Miguel de Cervantes

James A. Parr (University of California, Riverside)

Ed. by Stuart Green, University of Leeds
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.6.2.01: Spanish Literature and Culture from the Beginning to the Golden Age.
Vol. editors: Andrew M. Beresford (University of Durham), Stuart Green (University of Leeds), Juan Pablo Rodriguez (Yale University), Duncan Wheeler (University of Leeds)

Dates

Born 29 Sep 1547
Died 23 Apr 1616
Activity 1585-1616

Places

Born in Spain
Active in Spain

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Story-writer

Other

Playwright / Dramatist

Resources

Cervantes was born in Alcalá de Henares, a university town just east of Madrid. Birth records were not ordinarily kept at the time; baptismal records were scrupulously maintained, however. Since he received the name Miguel (Michael) at his christening on 9 October 1547, it is reasonable to assume that he was born on St. Michael’s Day, 29 September, ten days prior. He was the third child of Rodrigo de Cervantes and Leonor de Cortinas. His full name would ordinarily have been, therefore, Miguel de Cervantes Cortinas. Following his captivity in Algiers, and for reasons unknown, he took on the second surname of Saavedra – perhaps an example of Renaissance self-fashioning. One modern-day opinion is that this surname was that of a …

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1939 words

Citation: Parr, James A.. "Miguel de Cervantes". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 October 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=806, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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