The Cervantes Collection

1605 – Don Quixote Conquers Europe

In 1604 the publisher Francisco de Robles became aware that an old family friend, Miguel de Cervantes, had created a new and unusual work entitled Don Quixote. It is difficult to know precisely when the finished manuscript was actually given to Robles, but we know that the privilege to print the work was issued by the authorities at the Royal Court in Valladolid on 26 September 1604. Robles engaged Juan de la Cuesta to print Don Quixote in Madrid, and it seems likely that the printer was occupied during October and November, into December, with the book. The errata statement is dated 1 December 1604, in Alcalá, and the tassa 20 December, in Valladolid. Don Quixote was available for sale in Robles’ shops in the first days of 1605. Robles did not believe Don Quixote would sell particularly well, as the privilege for only Castile had been obtained, and though we cannot be certain of the size of the print run, it was fairly small. Author and publisher alike must have been astounded to learn they had a best-seller of some magnitude on their hands. Robles, who had purchased all rights to Don Quixote from Cervantes, instructed Cuesta to begin setting type for another edition immediately, but Cuesta was hard pressed to print the entire book himself and he had to contract out a portion to the Imprenta Real. The privileges for Aragon and Portugal were quickly obtained, on 9 February 1605, but, even so, two different printers in Lisbon, Jorge Rodríguez and Pedro Crasbeeck, were each already busy turning out new editions of Don Quixote. Another edition was also being prepared in Valencia by Pedro Patricio Mey. By August 1605 there were no fewer than five editions of Don Quixote in print. The novel was being read all over Europe and even as far away as Peru. Spanish editions were printed in France, Italy and the Low Countries, and many translations followed. In 1612 Don Quixote was translated into English, in 1616 into French, in 1625 into Italian, in 1657 into Dutch, and in 1669 into German. It has subsequently been translated into all the major languages of the world and can justly be called the first universal novel.