Editing Don Quixote (section)

==Background==
The cave of [[Medrano]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Prints of CERVANTES SaVEDRA, Miguel de (1547-1616) |url=https://www.prints-online.com/cervantes-savedra-miguel-1547-1616-8259921.html |access-date=2025-01-17 |website=Mary Evans Prints Online Photo Prints |language=en}}</ref> (also known as the ''casa de Medrano'') in [[Argamasilla de Alba]], which has been known since the beginning of the 17th century, and according to the tradition of Argamasilla de Alba, was the prison of Miguel de Cervantes and the place where he conceived and began to write his famous work "''Don Quixote de la Mancha''."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-01-06 |title=Casa – Cueva de Medrano - Ruta del Vino de La Mancha |url=https://www.rutadelvinodelamancha.com/argamasilla-de-alba/casa-cueva-de-medrano/,%20https://www.rutadelvinodelamancha.com/argamasilla-de-alba/casa-cueva-de-medrano/ |access-date=2024-07-01 |language=es-ES}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Visita Museo Casa de Medrano {{!}} TCLM |url=https://www.turismocastillalamancha.es/patrimonio/museo-casa-de-medrano-4361/descripcion/ |access-date=2024-09-13 |website=www.turismocastillalamancha.es |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Casa de Medrano |url=https://www.ellugardelamancha.es/turismo/casa-de-medrano/ |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=Turismo Argamasilla de Alba |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=CERVANTES en la BNE - Casa de Medrano que sirvió de prisión a Cervantes en Argamasilla de Alba |url=http://cervantes.bne.es/es/exposicion/obras/casa-medrano-que-sirvio-prision-cervantes-argamasilla-alba |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=cervantes.bne.es |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Cueva Prisión de Medrano {{!}} Portal de Cultura de Castilla-La Mancha |url=https://cultura.castillalamancha.es/patrimonio/catalogo-patrimonio-cultural/cueva-prision-de-medrano |access-date=2024-09-13 |website=cultura.castillalamancha.es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Cueva Prisión de Medrano (Argamasilla de Alba). Turismo Ciudad Real |url=https://www.turismociudadreal.com/ruta/30/cueva-prision-de-medrano |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=Turismo Ciudad Real |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-04-27 |title=Cueva de Medrano: leyenda y realidad del origen del Quijote |url=https://www.lanzadigital.com/cultura/cueva-de-medrano-leyenda-y-realidad-del-origen-del-quijote/ |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=www.lanzadigital.com |language=es}}</ref>

===Sources===
Sources for ''Don Quixote'' include the Castilian novel ''[[Amadis de Gaula]]'', which had enjoyed great popularity throughout the 16th century. Another prominent source, which Cervantes evidently admires more, is ''[[Tirant lo Blanch]]'', which the priest describes in Chapter VI of ''Quixote'' as "the best book in the world." (However, the sense in which it was "best" is much debated among scholars. Since the 19th century, the passage has been called "the most difficult passage of ''Don Quixote''".) The scene of the book burning provides a list of Cervantes's likes and dislikes about literature.

Cervantes makes a number of references to the Italian poem ''[[Orlando furioso]]''. In chapter 10 of the first part of the novel, Don Quixote says he must take the magical helmet of [[Mambrino]], an episode from Canto I of ''Orlando'', and itself a reference to [[Matteo Maria Boiardo]]'s ''[[Orlando innamorato]]''.<ref>''Don Quijote de la Mancha'', Miguel de Cervantes, Edición de Florencio Sevilla Arroyo, Área 2002 p. 161.</ref> The interpolated story in chapter 33 of Part four of the First Part is a retelling of a tale from Canto 43 of ''Orlando'', regarding a man who tests the fidelity of his wife.<ref>"Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes, translated and annotated by Edith Grossman, p. 272.</ref>

Another important source appears to have been Apuleius's ''[[The Golden Ass]]'', one of the earliest known novels, a picaresque from late classical antiquity. The wineskins episode near the end of the interpolated tale "The Curious Impertinent" in chapter 35 of the first part of ''Don Quixote'' is a clear reference to Apuleius, and recent scholarship suggests that the moral philosophy and the basic trajectory of Apuleius's novel are fundamental to Cervantes' program.<ref>See chapter 2 of E. C. Graf's ''Cervantes and Modernity''.</ref> Similarly, many of both Sancho's adventures in Part II and proverbs throughout are taken from popular Spanish and Italian folklore.

Cervantes' experiences as a [[galley slave]] in Algiers also influenced ''Quixote''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Miguel-de-Cervantes|title=Miguel de Cervantes {{!}} Biography, Books, Plays, & Facts|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2020-02-13}}</ref>

Medical theories may have also influenced Cervantes' literary process. Cervantes had familial ties to the distinguished medical community. His father, Rodrigo de Cervantes, and his great-grandfather, Juan Díaz de Torreblanca, were surgeons. Additionally, his sister, Andrea de Cervantes, was a nurse.<ref name="Lopez-Munoz">Lopez-Munoz, F. "The Mad and the Demented in the Literary Works of Cervantes: On Cervantes' Sources of Medical Information about Neuropsychiatry". ''Revista de Neurologia'', vol. 46, 2008, pp. 489-501: 490.</ref> He also befriended many individuals involved in the medical field, in that he knew medical author Francisco Díaz, an expert in urology, and royal doctor [[Antonio Ponce de Santa Cruz]] who served as a personal doctor to both Philip III and Philip IV of Spain.<ref name = "Palma">Palma, Jose-Alberto, Palma, Fermin. "Neurology and Don Quixote". ''European Neurology'', vol. 68, 2012, pp. 247-57: 253.</ref>

Apart from the personal relations Cervantes maintained within the medical field, Cervantes' personal life was defined by an interest in medicine. He frequently visited patients from the Hospital de Inocentes in Sevilla.<ref name = "Lopez-Munoz" /> Furthermore, Cervantes explored medicine in his personal library. His library contained more than 200 volumes and included books like ''Examen de Ingenios'', by [[Juan Huarte]] and ''Practica y teórica de cirugía'', by Dionisio Daza Chacón that defined medical literature and medical theories of his time.<ref name="Palma" />

Researchers Isabel Sanchez Duque and Francisco Javier Escudero have found that Cervantes was a friend of the family Villaseñor, which was involved in a combat with Francisco de Acuña. Both sides combated disguised as medieval knights in the road from [[El Toboso]] to [[Miguel Esteban]] in 1581. They also found a person called Rodrigo Quijada, who bought the title of nobility of "hidalgo", and created diverse conflicts with the help of a squire.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.elmundo.es/cronica/2014/12/07/54830651268e3e242b8b4576.html|title=Don Quijote era Acuña el Procurador|newspaper=El Mundo | location=Madrid}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2014/12/07/actualidad/1417983722_234613.html|title=Don Quijote de La Mancha: ¿realidad o ficción?|newspaper=El País | location=Madrid}}</ref>

===Spurious ''Second Part'' by Avellaneda===
[[File:Don Quixote Illustration I.jpg|thumb|Illustration to ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', Volume II]]

It is not certain when Cervantes began writing ''Part Two'' of ''Don Quixote'', but he had probably not proceeded much further than Chapter LIX by late July 1614. In about September, however, a spurious Part Two, entitled ''Second Volume of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha: by the Licenciado (doctorate) [[Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda]], of [[Tordesillas]]'', was published in [[Tarragona]] by an unidentified [[Aragon]]ese who was an admirer of [[Lope de Vega]], rival of Cervantes.<ref name="Ei">{{cite book|first=Daniel|last=Eisenberg|title=Cervantes, Lope and Avellaneda|location=Aditya Yadav 🇮🇳🇮🇳41|url=http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/hisp/56826142007993728511191/p0000002.htm#I_7_.|access-date=7 August 2014|archive-date=24 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924114455/http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/hisp/56826142007993728511191/p0000002.htm#I_7_.|url-status=dead}}</ref> It was translated into [[English language|English]] by William Augustus Yardley, Esquire in two volumes in 1784.

Some modern scholars suggest that Don Quixote's fictional encounter with Avellaneda's book in Chapter 59 of Part II should not be taken as the date that Cervantes encountered it, which may have been much earlier.

Avellaneda's identity has been the subject of many theories, but there is no consensus as to who he was. In its prologue, the author gratuitously insulted Cervantes, who took offense and responded; the last half of Chapter LIX and most of the following chapters of Cervantes's ''Segunda Parte'' lend some insight into the effects upon him; Cervantes manages to work in some subtle digs at Avellaneda's own work, and in his preface to Part II, comes very near to criticizing Avellaneda directly.

In his introduction to ''The Portable Cervantes'', [[Samuel Putnam]], a noted translator of Cervantes' novel, calls Avellaneda's version "one of the most disgraceful performances in history".<ref>Cervantes, Miguel, [https://archive.org/details/portablecervante0000cerv <!-- quote=putnam portable cervantes. --> ''The Portable Cervantes''], ed. Samuel Putnam (New York: Penguin, [1951] 1978), p. viii.</ref>

The second part of Cervantes' ''Don Quixote'', finished as a direct result of the Avellaneda book, has come to be regarded by some literary critics<ref>{{cite book|last=Putnam|first=Samuel|title=Introduction to The Portable Cervantes|year=1976|publisher=Penguin|location=Harmondsworth|isbn=978-0-14-015057-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/portablecervante0000cerv/page/14 14]|url=https://archive.org/details/portablecervante0000cerv/page/14}}</ref> as superior to the first part, because of its greater depth of characterization, its discussions, mostly between Quixote and Sancho, on diverse subjects, and its philosophical insights. In Cervantes's ''Segunda Parte'', Don Quixote visits a printing-house in Barcelona and finds Avellaneda's ''Second Part'' being printed there, in an early example of [[metafiction]].<ref name=":0">Lyons, M. (2011). ''Books: a living history''. London: Thames & Hudson.</ref> Don Quixote and Sancho Panza also meet one of the characters from Avellaneda's book, Don Alvaro Tarfe, and make him swear that the "other" Quixote and Sancho are impostors.<ref>{{Cite web |title=How Don Quixote Handled an Unauthorized Sequel |url=https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2015/05/18/how-don-quixote-handled-an-unauthorized-sequel/ |access-date=May 5, 2023 |website=Plagiarism Today|date=18 May 2015 }}</ref>

===Setting===
====Location====
[[File:Bronze statues of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.jpg|thumb|upright|Bronze statues of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, at the {{Lang|es|[[Plaza de España (Madrid)|Plaza de España]]|italic=no}} in Madrid]]
Cervantes' story takes place on the plains of [[La Mancha]], specifically the ''[[comarca]]'' of [[Campo de Montiel (Ciudad Real)|Campo de Montiel]].

{{blockquote|text=''En un lugar de La Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor.''<br />(Somewhere in La Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing.)|sign=Miguel de Cervantes|source=''Don Quixote'', Volume I, Chapter I (translated by [[Edith Grossman]])}}

The location of the village to which Cervantes alludes in the opening sentence of ''Don Quixote'' has been the subject of debate since its publication over four centuries ago. Indeed, Cervantes deliberately omits the name of the village, giving an explanation in the final chapter:

{{blockquote|text=Such was the end of the Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha, whose village Cide Hamete would not indicate precisely, in order to leave all the towns and villages of La Mancha to contend among themselves for the right to adopt him and claim him as a son, as the seven cities of Greece contended for Homer.|sign=Miguel de Cervantes|source=''Don Quixote'', Volume II, Chapter 74}}

In 2004, a team of academics from [[Complutense University]], led by Francisco Parra Luna, Manuel Fernández Nieto, and Santiago Petschen Verdaguer, deduced that the village was that of [[Villanueva de los Infantes, Ciudad Real|Villanueva de los Infantes]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article404423.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110906215210/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article404423.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=6 September 2011|title=To Quixote's village at the speed of a nag|newspaper=Times Online | location=London}}</ref> Their findings were published in a paper titled "'''El Quijote' como un sistema de distancias/tiempos: hacia la localización del lugar de la Mancha''", which was later published as a book: ''El enigma resuelto del Quijote''. The result was replicated in two subsequent investigations: "La determinación del lugar de la Mancha como problema estadístico" and "The Kinematics of the Quixote and the Identity of the 'Place in La Mancha'".<ref>{{cite web|title=La determinación del lugar de la Mancha como problema estadístico |location=Valencia |publisher=Department of Statistics, [[University of Málaga]] |language=es |url=http://dmle.cindoc.csic.es/pdf/BEIO_2006_22_01_04.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720140340/http://dmle.cindoc.csic.es/pdf/BEIO_2006_22_01_04.pdf |archive-date=20 July 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Kinematics of the Quixote and the Identity of the "Place in La Mancha" |page=7 |location=Valencia |publisher=Department of Applied Mathematics, [[University of Valencia]] |url=http://www.uv.es/pla/Quixote/Kinematics2.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718104059/http://www.uv.es/pla/Quixote/Kinematics2.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-18 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Translators of ''Don Quixote'', such as [[John Ormsby (translator)|John Ormsby]],<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gifford |first1=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GQW0VubfHBgC&q=Quixote+%22John+Ormsby%22++translation&pg=PA43 |title=The Quarterly Review |last2=Coleridge |first2=Sir John Taylor |last3=Lockhart |first3=John Gibson |last4=Elwin |first4=Whitwell |last5=MacPherson |first5=William |last6=Smith |first6=William |last7=Murray |first7=Sir John |last8=Prothero |first8=George Walter |year=1886 |access-date=2009-02-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110804233612/http://books.google.com/books?id=GQW0VubfHBgC&pg=PA43&dq=Quixote+%22John+Ormsby%22++translation#PPA49,M1 |archive-date=2011-08-04 |url-status=dead}}</ref> have commented that the region of [[La Mancha]] is one of the most desertlike, unremarkable regions of Spain, the least romantic and fanciful place that one would imagine as the home of a courageous knight.

On the other hand, as Borges points out:
{{blockquote|text=I suspect that in ''Don Quixote'', it does not rain a single time. The landscapes described by Cervantes have nothing in common with the landscapes of Castile: they are conventional landscapes, full of meadows, streams, and copses that belong in an Italian novel.|source= [[Jorge Luis Borges]]<ref>''Professor Borges: A Course on English Literature''. New Directions Publishing, 2013. {{ISBN|978-0811218757}}, p. 15.</ref>}}

The story also takes place in [[El Toboso]] where Don Quixote goes to seek [[Dulcinea del Toboso|Dulcinea]]'s blessings.

==== Historical context ====
''Don Quixote'' is said to reflect the Spanish society in which Cervantes lived and wrote.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Milton |first=Joyce |title=Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote |publisher=Barron's Educational Series, Inc. |year=1985 |isbn=0-8120-3512-7 |location=NY, USA |pages=20–22}}</ref> [[Hapsburg Spain|Spain's status as a world power]] was declining, and the Spanish national treasury was bankrupt due to expensive foreign wars.<ref name=":1" /> Spanish cultural dominance was also waning as the [[Protestant reformation|Protestant Reformation]] had put the Spanish Roman Catholic Church on the defensive, which had led to the establishment of the [[Spanish Inquisition]].<ref name=":1" /> Meanwhile, the ''hidalgo'' class was losing relevance because of changes in Spanish society which made the high ideals of [[chivalry]] obsolete.<ref name=":1" />