Miguel de Cervantes

File:Alcalá de Henares (RPS 08-11-2014) Plaza de Cervantes.png, where Cervantes was reputedly baptised; the square in front is named Plaza Cervantes]]

Despite his subsequent renown, many details of Cervantes' life remain uncertain, including his name, background, and physical appearance. He signed his name as "Cerbantes," but 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}} Historian Luce López-Baralt has suggested that "Saavedra" comes from the Arabic dialect word shaibedraa, meaning "one-handed," a reference to his nickname during his captivity.{{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}} Further linguistic and historical evidence for this claim, however, remains debated.

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 nobility they often found themselves in financial straits. Moreover, they may have been of converso origin, that is, 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, however, there is no wide following for the view that Cervantes had converso origins.{{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.}} Cuban writer Roberto Echevarría argues that the claims of Cervantes' converso origins are based on "very flimsy evidence", namely Cervantes' lack of social and financial progression which was not unusual for Spaniards of his time, regardless of their ancestry as many didn't receive these rewards during this period.{{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}}

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.

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}}

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 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}}

File:Madrid - Monumento a Miguel de Cervantes (35231601834).jpg)]]

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 Acquaviva, an Italian bishop who spent 1568 to 1569 in Madrid, and was appointed Cardinal in 1570.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|p=50}} When the 1570 to 1573 Ottoman–Venetian War began, Spain formed part of the Holy League, a coalition formed to support the Venetian Republic. Possibly seeing an opportunity to have his arrest warrant rescinded, Cervantes went to Naples, then part of the Crown of Aragon.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|p=52}}

File:Nafpaktos evlahos.jpg (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{{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}} under the 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 Phillip II of Spain; on 7 October, they defeated the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto.{{sfn|Davis|1999|p=199}}

File:Cervantes en Lepanto.jpg]] 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 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 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].{{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}}}}{{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}}

Although he returned to service in July 1572 in the Tercio de Figueroa,{{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}} 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 Navarino, and took part in the 1573 occupation of Tunis and La Goulette, which were 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}}

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 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 would mean he spent at least part of his captivity in Istanbul.{{cite magazine |last=Eren |first=Güleren |title=The Heritage of a Sailor |magazine=Beyoğlu |issue=3 |pages=59–64 |date=June 2006}}{{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}}{{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}} This is yet to be proven and no evidence has been published on the matter.{{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}}

By 1580, Spain was occupied with integrating Portugal, and suppressing the Dutch Revolt, while the Ottomans were at 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 Trinitarians, a religious charity that specialised in ransoming Christian captives, and returned to Madrid.{{sfn|Parker|Parker|2009|p=?}}

File:Miguel de Cervantes at the National Library.jpg]]

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}}

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}}

File:Trinitmad.jpg in Madrid.]]

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 Count of Lemos, although he was not included in the retinue Lemos took to Naples when appointed Viceroy in 1608.{{sfn|Ma|2017|p=99}} In July 1613, he joined the 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 in 1582 in Spain and some other countries); the symptoms described, including intense thirst, correspond to diabetes, then untreatable.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|p=264}}

In accordance with his will, Cervantes was buried in the Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians, in central Madrid.{{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}} 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.{{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}}

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.'.{{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}} 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.{{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}} They were formally reburied at a public ceremony in June 2015.{{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 }}

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.{{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}} It has been suggested that the portrait The Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest, also by El Greco, may possibly depict Cervantes.{{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 }}

However, The Prado itself, while mentioning, in passing, that "specific names have been proposed for the sitter, including that of Cervantes", and even "that the painting could be a self-portrait [of El Greco]", 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."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.

The portrait by Luis de Madrazo, at the {{lang|es|Biblioteca Nacional de España|italic=no}}, painted in 1859, was based on his imagination.{{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}} The image that appears on Spanish euro coins of €0.10, €0.20 and €0.50 is based on a bust, created in 1905.{{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}}

File:Don Quijote Illustration by Gustave Dore VII.jpg]]

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 romances.{{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 on 8 April.{{sfn|McCrory|2006|p=206}}

File:Don Quijote illustrated by Gustav Dore V.jpg]]

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}}

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}}

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 also possessed a unique writing style, often blending elements of comedic themes to more complex adult-oriented undertones, best displayed by Don Quixote.

"In the space of a few pages, what started as an exercise in comic ridicule and, as the narrator insists on several occasions, a satirical send-up of the tales of chivalry, has taken on an entirely different dimension; it has begun to transform itself into the story of a relationship between two characters whose incompatible takes on the world are bridged by friendship, loyalty, and eventually love."{{Cite web |author=Bret McCabe |date=2016-09-29 |title=The remarkable life of Miguel de Cervantes and how it shaped his timeless tale, 'Don Quixote' |url=https://hub.jhu.edu/2016/09/29/egginton-cervantes-29sept2016/ |access-date=2025-01-16 |website=The Hub |language=en}}

Cervantes was rediscovered by English writers in the mid-18th century. The literary editor 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, Defoe, Dickens, Balzac, and Joyce.{{sfn|Fuentes|1988|p=69–70}}

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}}

In 1905, the tricentennial of the publication of Don Quixote was marked with celebrations in Spain;{{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}} 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.{{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}} Man of La Mancha, the 1965 musical, was loosely based on Cervantes' life.{{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}}{{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}} The Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library, is the world's largest digital archive of Spanish-language historical and literary works.

The Cervantes Society of America was founded in 1978 and held its first membership meeting in San Francisco in December, 1979. The organization aims to further studies of Cervantes' works and his influence in our society.{{Cite web |title=About the CSA |url=https://cervantessocietyamerica.org/history |access-date=2025-04-07 |website=CERVANTES SOCIETY OF AMERICA |language=en-US}}

File:La Galatea First Edition Title Page.jpg

As listed in Complete Works of Miguel de Cervantes:{{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}}

• 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"){{Britannica|103673 |author=Riley, Edward C.; Cruz, Anne J.}}
• "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).

File:Viaje del Parnaso.jpg 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.

He published a number of dramatic works, including ten extant full-length plays:

• 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,{{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}}
• Los baños de Argel,{{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 }}
• La gran sultana, Doña Catalina de Oviedo,{{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 }}
• La casa de los celos,{{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 }}
• El laberinto de amor,{{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 }}
• La entretenida,{{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 }}
• El rufián dichoso,{{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 }}
• Pedro de Urdemalas,{{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 }} 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,{{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}}
• El rufián viudo llamado Trampagos,{{cite web |url=http://www.comedias.org/cervantes/trampa.html |title=El Rufián Viudo Llamado Trampagos |website=comedias.org |language=es}}
• La elección de los Alcaldes de Daganzo,{{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 }}
• La guarda cuidadosa{{cite web |url=http://www.biblioteca.org.ar/libros/70718.pdf |title=Info |publisher=biblioteca.org.ar |access-date=10 December 2019}} (The Vigilant Sentinel),
• El vizcaíno fingido,{{cite web |url=http://cervantes.uah.es/teatro/Entremes/entre_5.html |title=Entremes: Del Vizcaíno Fingido |website=cervantes.uah.es}}
• El retablo de las maravillas,{{cite web |url=http://cervantes.uah.es/teatro/Entremes/entre_6.html |title=Entremes: Del Retablo de las Maravillas |website=cervantes.uah.es}}
• La cueva de Salamanca
• El viejo celoso{{cite web |url=http://cervantes.uah.es/teatro/Entremes/entre_8.html |title=Entremes: Del Viejo Celoso |website=cervantes.uah.es}} (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{{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 }} (Eight Comedies and Eight New Interludes, Never Before Performed), which appeared in 1615.{{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}} 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.

{{further|List of works influenced by Don Quixote}}

{{expand section|small=no|date=January 2021}}

• 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. A municipality in the province of Ilocos Sur, Philippines.
• Cervantes. A township situated north of the Western Australian state capital Perth in Australia.

• Cervantes is a recurring character in the Spanish television show El ministerio del tiempo, portrayed by actor Pere Ponce.
• Cervantes played a prominent role in the episode "Gentlemen of Spain" of the 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.

• Casa de Cervantes
• Instituto Cervantes
• Miguel de Cervantes Prize
• Miguel de Cervantes European University
• Miguel de Cervantes Health Care Centre
• Miguel de Cervantes High School
• Miguel de Cervantes Memorial
• Miguel de Cervantes University

{{notelist|35em}}

{{reflist|23em}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

• {{cite book |last=Byron |first=William |year=1978 |title=Cervantes; A Biography |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}}

{{Refbegin|30em}}

• Bloom, Harold (ed.) 2001. Cervantes's Don Quixote (Modern Critical Interpretations).
• Bloom, Harold (ed.) 2005. Miguel de Cervantes (Modern Critical Views).
• {{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=978-1-374-95727-5 |publisher=Pinnacle Books}}
• {{cite book |last=Eisenberg |first=Daniel |title=Siglos dorados: homenaje a Augustin Redondo |location=Madrid |publisher=Castalia |year=2004 |volume=1 |isbn=84-9740-100-X |contribution=La supuesta homosexualidad de Cervantes}}
• El Saffar, Ruth S. (ed.) 1986. Critical Essays on Cervantes. Boston: G. K. Hall.
• González Echevarría, Roberto (ed.) 2005. Cervantes' Don Quixote: A Casebook.
• Nelson, Lowry 1969. Cervantes: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
• 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.
• 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.]
• Vázquez Montalbán, Manuel and Willi Glasauer (1988). Scenes from World Literature and Portraits of Greatest Authors, Círculo de Lectores.
• Weber, Olivier, Flammarion (2011). Le Barbaresque.

{{refend}}

• {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/miguel-de-cervantes-saavedra}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=Miguel de Cervantes}}
• {{Librivox author |id=4220}}
• {{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 }}
• {{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}}
• {{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}}
• {{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}}
• [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. 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}}

{{Don Quixote}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel De}}

Category:1547 births

Category:1616 deaths

Category:16th-century Spanish dramatists and playwrights

Category:16th century in Algiers

Category:16th-century Spanish male writers

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Category:Ransom

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Category:16th-century slaves from the Ottoman Empire

Category:Spanish Catholic poets

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