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"The housekeeper agreed, so great was the desire of the two women to see the death of those innocents; but the priest was not in favor of doing that without even reading the titles first" (Cervantes, Don Quixote I.VI, p. 46).

Don Quixote

Author: 

Miguel de Cervantes

1547 CE – 1616 CE

Miguel de Cervantes was born in 1547 in Alcalá de Henares, a little town outside of Madrid. His father was a surgeon and his mother is thought to have been of Jewish descent.  Little is known about his early years. Following a brief period of study in Madrid, where he published a few short works of poetry, and a short-lived sojourn to Rome, he enlisted in the army of the Holy league, established by the Catholic kingdoms of Europe in response to the expansion of the Ottoman Empire.

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