capital [[Perth]] in Australia.
=== Television ===
Some of his poems are found in ''[[La Galatea]].'' He also wrote ''Dos Canciones a la Armada Invencible''. His best work however is found in the [[sonnets]], particularly ''[[Al Túmulo del Rey Felipe en Sevilla]]''. Among his most important poems, ''Canto de Calíope'', ''Epístola a Mateo Vázquez'', and the ''[[Viaje del Parnaso]]'' (''Journey to Parnassus''{{ndash}} 1614) stand out. The latter is his most ambitious work in verse, an [[allegory]] which consists largely of reviews of contemporary poets.
* Cervantes is a recurring character in the Spanish television show ''[[El ministerio del tiempo]]'', portrayed by actor [[:es:Pere Ponce|Pere Ponce]].
* Cervantes played a prominent role in the episode "Gentlemen of Spain" of the TV series ''[[Sir Francis Drake (TV series)|Sir Francis Drake]]'' (1961–1962). He was portrayed by the actor [[Nigel Davenport]] and the plot had him heroically rescuing other Christian captives from the Barbary pirates.
== See also ==
Compared to his ability as a novelist, Cervantes is often considered a mediocre poet, although he himself always harbored a hope that he would be recognized for having poetic gifts.
* [[Casa de Cervantes]]
* [[Instituto Cervantes]]
====''Viaje del Parnaso''====
* [[Miguel de Cervantes Prize]]
* [[Miguel de Cervantes European University]]
[[Image:Viaje del Parnaso.jpg|thumb|Frontispiece of the ''Viaje'' (1614).]]
* [[Miguel de Cervantes Health Care Centre]]
The prose of the ''Galatea'', which is in other respects so beautiful, is occasionally overloaded with epithet. Cervantes displays a totally different kind of poetic talent in the ''[[Viaje del Parnaso]]'', a work which cannot properly be ranked in any particular class of literary composition, but which, next to ''Don Quixote'', is considered by a few the most exquisite production of its author. Many critics however would argue with that, citing the ''Novelas Ejemplares'' and the ''Entemeses'' as the finest examples of his work next to ''Don Quixote''.
* [[Miguel de Cervantes High School]]
* ''[[Miguel de Cervantes Memorial]]''
===Plays===
* [[Miguel de Cervantes University]]
Comparisons have also diminished the reputation of his plays; but two of them (''[[El Trato de Argel]]'' and ''[[La Numancia]]''{{ndash}} 1582) made a big impact and were not surpassed until [[Lope de Vega]] appeared.
The first of these, ''El Trato de Argel'', is written in five acts. Based on his experiences as a captive of the Moors, the play deals with the life of Christian slaves in Algiers. The other play, ''Numancia'', is a description of the siege of Numantia by the Romans. It is stuffed with horrors, and has been described as utterly devoid of the requisites of dramatic art.
Cervantes's later production consists of 16 dramatic works, among which are eight full-length plays:
''El Gallardo Español'',
''Los Baños de Argel'',
''La Gran Sultana'',
''Doña Catalina de Oviedo'',
''La Casa de los Celos'',
''El Laberinto de Amor'',
the cloak and dagger play ''La Entretenida'',
''El Rufián Dichoso'',
and finally ''Pedro de Urdemalas'', a sensitive play about a ''picaro'', who joins a group of Gypsies for love of a girl.
He also wrote eight short farces (entremeses):
''El Juez de los Divorcios'',
''El Rufián Viudo Llamado Trampagos'',
''La Elección de los Alcaldes de Daganzo'',
''La Guarda Cuidadosa'' (The Vigilant Sentinel),
''El Vizcaíno Fingido'',
''El Retablo de las Maravillas'',
''La Cueva de Salamanca'', and ''El Viejo Celoso'' (The Jealous Old Man).
These plays and entremeses made up ''[[Ocho Comedias y Ocho Entremeses|Ocho Comedias y Ocho Entremeses Nuevos, Nunca Representados]]'' (''Eight Comedies and Eight New Interludes, Never Before Acted'') which appeared in 1615. Cervantes' entremeses, whose dates and order of composition are not known, must not have been performed in their time. Faithful to the spirit of Lope de Rueda, Cervantes endowed them with novelistic elements, such as simplified plot, the type of description normally associated with the novel, and character development. The dialogue is sensitive and agile.
Cervantes includes some of his dramas among those productions with which he was himself most satisfied, and he seems to have regarded them with self-complacency in proportion to their neglect by the public. This conduct has sometimes been attributed to a spirit of contradiction and sometimes to vanity. That the penetrating and profound Cervantes should have so mistaken the limits of his dramatic talent would not be sufficiently accounted for had he not unquestionably proved by his tragedy of ''Numantia'' how pardonable was the self-deception of which he could not divest himself.
Cervantes was entitled to consider himself endowed with a genius for dramatic poetry; but he could not preserve his independence in the conflict that he had to maintain with the Spanish public, who required certain conditions of dramatic composition; and when he sacrificed his independence, and submitted to rules imposed by others, his invention and language were reduced to the level of a poet of inferior talent. The intrigues, adventures, and surprises, which in that age characterized the Spanish drama (and which, we may assume, characterize all drama in every age) were ill suited to the genius of Cervantes. His natural style was too profound and precise to be reconciled to fantastical ideas, expressed in irregular verse; but he was Spaniard enough to be gratified with dramas which as a poet he could not imitate; and he imagined himself capable of imitating them, because he would have shone in another species of dramatic composition had the public taste accommodated itself to his genius.
====''La Numancia''====
{{mainarticle|La Numancia}}
This play is a dramatization of the long and brutal siege of the [[Celtiberians|Celtiberian]] town Numantia, [[Hispania]], by the Roman forces of [[Scipio Africanus]].
Cervantes invented, along with the subject of his piece, a peculiar style of tragic composition; and, in doing so, he did not pay much regard to the theory of Aristotle. His object was to produce a piece full of tragic situations, combined with the charm of the marvellous. In order to accomplish this goal, Cervantes relied heavily on allegory and on mythological elements.
The tragedy is written in conformity with no rules, save those which the author prescribed for himself, for he felt no inclination to imitate the Greek forms. The play is divided into four acts, ''jornadas''; and no chorus is introduced. The dialogue is sometimes in tercets, and sometimes in [[redondilla|''redondillas'']], and for the most part in octaves{{ndash}} without any regard to rule.
== Cervantes' historical importance and influence==
[[Image:Miguel cervantes de saavedra.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Cervantes: Image from a 19th century German book on the history of literature]]
Cervantes' novel ''Don Quixote'' has had a tremendous influence on the development of prose fiction. It has been translated into all major languages and has appeared in 700 editions. The first translation was in English, made by [[Thomas Shelton]] in 1608, but not published until 1612. [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] had evidently read ''Don Quixote'', but it is most unlikely that Cervantes had ever heard of Shakespeare.
[[Carlos Fuentes]] raised the possibility that Cervantes and Shakespeare were the same person (see [[Shakespearean authorship question]]). [[Francis Carr]] has suggested that [[Francis Bacon]] wrote Shakespeare's plays and ''Don Quixote''.<ref> Francis Carr, ''Who Wrote Don Quixote?'' (London: Xlibris Corporation, 2004).</ref>
''Don Quixote'' has been the subject of a variety of works in other fields of art, including operas by the Italian composer [[Giovanni Paisiello]], the French [[Jules Massenet]], and the Spanish [[Manuel de Falla]], a Russian ballet by the Russian-German composer [[Ludwig Minkus]], a tone poem by the German composer [[Richard Strauss]], a German film (1933) directed by [[G. W. Pabst]], a Soviet film (1957) directed by [[Grigori Kozintsev]], a 1965 ballet (no relation to the one by Minkus) with choreography by [[George Balanchine]], and an American musical{{ndash}} ''[[Man of La Mancha]]'' (1965){{ndash}} by [[Dale Wasserman]], [[Mitch Leigh]], and [[Joe Darion]]. ''Man of La Mancha'' was made into a film in 1972, directed by [[Arthur Hiller]].
''Don Quixote'' 's influence can be seen in the work of [[Tobias Smollett|Smollett]], [[Daniel Defoe|Defoe]], [[Henry Fielding|Fielding]], and [[Laurence Sterne|Sterne]], as well as in the classic 19th-century novelists [[Sir Walter Scott|Scott]], [[Charles Dickens|Dickens]], [[Gustave Flaubert|Flaubert]], [[Herman Melville|Melville]], and [[Fyodor Dostoevsky|Dostoevsky]], and in the works of [[James Joyce]] and [[Jorge Luis Borges]]. The theme of the novel also inspired the 19th-century French artists [[Honoré Daumier]] and [[Gustave Doré]].
The [[Euro]] coins of €0.10, €0.20, and €0.50 made for Spain bear the portrait and signature of Cervantes.
The [[Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes]], a [[digital library]], hosted by the [[University of Alicante]], the largest [[digital archive]] of Spanish-language historical and literary works in the world, is named after Cervantes.
== Ethnic and Religious Heritage ==
Cervantes has been declared an [[Old Christian]] of "pure blood", a [[New Christian]] or "converso", a secularist, and a [[Humanism|Christian humanist]]. For more information consult [[Cuarto Millenio|Cuarto Milenio]], which seek deep in his Jewish origins.
New Christians were called so for their or their elder's recent conversion to the Christian faith, but were suspected of secretly practising Judaism, the religion from which they had supposedly converted. Jews had been expelled from Spain and all Spanish domains by the Catholic Kings in 1492, and those who stayed were forcibly baptised. Nevertheless, those Jews who remained as New Christians were always suspected of continuing their Jewish religious practices and therefore were constantly under the eye of the Inquisition. Jews were not allowed to own landed property and suffered significant legal discrimination. Thus, they could only earn a living by trade or skilled labor. Any gentleman who wanted to prosper in the social scale{{ndash}} or gain privileges (nobility was tax free){{ndash}} had to prove his "purity of blood"{{ndash}} genealogical pedigree{{ndash}} which gave the status of Old Christian important economic, legal, and social consequences.
Proponents of the New Christian theory, established by [[Americo Castro]], often suggest it to be on Cervantes' mother's side. The theory is almost exclusively supported by circumstantial evidence, but would "explain" some mysteries of Cervantes' life.<ref>Cervantes: A Biography by William Byron, Pg 32</ref> It has been supported by authors such as Anthony Cascardi and Canavaggio. Others, such as Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz (or Francisco Olmos Garcia, who considers it a "tired issue" and only supported by Americo Castro) reject the theory strongly.<ref>Cervantes and His Postmodern Constituencies
by Anne J. Cruz, Carroll B. Johnson, Pg 116</ref>
The second origin theory suggests Cervantes is of Old Christian stock. Most of the evidence for this is supported by documents. However, it must be noted that the only surviving document addressing Cervantes' pedigree is the 1569 "Informacion de la Limpieza de Miguel de Cervantes, Estante en Roma"{{ndash}} which addresses Cervantes directly as an Old Christian.<ref>Cervantes and His Postmodern Constituencies by Anne J. Cruz, Carroll B. Johnson, Pg 117</ref>
==Notes==
{{notelist|35em}}
<div class="references-small">
'''a.''' {{Note_label|A|a|none}} The most reliable and accurate portrait of the writer to date is that provided by Cervantes himself in the ''Exemplary Novels'' (translated by Walter K. Kelly):<ref name="Gut">M. de Cervantes, [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14420/14420-8.txt The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Exemplary Novels of Cervantes]</ref>
{{Cquote2|quotetext=This person whom you see here, with an oval visage, chestnut hair, smooth open forehead, lively eyes, a hooked but well-proportioned nose, and silvery beard that twenty years ago was golden, large moustaches, a small mouth, teeth not much to speak of, for he has but six, in bad condition and worse placed, no two of them corresponding to each other, a figure midway between the two extremes, neither tall nor short, a vivid complexion, rather fair than dark, somewhat stooped in the shoulders, and not very lightfooted: this, I say, is the author of ''Galatea'', ''Don Quixote de la Mancha'', ''The Journey to Parnassus'', which he wrote in imitation of Cesare Caporali Perusino, and other works which are current among the public, and perhaps without the author's name. He is commonly called MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA.|personquoted=Miguel de Cervantes|quotesource=''Exemplary Novels (Author's Preface)''|quotewidth=20px|quoteheight=20px}}
'''b.''' {{Note_label|B|b|none}} His signature spells ''Cerbantes'' with a ''b''; but he is now known after the spelling ''Cervantes'', used by the printers of his works. ''[[Saavedra]]'' was the surname of a distant relative. He adopted it as his second surname after his return from the [[Barbary Coast]].<ref name="SC">M.A. Garcés, ''Cervantes in Algiers'', 191-192<br>* C. Slade, ''Introduction'', xxiv</ref> The earliest documents signed with Cervantes' two names, ''Cervantes Saavedra'', appear several years after his repatriation. He began adding the second surname (''Saavedra'', a name that did not correspond to his immediate family) to his patronymic in 1586-1587 in official documents related to his marriage to Catalina de Salazar.<ref name="C191-192">M.A. Garcés, ''Cervantes in Algiers'', 191-192</ref>
'''c.''' {{Note_label|C|c|none}} The only evidence is a statement by Professor [[Tomas González]], that he once saw an old entry of the matriculation of a Miguel de Cervantes.<ref name="OrFiK">J. Fitzmaurice-Kelly, ''The Life of Cervantes'', 9<br>* J. Ormsby, [http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/c/cervantes/c41d/preface1.html About Cervantes and Don Quixote]</ref> No subsequent scholar has been successful in verifying this statement. In any case, there were at least two other Miguels born about the middle of the century.
'''d.''' {{Note_label|D|d|none}} "He" refers to the writer of a spurious Part II of Don Quixote (''Second Volume of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'') known under the [[pseudonym]] [[Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda]]. Avellaneda had referred to Cervantes as an "old and one-handed" man.
</div>
==References==
{{reflist|223em}}
==Bibliography==
===More information===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last=Byron |first=William |year=1978 |title=Cervantes; A Biography |publisher=[[Cassell (publisher)|Cassell]] |location=London |isbn=978-1-55778-006-5}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Cascardi |editor-first=Anthony J. |date=17 October 2002 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Cervantes |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url={{GBurl|zSjdL03g4VAC}} |isbn=978-0-52166-387-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Cervantes |first=Miguel de |author-link=Miguel de Cervantes |translator-last=Ormsby |translator-first=John |translator-link=John Ormsby (translator) |year=1615 |title=The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha |edition=2015 |publisher=Aegitas |isbn=978-5-00064-159-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Close |first=A. J. |year=2008 |title=A Companion to Don Quixote |publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd |isbn=978-1-85566-170-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Davis |first=Paul K. |year=1999 |title=100 Decisive Battles: From Ancient Times to the Present |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19514-366-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Egginton |first=William |year=2016 |title=The Man Who Invented Fiction: How Cervantes Ushered in the Modern World |publisher=Bloomsbury |isbn=978-1-62040-175-0}}
* {{cite journal |last=Eisenberg |first=Daniel |title=Cervantes, autor de la "Topografía e historia general de Argel" publicada por Diego de Haedo |journal=Cervantes: Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America |volume=16 |number=1 |year=1996 |pages=32–53 |doi=10.3138/Cervantes.16.1.032 |s2cid=187065952}}
* {{cite book |last=Fitzmaurice-Kelly |first=James |year=1892 |title=The Life of Cervantes |publisher=Chapman Hall}}
* {{cite book |last=Fuentes |first=Carlos |year=1988 |title=Myself with Others: Selected Essays |publisher=Farrar Straus Giroux |isbn=978-0-37421-750-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Garcés |first=Maria Antonia |year=2002 |title=Cervantes in Algiers: A Captive's Tale |publisher=Vanderbilt University Press |isbn=978-0-82651-406-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Glete |first=Jan |year=2001 |title=War and the State in Early Modern Europe: Spain, the Dutch Republic and Sweden as Fiscal-Military States (Warfare and History) |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-41522-644-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Lokos |first=Ellen |editor1-last=Cruz |editor1-first=Anne J |editor2-last=Johnson |editor2-first=Carroll B |year=2016 |title=The Politics of Identity and the Enigma of Cervantine Genealogy in ''Cervantes and His Postmodern Constituencies'' |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-13886-441-2}}
* {{cite book |last=Ma |first=Ning |year=2017 |title=The Age of Silver: The Rise of the Novel, East and West |publisher=OUP |isbn=978-0-19060-656-5}}
* {{cite book |last=McCrory |first=Donald P. |year=2006 |title=No Ordinary Man: The Life and Times of Miguel de Cervantes |publisher=Dover Publishing |isbn=978-0-48645-361-3}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Mitsuo |first1=Nakamura |last2=Cullen |first2=Jennifer |title=On 'Don Quixote' |journal=Review of Japanese Culture and Society |date=December 2006 |volume=18 |issue=East and West |pages=147–156 |jstor=42800232}}
* {{cite book |last1=Parker |first1=Barbara Keevil |last2=Parker |first2=Duane F. |year=2009 |title=Miguel de Cervantes |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-43810-685-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Putnam |first=Samuel |year=1976 |title=Introduction to The Portable Cervantes |publisher=Penguin |location=Harmondsworth |isbn=978-0-14015-057-5}}
* {{cite journal |last=Riley |first=E. C. |title=Cipión" Writes to "Berganza" in the Freudian Academia Española |journal=Cervantes: Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America |year=1994 |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=3–18 |doi=10.3138/cervantes.14.1.003 |s2cid=193117593}}
* {{cite journal |last=Truman |first=R. W. |title=The Rev. John Bowle's Quixotic Woes Further Explored |journal=Cervantes: Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America |year=2003 |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=9–43 |doi=10.3138/Cervantes.23.2.009 |s2cid=190575135}}
{{refend}}
==Further reading==
<div class="references-small">
{{Refbegin|30em}}
*{{cite book|last=Armas|first=Frederick A. de|title=The Cambridge Companion to Cervantes By Anthony Joseph Cascardi|year=2002 | publisher=Cambridge University|isbn=0-521-66387-3|chapter=Cervantes and the Italian Renaissance}}
* [[Harold Bloom|Bloom, Harold]] (ed.) 2001. ''Cervantes's Don Quixote (Modern Critical Interpretations)''.
*{{cite book|last=Armas|first=Frederick A. de|title=Quixotic Frescoes: Cervantes and Italian Renaissance Art|year=2006 | publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=0-802-09074-5|chapter=The Exhilaration of Italy}}
* Bloom, Harold (ed.) 2005. ''Miguel de Cervantes (Modern Critical Views)''.
*{{cite encyclopedia|title=Cervantes, Miguel de|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia Americana|date=1994|publisher=Grolier Incorporated}}
* {{cite book |last=Cervantes |first=Miguel de |author-link=Miguel de Cervantes |translator-last=Kelly |translator-first=Walter K. |year=1613 |edition=2017 |title=Novelas ejemplares |trans-title=The Exemplary Novels of Cervantes |isbn=978-1374957275 |publisher=Pinnacle Books}}
*{{cite encyclopedia|title=Cervantes, Miguel de|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|date=2002}}
* {{cite book |last=CalvoEisenberg |first=ClaraDaniel |title=ShiftingSiglos thedorados Scene: Shakespearehomenaje ina EuropeanAugustin CultureRedondo By|location=Madrid Ladina Bezzola Lambert, Balz|publisher=[[Castalia]] Engler|year=2004 | publishervolume=University of Delaware1 Press|isbn=084-8749740-13860100-4X |chaptercontribution=ShakespeareLa andsupuesta Cervanteshomosexualidad inde 1916: The Politics of LanguageCervantes}}
* El Saffar, Ruth S. (ed.) 1986. ''Critical Essays on Cervantes''. Boston: G. K. Hall.
*{{cite book|last=Fitzmaurice-Kelly |first=James|title=The Life of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra|year=2005 | publisher=Kessinger Publishing|isbn=1-417-97000-6|chapter=The Youth of Cervantes}}
* [[Roberto González Echevarría|González Echevarría, Roberto]] (ed.) 2005. ''Cervantes' Don Quixote: A Casebook''.
*{{cite book|last=Garcés|first=María Antonia|title=Cervantes in Algiers: a Captive's Tale|year=2002 | publisher=Vanderbilt University Press|isbn=0-826-51470-7|chapter=An Erotics of Creation}}
* Nelson, Lowry 1969. ''Cervantes: A Collection of Critical Essays''. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
*{{cite book|last=Lokos |first=Ellen|title=Cervantes and his Postomodern Consituencies by Ann J. Cruz|year=1998 | publisher=Routledge (UK)|isbn=0-815-33206-8|chapter=The Politics of Identity and the Enigma of Cervantine Genealogy}}
* Pérez, Rolando (2016). "[https://www.academia.edu/32654689/What_is_Don_Quijote_Don_Quixote_And...And...And_The_Disjunctive_Synthesis_of_Cervantes_and_Kathy_Acker What is Don Quijote/Don Quixote And…And…And the Disjunctive Synthesis of Cervantes and Kathy Acker.]" ''Cervantes ilimitado: cuatrocientos años del Quijote''. Ed. Nuria Morgado. ALDEEU. 75–100.
*{{cite journal|last=Qualia|first=Charles B.|title=Cervantes, Soldier and Humanist |journal=The South Central Bulletin|volume=9|issue=No.1|pages=1+10–11|date=January 1949|url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0038-321X(194901)9%3A1%3C1%2B10%3ACSAH%3E2.0.CO%3B2-U|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press}}
* Pérez, Rolando (2021). [https://www.ehumanista.ucsb.edu/sites/default/files/sitefiles/ehumanista/volume47/ehum47.perez.pdf "Cervantes’s “Republic”: On Representation, Imitation, and Unreason". ''eHumanista 47'': 89-111.]
</div>
* [[Manuel Vázquez Montalbán|Vázquez Montalbán, Manuel]] and [[Willi Glasauer]] (1988). ''Scenes from World Literature and Portraits of Greatest Authors'', Círculo de Lectores.
* [[Olivier Weber|Weber, Olivier]], [[Groupe Flammarion|Flammarion]] (2011). ''Le Barbaresque''.
===Online sources===
{{refend}}
<div class="references-small">
* {{cite web
| title = Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616): Life and Portrait
| work = The Cervantes Project
| last = Canavaggio
| first = Jean
| url = http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/cervantes/biography/new_english_cerv_bio.html
| accessdate = 2007-01-04
}}
* {{cite web
| title = E-book of The Exemplary Novels of Cervantes (Translated by Walter K. Kelly)
| work = The Project Gutenberg
| last = Cervantes Saavedra
| first = Miguel de
| url = http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14420/14420-8.txt
| accessdate = 2007-01-01
}}
* {{cite web
| title = Don Quixote{{ndash}} Translator's Preface{{ndash}} About Cervantes And Don Quixote
| work = The University of Adelaide Library
| last = Ormsby
| first = John
| url = http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/c/cervantes/c41d/preface1.html
| accessdate = 2007-01-02
}}
* {{cite web
| title = World Book and Copyright Day{{ndash}} April 23, 2006
| work = United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
| url = http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=5125&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
| accessdate = 2006-10-17
}}
</div>
==External links==
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/miguel-de-cervantes-saavedra}}
{{sisterlinks|s=Author:Miguel de Cervantes}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Miguel de Cervantes}}
{{Wikisource1911Enc|Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de}}
* {{gutenbergLibrivox author | id=Miguel+de+Cervantes+Saavedra | name=Miguel de Cervantes4220}}
* {{cite news |first=Ciaran |last=Giles |date=11 June 2015 |title=Spain formally buries Cervantes, 400 years later |url=http://bigstory.ap.org/article/2ab3c6f5e8684cada0ce22819ecccc36/spain-gives-formal-burial-cervantes-400-years-later |agency=Associated Press |access-date=11 June 2015 |archive-date=13 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150613045058/http://bigstory.ap.org/article/2ab3c6f5e8684cada0ce22819ecccc36/spain-gives-formal-burial-cervantes-400-years-later |url-status=dead }}
*[http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/index.shtml Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes] Spanish web site with multiple Cervantes links and audio of whole of Don Quixote
* {{cite news|agency=Agence France-Presse |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/27/casket-find-could-lead-to-remains-of-don-quixote-author-miguel-de-cervantes |title=Casket find could lead to remains of Don Quixote author Miguel de Cervantes | Books |work=The Guardian |access-date=17 March 2015}}
*[http://coloquio.com/famosos/alpha.htm Famous Hispanics]
* {{cite web |url=http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/cash/national/spain_en.htm |title=Euro notes and coins: national sides |work=[[European Commission]] |access-date=25 June 2013 |date=8 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100207105016/http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/cash/national/spain_en.htm |archive-date=7 February 2010}}
*[http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/cervantes/V2/CPI/index.html The Cervantes Project] with biographies and chronology
* {{cite web |url=http://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/online-gallery/on-line-gallery/obra/a-nobleman-2/ |title=Portrait of a Gentleman |work=[[Museo del Prado]] |access-date=25 June 2013 |publisher=[[Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte]], [[Gobierno de España]] |language=es}}
<!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]] -->
* [http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/ Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes] Spanish web site with multiple Cervantes links and audio of whole of Don Quixote
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040912035140/http://coloquio.com/famosos/alpha.htm Famous Hispanics]
* [http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/cervantes/V2/CPI/index.html The Cervantes Project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090901185529/http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/cervantes/V2/CPI/index.html |date=1 September 2009 }} with biographies and chronology
* [http://www.donquichote.org/cervantes.php Information about Miguel de Cervantes]
* [http://cataleg.bnc.cat/search*spi/?searchtype=a&searcharg=Col%C2%B7lecci%C3%B3+Cervantina&sortdropdown=-&searchscope=13&searchscope2=13&SORT=D Cervantine Collection of the Biblioteca de Catalunya] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190612055604/http://cataleg.bnc.cat/search*spi/?searchtype=a&searcharg=Col%C2%B7lecci%C3%B3+Cervantina&sortdropdown=-&searchscope=13&searchscope2=13&SORT=D |date=12 June 2019 }}
* [http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/cervantes/biography/new_english_cerv_bio.html Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616): Life and Portrait] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091212060808/http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/cervantes/biography/new_english_cerv_bio.html |date=12 December 2009 }} The Cervantes Project. [[Jean Canavaggio|Canavaggio, Jean]].
* [http://www.museocasanataldecervantes.org/information/ Cervantes's Birthplace Museum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190507223133/http://www.museocasanataldecervantes.org/information/ |date=7 May 2019 }}
* [https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/coll/cervantes.html Miguel de Cervantes Collection] From the Rare Book and Special Collection Division at the [[Library of Congress]]
* [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.antakirasoftware.hablaconcervantes Cervantes chatbot in Spanish]
{{Miguel de Cervantes}}
{{Persondata
{{Don Quixote}}
|NAME= Cervantes, Miguel de
{{Authority control}}
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de; De Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel
|SHORT DESCRIPTION= Spanish novelist, poet and playwright
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel De}}
|DATE OF BIRTH= {{birth date|mf=yes|1547|9|29}}
[[Category:Miguel de Cervantes| ]]
|PLACE OF BIRTH= [[Alcalá de Henares]], Spain
|DATE OF DEATH= {{death date|mf=yes|1616|4|23}}
|PLACE OF DEATH= [[Madrid]], Spain
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de}}
[[Category:1547 births]]
[[Category:1616 deaths]]
[[Category:16th-century Spanish amputeesdramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Barbary16th piratescentury in Algiers]]
[[Category:Renaissance16th-century male writers]]
[[Category:16th-century Spanish dramatists and playwrightsnovelists]]
[[Category:16th-century Spanish poets]]
[[Category:16th-century Spanish writers]]
[[Category:17th-century male writers]]
[[Category:17th-century Spanish dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:17th-century Spanish novelists]]
[[Category:17th-century Spanish poets]]
[[Category:17th-century Spanish writers]]
[[Category:Spanish accountants]]
[[Category:Baroque writers]]
[[Category:Burials in Madrid]]
[[Category:Deaths from diabetes in Spain]]
[[Category:Galley slaves]]
[[Category:History of Algiers]]
[[Category:History of literature]]
[[Category:History of poetry]]
[[Category:History of theatre]]
[[Category:People from Alcalá de Henares]]
[[Category:Ransom]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic writers]]
[[Category:Slavery in Algeria]]
[[Category:16th-century slaves from the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Spanish Catholic poets]]
[[Category:Spanish duellists]]
[[Category:Spanish Golden Age]]
[[Category:Spanish male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Spanish male novelists]]
[[Category:Spanish male poets]]
[[Category:Spanish naval personnel]]
[[Category:Spanish novelists]]
[[Category:Spanish poetspeople with disabilities]]
[[Category:RomanSpanish CatholicRoman writersCatholics]]
[[Category:Spanish writers]]
[[Category:Tax collectors]]
{{Link FA|es}}
[[Category:Writers with disabilities]]
{{Link FA|ro}}
[[Category:Algerian slaves]]
{{Link FA|sr}}
[[af:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[ar:ميغيل دي ثيربانتس]]
[[an:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[arz:ميجيل دى ثيرفانتيس]]
[[ast:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[bn:মিগেল দে থের্ভান্তেস]]
[[zh-min-nan:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[be-x-old:Мігель Сэрвантэс]]
[[bcl:Cervantes]]
[[bs:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[br:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[bg:Мигел де Сервантес]]
[[ca:Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra]]
[[cs:Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra]]
[[cy:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[da:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[de:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[et:Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra]]
[[el:Μιγκέλ ντε Θερβάντες]]
[[es:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[eo:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[eu:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[fa:میگل سروانتس]]
[[fr:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[ga:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[gd:Cervantes]]
[[gl:Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra]]
[[ko:미겔 데 세르반테스]]
[[hr:Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra]]
[[io:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[id:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[ia:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[os:Сервантес]]
[[is:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[it:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[he:מיגל דה סרוואנטס]]
[[ka:მიგელ დე სერვანტესი]]
[[sw:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[la:Michael de Cervantes]]
[[lb:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[lt:Migelis de Servantesas Savedra]]
[[hu:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[mk:Мигел де Сервантес]]
[[ml:മിഗ്വെല് ഡി സെര്വാന്റെസ്]]
[[mt:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[mr:मिगेल सर्व्हान्तेस]]
[[mn:Мигель Сервантес]]
[[nah:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[nl:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[ja:ミゲル・デ・セルバンテス]]
[[no:Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra]]
[[nn:Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra]]
[[oc:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[uz:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[pag:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[pms:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[nds:Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra]]
[[pl:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[pt:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[ro:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[qu:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[ru:Сервантес, Мигель де]]
[[scn:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[simple:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[sk:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[sl:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[sr:Мигел де Сервантес]]
[[sh:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[fi:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[sv:Miguel Cervantes]]
[[ta:மிகெல் தே செர்வாந்தேஸ்]]
[[kab:Migel de Serbantes]]
[[th:มีเกล เด เซร์บันเตส]]
[[vi:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[tg:Мигел де Сервантес]]
[[tr:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[uk:Мігель де Сервантес]]
[[vec:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[vo:Miguel de Cervantes]]
[[fiu-vro:Cervantese Miguel]]
[[zh-yue:塞萬提斯]]
[[bat-smg:Migelės de Servantesos Savedra]]
[[zh:米格尔·德·塞万提斯]]