Cervantes, the brilliant author

La Galatea, considered a pastoral novel, complex work and, in the words of Cervantes himself, in need of a second part that was never written, was published in Alcalá de Henares in 1585.

A few months earlier, in early 1584, he had begun the publishing process. Specifically, on 6 June 1584, Cervantes sold the printing rights to Blas de Robles:

"Miguel de Cervantes, a resident of this Court <e> granted that he assigns, sells, waives and transfers to Blas de Robles, a merchant of books [...] a book of prose and verse in which is contained the six books of Galatea".

As it would be known in the talking shops of Madrid that he would release La Galatea and Miguel de Cervantes was taken into some consideration, the impresario ("writer of comedies") Gaspar de Robles bought two works that are now lost: (The Confused Woman) and (The Constantinople deal and the death of Celín).

The contract is dated 5 March 1585 and the works would have to be delivered in the following weeks. Cervantes would receive 40 ducats for them.

In this curious document is a shipment of "one trunk of number 1 books of the brand in margin [...] to deliver in the city of Cartagena or Portobello [...] the treasurer at the Cathedral Church of Santa Fe of the New Kingdom of Granada".

Note that the shipment is after 1620 and they are still sending copies of La Galatea.

In this list we can highlight shipments of a book of Spanish medicine, comedies of Lope, Cornelius Tacitus in romance, a cosmography and at the end of the list, an "ambassador of Don Juan de Vera and La Galatea de Cervantes Galatea [sic]".

The publication of a book in the Golden Age had to meet a number of requirements that had its steps.

On 20 July 1604, in Valladolid, Miguel de Cervantes delivered the original manuscript to the Chamber of Castile and finished a book entitled The Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha for which he begins the publishing procedures.

This document is the application by Miguel de Cervantes for "Approval" and "Printing privilege":

"Miguel de Cervantes, say I, that I have written a book entitled 'The ingenious gentleman of La Mancha' which I submit. Your Highness, I ask and beg to be served and to be given licence and privilege to publish for 20 years, attentive to much study and work that I have put into composing this book, and being a gentle and curious reading of great wit, in which I will receive great good and mercy. And for that purpose, etc. Miguel de Cervantes".

Having received the original manuscript, the scribe Juan Gallo de Andrada passes it to a meeting of the Chamber, which decides that the book be endorsed by the chronicler of the Indies Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, a friend of Cervantes.

Our author had requested printing privilege for 20 years; it is granted for 10. Throughout this document, he never signs as Saavedra; however Antonio de Herrera refers to him as Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Does this mean anything? In any case, the birth of this unparalleled novel has already begun.

In this image you will find the award of the "Approval" and "Printing privilege":

"By command of Your Highness, I have seen a book called The Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha composed by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra and I think, being in the service of Your Highness, that you might give licence to publish it because it will be tasteful and entertainment for the people to which in the rules of good governance, care must be taken beyond that, no fault is found within that is contrary to law and good moral practices. And I signed my name, in Valladolid on 11 September 1604. Antonio de Herrera”.

Within 15 days of Antonio de Herrera proposing approval for the authorisation of the publishing of the work of Cervantes, the royal decree was registered in the books of the Chamber of Castile. A duplicate of this same document had to be printed in the preliminaries of Don Quixote, as was done. However, the "Approval" written by Antonio de Herrera was never printed, and it should have been.

"The King. Because by you, Miguel de Cervantes came to us to establish a partnership that he has written a book entitled The Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha, which had taken a lot of work..."

In January 1605, The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha went on sale in the shop of Francisco de Robles, in Madrid for the enjoyment and tranquillity of its readers. The second edition of Juan de la Cuesta was also in 1605.

As expected, a book of chivalry (albeit against books of chivalry) and in addition to entertainment, it is very possible that it had great success in the Indies, it should not be forgotten that the exploits of Amadis and other companions marked the mentality of the conquistadors. According to the records that are preserved, more than 400 copies of Don Quixote passed legally to the Americas in 1605, both to bookshops in the Caribbean and on the Pacific.

[Line 3]: "One of Don Quixote of La Mancha in ten reals... 340 [maravedíes]"

Exemplary Novels, 1613.

At the height of 1613, with the help of the publisher Juan de la Cuesta, Cervantes releases twelve short texts or "Exemplary Novels" that were highly successful.

If he had begun to write them in 1590, they are very vivid stories that are referring to his own existence. They are works that speak of love, crime, politics, etc.

It is very difficult to highlight some works over others. In The Lawyer of Glass Cervantes describes to us the adventures of a young traveller who feels that if he is touched, he will break; in The English Spanish Lady he tells us, focusing on the life of a young woman kidnapped by Drake, how peace can be signed even with the worst enemies; in The Conversation of the Dogs two pooches talk about their adventures with their masters. This work served to inspire Sigmund Freud.

In the image, the complaint against unauthorised publishers of the Exemplary Novels, of 28 September 1613.

Journey to Parnassus, 1614.

In this work, Cervantes describes the Spanish poetic atmosphere of the early seventeenth century in more than 3,000 verses, condensing more than one hundred living authors into a few lines. The work has surreal parts.

In Song of Calliope, attached to La Galatea, he had already described another hundred contemporary authors and in The diverting and important scrutiny..., in Don Quixote, another thirty: the cultural foundations of Cervantes almost overcame his creative capacity.

In the image, an illustration to the chapter The diverting and important scrutiny which the curate and the barber made in the library of our ingenious gentleman (Don Quixote I,3).

Eight comedies and eight new interludes, never represented, 1615.

Shortly after publication of the fake Quixote of Avellaneda, Cervantes responds with the second part of Don Quixote. Undoubtedly, he had already prepared his comedies and interludes that went on sale, but circumstances made it so that they were all released at the same time.

In these comedies, Cervantes returned to his Algerian experience or human feelings. His skill in the interludes should be noted, short texts that were represented in the intervals of major works and in which our author, with great skill and his usual humour, deals with divorce, mocks blood purity, calls the traditional qualities of his contemporaries into question and describes the municipal political situation with the mastery of the classic who knows the vices of the magistrates: every citizen of the nineteenth century should read the The Election of the Magistrates of Daganzo.

In the image, a document regarding the shipments of the "Comedias de Cervantes" (Comedies of Cervantes) (line 25) to America.

Second part of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, 1615.

Cervantes, once again, has tried a trade outside the Court without success, but in the circle of the Duke of Lerma: he has tried to leave with his son to Naples. These are the days in which he publishes the second part of Don Quixote.

The interpretations that have made of this second part Don Quixote have been even more exaggerated than those that have made of the first. In any case, this serious and methodical work can be seen as a complement, reflection and general correction of the first part; it is, of course, a response to the fake Quixote of Avellaneda and, above all, an end to that fascinating ghost that is Don Quixote who, to regain the trial and thus die, he makes Alonso Quijano rise again. But Cervantes narrates with emotion (and humour) his death in such manner and form that in this final apotheosis, he buries all resumption of this immense intellectual adventure that we know as Don Quixote.

The Trials of Persiles and Sigismunda, a Northern Story, 1617.

In this work, the adventures and downfalls of some pilgrims at the time of victory of the Catholic Reform over the Protestant reformations is narrated to us. The drafting of this text coincides with other verses from Cervantes to the ecstasy of Santa Teresa and other hagiographic poems to another nun.

But the fame of Persiles, even despite her beauty, is due to its overwhelming dedication to the Count of Lemos, the Viceroy in Naples. Its delicate prologue against the arrogant folly of arrogant youth should also be read sardonically and with tenderness.

Cervantes never saw a single copy of this book. This time, in an act of sublime appreciation of her late husband, the publishing procedures were performed by his wife.