Miguel Cervantes

Miguel Cervantes

Miguel Cervantes and William Shakespeare, two authors at the pinnacle of the cultural rebirth of Europe during the 1500s, ironically died on the same date (this fact is a bit confused by the distinction between the Julian and Gregorian calendar. Indeed they both died on the date of April 23, 1616, but England had not converted to the Gregorian Calendar, so they did not die on the same day, but they did on the same date, as Spain's Julian calendar correlated Cervantes' death to Shakepseare's). Shakespeare even read Cervantes' masterpiece The Delightful History of the Most Ingenious Knight Don Quixote of La Mancha, but it is probable that Cervantes never even heard of Shakespeare, let alone read one of his plays or poems. This distinction between two men of equal literary merit can be seen as an allegory for Miguel Cervantes' entire life: he lived in obscurity, while receiving much praise posthumously.

It took historians until the mid-1800s to discover where Don Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra was born. The setting is in the small Spanish town of Alcalб de Henares, close to the capital of Madrid. Miguel was born as the fourth child of seven, but the second son of Don Rodrigo de Cervantes y Saavedra in 1547. The date of Miguel's birth remains just as nebulous as the conditions of his death. It was common practice in Spain at the time of Miguel's birth to name a child after the Saint that enjoys the namesake of the date the child was born on. St. Michael's Feast is September 29th, though it was confirmed that Miguel was baptized on October 7th (in the same document that confirmed the location of his birth), so he could have realistically been born on any day in early October or late September. After his birth Miguel was immediately immersed in a life of contradiction. His father was an established noble, but he had no money to his name. He worked as a doctor, though his poor qualifications barely made it a job that could sustain his family.

By the age of 24 Miguel had completed his education. Some 50 years prior to Miguel's birth Cardinal Ximenes had founded Complutense University in Alcalб de Henares, so it was a convenient location for Miguel's learning. As the university was a center of learning in Spain, it attracted prominent humanists from Iberia, including Juan Lуpez de Hoyos, who Cervates is confirmed to have studies under. Hoyos published a collection of verse to commemorate the death of King Phillip II's wife, and six of the poems included were authored by Cervantes. These were his first officially published works.

At the conclusion of his studies in Spain, Cervantes relocates to Italy to work in The Vatican. Here he found himself caught up in geo-politics. The Turks had conquered Cyprus from Venice, and Christianity's dominance of the Mediterranean was threatened, so Pope Pius V chartered The Holy League - a coalition of Italy, Spain, and other Catholics kingdoms to battle the Turks by sea. Cervantes enlisted in this crusade. He took part in the Christian victory at the Battle of Lepanto, but not without loss. His left hand was shot, and he never regained complete control of the appendage. However, despite his injuries, Cervantes continued his naval service through the Mediteranean, partaking in a few more battles before being taken prisoner by the Turks. He was imprisoned in Algiers and served as a slave there for five years before he was ransomed back to Spain. During these five years his imagination was pressed to the limit, as he executed three different failed escape attempts.

From this point on, Miguel's main occupation can be said to be that of an author. However, the revenue he collected from such intellectual pursuits was too meager to sustain him, so he also took jobs as a government agent, collecting taxes and other comparable duties. Romance also emerged in his life for the first time during this period after his ransoming from the Turks. He fathered an illegitimate daughter, and two years later married Catalina de Salazar y Palacios. With romance on his mind he wrote, but never published La Galatea, a novel paralleling his life, from war to love. The only part that survives to this day discusses his enslavement and reveals it as a major influence on his writing. In addition, the story follows the life of Galatea (for whom the novel is a namesake), an ideal female (probably modeled after Catalina de Salazar y Palacios). This idea of the ideal female is a prominent mark of humanist and Renaissance literature, and was probably passed on to Cervantes by his professor from Complutense, Juan Lуpez de Hoyos. The Decameron by the Italian Boccaccio is best known for presenting the ideal women Fiammetta, who is modeled after the love of Boccaccio's life.

Cervantes was not one of the most successful tax collectors that King Phillip II had ever seen. In fact, at least one time he had a public debt, and was sent to prison to rectify this fact. It is during his stays in prison that Cervantes conceives Don Quixote, which was published in 1605. Don Quixote tells the story of a disillusioned knight who perambulates throughout the Spanish countryside. Famous episodes of Part I (the novel was actually split between two installation, with Part II being published in 1615, just a year before Cervantes' death) involves Don Quixote attacking a windmill taking it to be a giant that he is chivalrously bound to slay. Other chapters see The Knight and his companions storming common town buildings, mistaking them for castles that they are entitled to enter.

Although it was more than 50 years past Miguel's childhood when Don Quixote was written, the inspirations for episodes in the book clearly stem from his childhood. The feigning of his father