Espantosa y felicísima victoria concedida del cielo al Señor Don Juan de Austria en el golfo de Lepanto, de la poderosa armada otomana, en el año de nuestra salvación de MDLXXII (Astonishing and most felicitous victory granted by the heavens to Don Juan of Austria in the gulf of Lepanto over the powerful Ottoman navy in the year of our salvation 1572) (Biblioteca Nacional de España) [3]

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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