Cervantes spent nearly five years serving in the Italian regiments, climbing the ranks in a promising military career. The constant reminders in his oeuvre of his involvement in the Battle of Lepanto (1571) as a raw recruit have overshadowed his subsequent military career.
7 October 1571 was the date of the Battle of Lepanto, “the most memorable and lofty occasion that past centuries have beheld or which future ages hope to see”, as Cervantes glowingly describes it in the prologue to the second part of Don Quixote. This colossal battle was progressively magnified in propagandistic literature such as this magnificent manuscript codex containing an epic poem dedicated to Philip II.
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