Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Spanish: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra). Born presumably September 29, 1547 in Alcala de Henares - died April 23, 1616 in Madrid. Famous Spanish writer. First of all, he is known as the author of one of the greatest works of world literature - the novel The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha.
Miguel Cervantes was born into a family of impoverished nobles, in the city of Alcala de Henares. His father, Hidalgo Rodrigo de Cervantes, was a modest doctor, his mother, Doña Leonor de Cortina, was the daughter of a nobleman who had lost his fortune. There were seven children in their family, Miguel became the fourth child. Very little is known about Cervantes' early life. The date of his birth is September 29, 1547 (the day of the Archangel Michael). This date was established approximately on the basis of the records of the church book and the tradition that existed then to give the child a name in honor of the saint, whose feast falls on his birthday. It is authentically known that Cervantes was baptized on October 9, 1547 in the church of Santa Maria la Mayor in the city of Alcala de Henares.
Some biographers claim that Cervantes studied at the University of Salamanca, but there is no convincing evidence for this version. There is also an unconfirmed version that he studied with the Jesuits in Cordoba or Seville.
The reasons that prompted Cervantes to leave Castile remain unknown. Whether he was a student, or a fugitive from justice, or a royal arrest warrant for wounding Antonio de Sigur in a duel, is another mystery of his life. In any case, when he left for Italy, he did what other young Spaniards did for their careers in one way or another.
Rome revealed its church rituals and grandeur to the young writer. In a city teeming with ancient ruins, Cervantes discovered ancient art and also concentrated his attention on Renaissance art, architecture and poetry (his knowledge of Italian literature can be seen in his works). He was able to find in the achievements of the ancient world a powerful impetus for the revival of art. Thus, the enduring love for Italy, which is visible in his later work, was a kind of desire to return to the early period of the Renaissance.
By 1570, Cervantes was enrolled as a soldier in the Spanish Marine Regiment stationed in Naples. He stayed there for about a year before entering active service. In September 1571, Cervantes sailed aboard the Marquise, part of the galley fleet of the Holy League, which on October 7 defeated the Ottoman flotilla at the Battle of Lepanto in the Gulf of Patras.
Despite the fact that Cervantes had a fever that day, he refused to stay in bed and asked to fight. According to eyewitnesses, he said: "I prefer, even when sick and in the heat, to fight, as befits a good soldier ... and not hide under the protection of the deck." He fought bravely on board the ship and received three gunshot wounds - two in the chest and one in the forearm. The last wound deprived his left arm of mobility. In his poem Journey to Parnassus, he had to say that he "lost the capacity of his left hand for the glory of his right" (he thought about the success of the first part of Don Quixote). Cervantes always recalled with pride his participation in this battle: he believed that he had taken part in an event that would determine the course of European history.
There is another, unlikely, version of the loss of a hand. Due to the poverty of his parents, Cervantes received a meager education and, unable to find a livelihood, was forced to steal. Allegedly, it was for stealing that he was deprived of his hand, after which he had to leave for Italy. However, this version does not inspire confidence - if only because the hands of thieves at that time were no longer chopped off, as they were sent to the galleys, where both hands were required.
After the Battle of Lepanto, Miguel Cervantes remained in the hospital for 6 months until his wounds had healed enough to allow him to continue his service. From 1572 to 1575 he continued his service, being mainly in Naples. In addition, he participated in expeditions to Corfu and Navarino, witnessed the capture of Tunisia and La Goulette by the Turks in 1574. In addition, Cervantes was in Portugal and also carried out business trips to Oran (1580s); served in Seville.
The Duke de Sesse, presumably in 1575, gave Miguel letters of introduction (lost by Miguel during his capture) for the king and ministers, as he reported in his certificate of July 25, 1578. He also asked the king to provide mercy and help to the brave soldier.
In September 1575, Miguel Cervantes and his brother Rodrigo were returning from Naples to Barcelona aboard the galley "Sun" (la Galera del Sol). On the morning of September 26, on the way to the Catalan coast, the galley was attacked by Algerian corsairs. The attackers were resisted, as a result of which many members of the Sun team were killed, and the rest were taken prisoner and taken to Algeria. Letters of recommendation found in Cervantes' possession led to an increase in the amount of the required ransom. In Algerian captivity, Cervantes spent 5 years (1575-1580), tried to escape four times and was only miraculously not executed. In captivity, he was often subjected to various torments.
Father Rodrigo de Cervantes, according to his petition of March 17, 1578, indicated that his son "was captured in the galley Sun, under the command of Carrillo de Quesada", and that he "was wounded by two shots from an arquebus in the chest, and was injured in his left hand, which he cannot use. The father did not have the funds to ransom Miguel due to the fact that he had previously ransomed his other son, Rodrigo, who was also on that ship, from captivity. A witness to this petition, Mateo de Santisteban, noted that he had known Miguel for eight years, and met him when he was 22 or 23 years old, on the day of the battle of Lepanto. He also testified that Miguel "was ill on the day of the battle and had a fever" and was advised to stay in bed, but he decided to take part in the battle. For distinction in battle, the captain rewarded him with four ducats on top of his usual pay.
The news (in the form of letters) about Miguel's stay in Algerian captivity was brought by the soldier Gabriel de Castañeda, a resident of the Carriedo mountain valley from the village of Salazar. According to his information, Miguel was in captivity for about two years (that is, since 1575) with a Greek converted to Islam, captain Arnautriomami.
In a petition from Miguel's mother dated 1580, it was reported that she asked "to give permission for the export of 2000 ducats in the form of goods from the kingdom of Valencia" for the ransom of her son.
On October 10, 1580, a notarial deed was drawn up in Algiers in the presence of Miguel Cervantes and 11 witnesses in order to redeem him from captivity. On October 22, a monk from the Order of the Holy Trinity (Trinitarian) Juan Gil "The Liberator of Captives" compiled a report based on this notarial act confirming Cervantes' merits to the king.
After being released from captivity, Miguel served with his brother in Portugal, as well as with the Marquis de Santa Cruz.
By order of the king, Miguel made a trip to Oran in the 1580s.
In Seville, he handled the affairs of the Spanish fleet on the orders of Antonio de Guevara.
On May 21, 1590, in Madrid, Miguel petitions the Council of the Indies for a vacant seat in the American colonies, in particular in the “Auditing Office of the New Kingdom of Granada or the Governorate of the Province of Soconusco in Guatemala, or the Accountant on the Galleys of Cartagena, or the Corregidor of the City of La Paz” , and all because he still has not received favors for his long (22 years) service to the Crown. The Chairman of the Council of the Indies, on June 6, 1590, left a note on the petition that the bearer "deserved to be given any service and could be trusted."
On December 12, 1584, Miguel Cervantes married a nineteen-year-old native of the city of Esquivias, Catalina Palacios de Salazar, from whom he received a small dowry. He had one illegitimate daughter - Isabel de Cervantes.
The best of Cervantes' biographers, Schall, characterized him thus: “The poet, windy and dreamy, lacked worldly skill, and he did not benefit either from his military campaigns or from his works. It was an unselfish soul, incapable of gaining glory or counting on success, alternately enchanted or indignant, irresistibly surrendering to all its impulses ... He was seen naively in love with everything beautiful, generous and noble, indulging in romantic dreams or love dreams, ardent on the battlefield, then immersed in deep reflection, then carelessly cheerful ... From the analysis of his life, he comes out with honor, full of generous and noble activity, an amazing and naive prophet, heroic in his disasters and kind in his genius.
Miguel's literary activity began quite late, when he was 38 years old. The first work, Galatea (1585), was followed by a large number of dramatic plays, which enjoyed poor success.
In order to earn his daily bread, the future author of Don Quixote enters the commissary service; he is assigned to buy provisions for the Invincible Armada. In the performance of these duties, he suffers great setbacks, even gets on trial and spends some time in prison. His life in those years was a whole chain of severe hardships, hardships and disasters.
In the midst of all this, he does not stop his writing activity until he prints anything. The wanderings prepare the material for his future work, serving as a means for studying Spanish life in its various manifestations.
From 1598 to 1603 there is almost no news of the life of Cervantes. In 1603, he appeared in Valladolid, where he was engaged in small private affairs that gave him a meager income, and in 1604 the first part of the novel The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha was published, which was a huge success in Spain (the first part sold out in a few weeks). edition and 4 others in the same year) and abroad (translations into many languages). However, it did not improve the author's financial situation in the least, but only increased the hostile attitude towards him, expressed in ridicule, slander, and persecution.
From that time until his death, Cervantes' literary activity did not stop: between 1604 and 1616, the second part of Don Quixote appeared, all the short stories, many dramatic works, the poem Journey to Parnassus, and the novel printed after the death of the author was written. Persiles and Sikhismund.
Almost on his deathbed, Cervantes did not stop working; a few days before his death, he took the vows as a monk. On April 23, 1616, life ended (he died of dropsy), which the carrier himself in his philosophical humor called “long imprudence” and, leaving which, he “carried away a stone on his shoulders with an inscription in which the destruction of his hopes was read.”
Cervantes died in Madrid, where he had moved from Valladolid shortly before his death. The irony of fate pursued the great humorist behind the coffin: his grave remained lost, since there was not even an inscription on his tomb (in one of the churches). The remains of the writer were discovered and identified only in March 2015 in one of the crypts in the monastery de las Trinitarias. A monument to him was erected in Madrid only in 1835 (sculptor Antonio Sola); on the pedestal are two inscriptions in Latin and Spanish: "To Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, king of the Spanish poets, year M.D.CCC.XXXV."
The world significance of Cervantes rests mainly on his novel Don Quixote, a full, comprehensive expression of his diverse genius. Conceived as a satire on the chivalric novels that flooded all literature at that time, which the author definitely declares in the Prologue, this work little by little, perhaps even regardless of the will of the author, turned into a deep psychological analysis of human nature, two sides of mental activity - noble, but crushed by the reality of idealism and realistic practicality.
Both of these sides found a brilliant manifestation in the immortal types of the hero of the novel and his squire; in their sharp contrast, they - and this is the deep psychological truth - constitute, however, one person; only the fusion of these two essential aspects of the human spirit constitutes a harmonious whole. Don Quixote is ridiculous, his adventures depicted by a brilliant brush - if you do not think about their inner meaning - cause uncontrollable laughter; but it is soon replaced in the thinking and feeling reader by another kind of laughter, "laughter through tears," which is the essential and indispensable condition of every great humorous creation.
In the novel of Cervantes, in the fate of his hero, it was precisely the world irony that was reflected in a high ethical form. In beatings and all sorts of other insults to which the knight is subjected - despite their somewhat anti-artistic in literary terms - is one of the best expressions of this irony. Turgenev noted another very important moment in the novel - the death of his hero: at this moment, all the great significance of this person becomes available to everyone. When his former squire, wanting to console him, tells him that they will soon go on knightly adventures, “no,” the dying man answers, “all this has gone forever, and I ask everyone for forgiveness.”
The writer Cervantes (1547-1616) came from an ancient noble family. The house in which he grew up, and the hospital at the monastery, in which he was born in 1547, is now known to every resident of the Spanish city of Alcala de Hernanes.
The very fact that Cervantes was born in a hospital speaks of the poverty of his family. The family lived with pride in their noble ancestors, stories about the exploits of the knights were passed down from generation to generation. It is not surprising that the future writer chose the military field. In 1571 he entered the military service and went to war with the Turks. The commander-in-chief, Don Juan, provided him with letters of recommendation, but Cervantes was not lucky. He was captured and was taken to Algiers. The letters found on him helped save his life, but not his freedom. The Turks decided that he was a very important person and demanded a huge ransom. Cervantes spent several years in captivity, even was a galley rower, until in 1580 the merchants raised money to ransom him.
After fighting for another three years, Miguel de Cervantes retired and devoted himself to literary activity. But he did not become a prosperous and prosperous playwright, because his contemporary was the great Lope de Vega, with whom he had to compete on the stage! Cervantes complained that Lope de Vega "had taken over the Catholic Monarchy" - his plays were so popular!
Unable to provide himself financially with the work of a playwright, Cervantes again turns to the old army connections. He is looking for a quartermaster position, and he makes food purchases for the "Invincible Armada" - the so-called Spanish fleet of one hundred and thirty warships, assembled to defeat the English filibusters and to help the English Catholics. There were one hundred and eighty people on the ships alone! One of them proclaimed: "The Lord God himself will lead us, whose cause and most holy faith we defend, and with such a Captain we have nothing to fear." Alas, the armada was defeated, and Cervantes had to become a food buyer for the Indian fleet. He had neither affection nor ability for business, was accused of embezzlement and spent several years in prison.
Cervantes lived the life of a soldier, a famous writer and a great sinner, a life he called "a long imprudence" and leaving which he "carried on his shoulders a stone with an inscription that read the destruction of his hopes." On April 23, 1616, in Madrid, Miguel de Cervantes met death as a true Christian, having managed to take the veil before his death.
He was so alien to everything material, tangible, that even the tombstone on his grave was nameless, and only in 1835 did the Latin inscription “To Miguel Cervantes Saavedra, king of Spanish poets” appear on it.
Here's what is important: fighting and fighting, trading and burning, serving time in the galleys and in prison, Cervantes did not leave literary creativity. True, he could not print. All the vast life experience, emotional experiences, ideas of honor and nobility, longing for lost ideals - all this was expressed in the first part of Don Quixote, published in 1604. The success was overwhelming - in one year the novel was reprinted four times. Translations into other languages followed, but along with fame came the envy of enemies, slander, new persecution by the authorities ... However, literary activity had already become the main business of Cervantes.
After 1604, he published the second part of Don Quixote, short stories and dramatic works, the poem Journey to Parnassus, and only after the death of Cervantes did his new novel Persiles and Sigismond see the light of day. The second volume of Don Quixote was structured differently than the first - it did not contain inserted short stories. The difference in the time of writing between them had an effect - almost eight years.
Source (abridged): Literature: Grade 9: in 2 hours, Part 1 / B.A. Lanin, L.Yu. Ustinov; ed. B.A. Lanina. - 2nd ed., corrected. and additional - M.: Ventana-Graf, 2016
>Biographies of writers and poets
Miguel Cervantes is an outstanding Spanish writer of the 16th century, the author of the world-famous novel about Don Quixote of Laman. Born September 29, 1547 in Alcala de Henares in a poor noble family. The father of the future writer was a surgeon. Miguel was the fourth child in a large family. There are suggestions that in his youth Cervantes studied at the University of Salamanca, as well as with the Jesuits of Seville or Cordoba. In 1569, after a serious street skirmish, he fled to Rome, where he worked for some time in the retinue of Cardinal Acquaviva.
In 1571, Cervantes took part in a naval battle and was seriously wounded in the forearm. After that, his left arm remained forever inactive. He took part in many sea expeditions, visited Tunisia, Spain and even in Algerian captivity for five years. In 1580, he was finally able to return to his homeland. In December 1584 he married Catalina de Palacios. In the same year, an illegitimate daughter was born to him by another woman. As a retired soldier, he decided to devote himself to the literary arts. Cervantes' first plays were not very successful on the stage. Recognition came with the pastoral novel Galatea (1585).
However, there was no large income from writing, so Cervantes moved to Seville and took a job as a food procurement commissioner. He kept the documentation carelessly, for which he was arrested more than once. During one of his stays in prison, an image of a man capable of chivalrous deeds appeared in his head. This was the intention of Don Quixote. He worked on his main book over the years, opening up new perspectives for the plot. From 1600 to 1604 he worked diligently on the creation of the first part of the novel. In 1604 he moved to Valladolid, from where he negotiated with a Madrid bookseller.
At the end of 1604, "The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of Laman" came out in a small edition. The novel was undoubtedly a success. This is evidenced at least by the fact that soon a second edition appeared in Madrid. The author himself has twice republished his book with author's corrections. Don Quixote and Sancho Panza became national heroes and participants in carnival processions in the cities of Spain. The financial situation of the writer, however, did not improve in any way, but on the contrary, a hostile attitude towards him manifested itself with greater force. For the last decade of his life, he worked hard and published new works. Miguel Cervantes died of dropsy on April 23, 1616, the same day as the great Shakespeare.
Spanish Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
world famous spanish writer
Miguel de Cervantes
The famous Spanish writer, author of Don Quixote, was born in 1547. It is known that he was baptized on October 9; perhaps the date of birth was September 29, St. Miguel. His family, noble but poor, lived in the town of Alcala de Henares. When Miguel grew up, his parents were close to ruin, so he entered the service of Giulio Acquaviva y Aragon, the ambassador of the Pope, worked for him as a housekeeper. Together they left Madrid for Rome in 1569.
Under Acquaviva, Cervantes stayed for about a year, and in the second half of 1570 he became a member of the Spanish army, a regiment stationed in Italy. This period of his biography took him 5 years and had a significant impact on his later life, since Cervantes had the opportunity to get to know Italy, its richest culture, and social order. The famous naval battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571 was also significant for Cervantes, because. he was wounded, as a result of which only his right arm remained active. He left the hospital in Messina only in the spring of 1572, but continued his military service.
In 1575, Miguel and his brother Rodrigo, also a soldier, were captured by pirates on a ship bound for Spain from Naples. They were sold into slavery and ended up in Algiers. To avoid heavy punishments and death, Cervantes was helped by the presence of letters of recommendation to the king. Four attempts to escape ended in failure, and only 5 years later, in 1580, Christian missionaries helped him gain freedom.
A life full of misadventures was replaced by the monotony of the civil service, the constant search for a livelihood. The beginning of literary activity also belongs to this period. Almost 40-year-old Cervantes wrote in 1585 the pastoral novel "Galatea" and about 30 plays, which did not make much impression on the public. The income from writing was too small, and the writer moved from Madrid to Seville, where he was hired to serve as a commissioner for food procurement. During the 6-year period of service, he had to be arrested three times: the negligence of documentation had such consequences.
In 1603, Cervantes retired, the next year he moved from Seville to Valladolid, which was the temporary capital of Spain. In 1606, Madrid was proclaimed the main city of the kingdom - Cervantes moved there, and the most successful period in terms of creativity is associated with this city in his biography. In 1605, the first part of Cervantes' greatest novel, The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha, was published, which, being a parody of chivalric romances, became a real encyclopedia of the life of Spain in the 17th century, a literary work filled with the deepest philosophical and social content. The name of its protagonist has long become a household name. World fame came to Cervantes far from immediately; the author of Don Quixote was known more as a person with rich life experience who survived the Algerian captivity.
The second part of the novel was written only 10 years later, and in this interval a number of works are published that strengthen his literary fame: the second most important work is Edifying Novels (1613), a collection of 8 comedies and 8 interludes. At the end of the creative path, a love-adventure novel appeared under the name "The Wanderings of Persilius and Sikhismund". Despite his fame, Cervantes remained a poor man, he lived in the Madrid area for the low-income.
In 1609 he became a member of the Brotherhood of Servants of Holy Communion; his two sisters and wife took monastic vows. He did the same - became a monk - and Cervantes himself literally on the eve of death. On April 23, 1616, while in Madrid, the author of the “knight of the sad image” died of dropsy. An interesting detail: on the same day, the life of another famous writer, W. Shakespeare, ended. Bad luck haunted Cervantes even after his death: the absence of an inscription on his grave led to the fact that for a very long time the burial place remained unknown.
Miguel Cervantes was born into a family of impoverished nobles, in the city of Alcala de Henares. His father, hidalgo Rodrigo de Cervantes, was a modest doctor, his mother, Doña Leonor de Cortina, the daughter of a nobleman who had lost his fortune. There were seven children in their family, Miguel was the fourth child. Very little is known about Cervantes' early life. The date of his birth is September 29, 1547 (the day of the Archangel Michael). This date was established approximately on the basis of the records of the church book and the tradition that existed then to give the child a name in honor of the saint, whose feast falls on his birthday. It is authentically known that Cervantes was baptized on October 9, 1547 in the church of Santa Maria la Mayor in the city of Alcala de Henares.
Some biographers claim that Cervantes studied at the University of Salamanca, but there is no convincing evidence for this version. There is also an unconfirmed version that he studied with the Jesuits in Cordoba or Seville.
According to Abraham Chaim, president of the Sephardic community in Jerusalem, Cervantes' mother came from a family of baptized Jews. Cervantes' father was from the nobility, but in his hometown of Alcala de Henares, the house of his ancestors, which is located in the center of the hooderia, that is, the Jewish quarter. The Cervantes House is located in the former Jewish part of the city.
The reasons that prompted Cervantes to leave Castile remain unknown. Whether he was a student, or a fugitive from justice, or a royal arrest warrant for wounding Antonio de Siguru in a duel, is another mystery of his life. In any case, when he left for Italy, he did what other young Spaniards did for their careers in one way or another. Rome revealed its church rituals and grandeur to the young writer. In a city teeming with ancient ruins, Cervantes discovered ancient art and also concentrated his attention on Renaissance art, architecture and poetry (his knowledge of Italian literature can be seen in his works). He was able to find in the achievements of the ancient world a powerful impetus for the revival of art. Thus, the enduring love for Italy, which is visible in his later work, was a kind of desire to return to the early period of the Renaissance.
By 1570, Cervantes was enrolled as a soldier in the Spanish Marine Regiment stationed in Naples. He stayed there for about a year before entering active service. In September 1571, Cervantes sailed aboard the Marquis, part of the galley fleet of the Holy League, which on October 7 defeated the Ottoman flotilla at the Battle of Lepanto in the Gulf of Patras. Despite the fact that Cervantes had a fever that day, he refused to stay in bed and asked to fight. According to eyewitnesses, he said: I prefer, even when sick and in the heat, to fight like a good soldier ... and not hide under the protection of the deck". He fought bravely on board the ship and received three gunshot wounds - two in the chest and one in the forearm. The last wound deprived his left arm of mobility. In his poem "Journey to Parnassus" he had to say that he " lost the capacity of the left hand for the glory of the right(he was thinking about the success of the first part of Don Quixote). Cervantes always recalled with pride his participation in this battle: he believed that he had taken part in an event that would determine the course of European history.
There is another, unlikely, version of the loss of a hand. Due to the poverty of his parents, Cervantes received a meager education and, unable to find a livelihood, was forced to steal. Allegedly, it was for stealing that he was deprived of his hand, after which he had to leave for Italy. However, this version does not inspire confidence - if only because the hands of thieves at that time were no longer chopped off, as they were sent to the galleys, where both hands were required.
After the Battle of Lepanto, Miguel Cervantes remained in the hospital for 6 months until his wounds had healed enough to allow him to continue his service. From 1572 to 1575 he continued his service, being mainly in Naples. In addition, he participated in expeditions to Corfu and Navarino, witnessed the capture of Tunisia and La Goulette by the Turks in 1574. In addition, Cervantes was in Portugal and also carried out business trips to Oran (1580s); served in Seville.
The Duke de Sesse, presumably in 1575, gave Miguel letters of introduction (lost by Miguel during his capture) for the king and ministers, as he reported in his certificate of July 25, 1578. He also asked the king to provide mercy and help to the brave soldier.
In September 1575, Miguel Cervantes and his brother Rodrigo were returning from Naples to Barcelona aboard the galley "Sun" (la Galera del Sol). On the morning of September 26, on the way to the Catalan coast, the galley was attacked by Algerian corsairs. The attackers were resisted, as a result of which many members of the Sun team were killed, and the rest were taken prisoner and taken to Algeria. Letters of recommendation found in Miguel Cervantes led to an increase in the amount of the required ransom. In Algerian captivity, Cervantes spent 5 years (1575-1580), tried to escape four times and was only miraculously not executed. In captivity, he was often subjected to various torments.
Father Rodrigo de Cervantes, according to his petition of March 17, 1578, indicated that his son "was captured in a galley" Sun“, under the command of Carrillo de Quesada,” and that he “was wounded by two arquebus shots in the chest, and was injured in his left arm, which he cannot use.” The father did not have the funds to ransom Miguel due to the fact that he had previously ransomed his other son, Rodrigo, who was also on that ship, from captivity. A witness to this petition, Mateo de Santisteban, noted that he had known Miguel for eight years, and met him when he was 22 or 23 years old, on the day of the battle of Lepanto. He testified that Miguel " on the day of the battle he was sick and had a fever", and he was advised to stay in bed, but he decided to take part in the battle. For distinction in battle, the captain rewarded him with four ducats on top of his usual pay.
The news (in the form of letters) about Miguel's stay in Algerian captivity was brought by the soldier Gabriel de Castañeda, a resident of the Carriedo mountain valley from the village of Salazar. According to his information, Miguel was in captivity for about two years (that is, since 1575) with a Greek converted to Islam, captain Arnautriomas.
Miguel's mother's petition of 1580 reported that she requested " to authorize the export of 2,000 ducats in the form of goods from the Kingdom of Valencia for the ransom of her son.
On October 10, 1580, a notarial deed was drawn up in Algiers in the presence of Miguel Cervantes and 11 witnesses in order to redeem him from captivity. On October 22, a monk from the Order of the Holy Trinity (Trinitarian) Juan Gil "The Liberator of Captives" compiled a report based on this notarial act confirming Cervantes' merits to the king.
After being released from captivity, Miguel served with his brother in Portugal, as well as with the Marquis de Santa Cruz.
By order of the king, Miguel made a trip to Yerevan in the 1590s.
In Seville, Cervantes was for some time an agent for Antonio Guevara, the royal commissioner for the American Navy. This new life was a hard test for him; he had to leave his favorite literary pursuits and reading, which served him as a rest from work; I could only occasionally see my family. His time was spent traveling around the villages and villages of Andalusia and Grenada, where he bought butter, grain bread and other products to supply the fleet. These activities did not suit his inclinations at all, and he suffered, feeling out of place.
Nevertheless, Cervantes fell in love with Seville. He liked the fact that no one here knew him, that he could at will get involved in the crowd, which his experienced eye observed with curiosity. During the ten years that Cervantes spent in Seville, this city became his second home. He studied in detail every corner of Seville, the customs and composition of its population.
On May 21, 1590, in Madrid, Miguel petitions the Council of the Indies for a vacancy in the American colonies, in particular in " Auditor's Office of the New Kingdom of Granada or the Governorate of the Province of Soconusco in Guatemala, or the Accountant of the Galleys of Cartagena, or the Corregidor of the City of La Paz”, and all because he still has not received favors for his long (22 years) service to the Crown. The Chairman of the Council of the Indies on June 6, 1590, left a note on the petition that the submitter " deserves to be given some kind of service and can be trusted».
In the prologue of the Instructive Novels in 1613, Miguel de Cervantes wrote:
Under the portrait, my friend could write: “The man you see here, with an oval face, brown hair, an open and large forehead, a cheerful look and a humpbacked, although correct nose; with a silver beard, which twenty years ago was still golden; long mustache, small mouth; with teeth that are not very rare, but not dense either, because he has only six of them, and, moreover, very unsightly and poorly spaced, because there is no correspondence between them; ordinary growth - neither big nor small; with a good complexion, rather fair than swarthy; slightly stooped and heavy on his feet, he is the author of Galatea and Don Quixote of La Mancha, who, in imitation of Cesare Caporali of Perugia, wrote Journey to Parnassus and other works that go around distorted, and sometimes without the name of the composer. His colloquial name is Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. He served as a soldier for many years and spent five and a half years in captivity, where he managed to learn to endure misfortunes patiently. At the naval battle of Lepanto his hand was mutilated by a shot from an arquebus, and although this mutilation seems otherwise ugly, in his eyes it is beautiful, for he received it in one of the most famous battles that were known in past centuries and that can happen in future, fighting under the victorious banners of the son of the "Thunderstorm of Wars" - the blessed memory of Charles the Fifth.
Miguel de Cervantes. Instructive novels. Translation from Spanish by B. Krzhevsky. Moscow. Publishing house "Fiction". 1983
On December 12, 1584, Miguel Cervantes married a nineteen-year-old noblewoman of the city of Esquivias, Catalina Palacios de Salazar, from whom he received a small dowry. He had one illegitimate daughter - Isabel de Cervantes.
The best of Cervantes' biographers, Schall, described him as follows: “The poet, windy and dreamy, lacked worldly skill, and he did not benefit either from his military campaigns or from his works. It was a selfless soul, incapable of gaining glory or counting on success, alternately enchanted or indignant, irresistibly surrendering to all its impulses ... He was seen naively in love with everything beautiful, generous and noble, indulging in romantic dreams or love dreams, ardent on the battlefield, then immersed in deep reflection, then carefree cheerful ... From the analysis of his life, he comes out with honor, full of generous and noble activity, an amazing and naive prophet, heroic in his disasters and kind in his genius.
Title="(!LANG: Miguel de Cervantes(Retratos de Españoles Ilustres, 1791).">!} Miguel de Cervantes (Retratos de Españoles Ilustres, 1791).
Miguel's literary activity began quite late, when he was 38 years old. The first work, the pastoral novel Galatea (1585), was followed by a large number of dramatic plays, which enjoyed poor success.
In order to earn his daily bread, the future author of Don Quixote enters the commissary service; he is assigned to buy provisions for the "Invincible Armada", then he is appointed as a collector of arrears. In the performance of these duties, he suffers great setbacks. Having entrusted public money to one banker who fled with them, Cervantes was imprisoned in 1597 on charges of embezzlement. Five years later, he was destined to be imprisoned again on charges of money abuse. His life in those years was a whole chain of severe hardships, hardships and disasters.
In the midst of all this, he does not stop his writing activity until he prints anything. The wanderings prepare the material for his future work, serving as a means for studying Spanish life in its various manifestations.
From 1598 to 1603 there is almost no news of the life of Cervantes. In 1603, he appeared in Valladolid, where he was engaged in small private affairs that gave him a meager income, and in 1604 the first part of the novel The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha was published, which was a huge success in Spain (the first part sold out in a few weeks). edition and 4 others in the same year) and abroad (translations into many languages). However, it did not improve the author's financial situation in the least, but only increased the hostile attitude towards him, expressed in ridicule, slander, and persecution.
From that time until his death, the literary activity of Cervantes did not stop: between 1604 and 1616, the second part of Don Quixote appeared, all the short stories, many dramatic works (The Jealous Old Man, Theater of Miracles, Labyrinth of Love, etc. .), the poem "Journey to Parnassus" and the novel "Persiles and Sichismund" published after the death of the author was written.
Almost on his deathbed, Cervantes did not stop working; a few days before his death, he took the vows as a monk. On April 22, 1616, life ended (he died of dropsy), which the bearer himself in his philosophical humor called “long imprudence” and, leaving which, he “carried away a stone on his shoulders with an inscription in which the destruction of his hopes was read.” However, according to the customs of the time, the date of his death was recorded as the date of his funeral - 23 April. Because of this, it is sometimes said that the date of Cervantes' death coincides with the date of the death of another great writer - William Shakespeare, in fact, Cervantes died 11 days earlier (since, at that time, the Gregorian calendar was in effect in Spain, and the Julian calendar in England). April 23, 1616 is sometimes considered the end of the Renaissance. Cervantes died in extreme poverty, his tomb is lost.
Cervantes died in Madrid, where he had moved from Valladolid shortly before his death. The irony of fate pursued the great humorist behind the coffin: his grave remained lost, since there was not even an inscription on his tomb (in one of the churches). The remains of the writer were discovered and identified only in March 2015 in one of the crypts in the monastery de las Trinitarias. In June of the same year they were reburied.
The monument to Cervantes was erected in Madrid only in 1835 (sculptor Antonio Sola); on the pedestal are two inscriptions in Latin and Spanish: "To Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, king of the Spanish poets, year M.D.CCC.XXXV."
The world significance of Cervantes rests mainly on his novel Don Quixote, a full, comprehensive expression of his diverse genius. Conceived as a satire on the chivalric novels that flooded all literature at that time, which the author definitely declares in the Prologue, this work little by little, perhaps even regardless of the will of the author, turned into a deep psychological analysis of human nature, two sides of mental activity - noble, but crushed by the reality of idealism and realistic practicality.
Miguel de Cervantes brief biography is set out in this article.
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra- famous Spanish writer, author of the novel "The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha".
Born presumably 29 September 1547 in a family of impoverished nobles, in the city of Alcala de Henares. When Miguel grew up, his parents were close to ruin, so he entered the service of Giulio Acquaviva y Aragon, the ambassador of the Pope, worked for him as a housekeeper. Together they left Madrid for Rome in 1569.
Under Acquaviva, Cervantes stayed for about a year, and in the second half of 1570 he became a member of the Spanish army, a regiment stationed in Italy. This period of his biography took him 5 years and had a significant impact on his later life, since Cervantes had the opportunity to get to know Italy, its richest culture, and social order. The famous naval battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571 was also significant for Cervantes, because. he was wounded, as a result of which only his right arm remained active. He left the hospital in Messina only in the spring of 1572, but continued his military service.
In 1575, Miguel and his brother Rodrigo, also a soldier, were captured by pirates on a ship bound for Spain from Naples. They were sold into slavery and ended up in Algiers. To avoid heavy punishments and death, Cervantes was helped by the presence of letters of recommendation to the king. Four attempts to escape ended in failure, and only 5 years later, in 1580, Christian missionaries helped him gain freedom.
A life full of misadventures was replaced by the monotony of the civil service, the constant search for a livelihood. The beginning of literary activity also belongs to this period. Almost 40-year-old Cervantes wrote in 1585 the pastoral novel "Galatea" and about 30 plays, which did not make much impression on the public. The income from writing was too small, and the writer moved from Madrid to Seville, where he was hired to serve as a commissioner for food procurement. During the 6-year period of service, he had to be arrested three times: the negligence of documentation had such consequences.
In 1603, Cervantes retired, the next year he moved from Seville to Valladolid, which was the temporary capital of Spain. In 1606, Madrid was proclaimed the main city of the kingdom - Cervantes moved there, and the most successful period in terms of creativity is associated with this city in his biography.
In 1605, the first part of Cervantes' greatest novel was published - "The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha", which, being a parody of chivalric romances, became a real encyclopedia of the life of Spain in the 17th century. But world fame did not come to Cervantes immediately.
The second part of the novel was written only 10 years later, and in this interval a number of works are published that strengthen his literary fame: the second most important work is Instructive Novels (1613), a collection of 8 comedies and 8 interludes. At the end of the creative path, a love-adventure novel appeared under the name "The Wanderings of Persilius and Sikhismund". Despite his fame, Cervantes remained a poor man, he lived in the Madrid area for the low-income.
In 1609 he became a member of the Brotherhood of Servants of Holy Communion; his two sisters and wife took monastic vows. Did the same - became a monk - and Cervantes himself literally on the eve of death.
On December 12, 1584, Miguel Cervantes married a nineteen-year-old noblewoman of the city of Esquivias, Catalina Palacios de Salazar, from whom he received a small dowry. He had one illegitimate daughter - Isabel de Cervantes.
