Miguel de Cervantes

Cervantes grew up outside of Madrid, Spain, though little is known about his early life. In 1569, Cervantes moved to Rome, and in 1570, he enlisted as a soldier, fighting bravely in the Battle of Lepanto. In 1584, he married a much younger woman, and they lived primarily in Seville for the next several years. Cervantes published La Galatea, his first major work, in 1585, and his plays began playing on the stages of Madrid around the same time. Cervantes’s magnum opus was Don Quixote, today considered the first modern European novel. The wildly successful book was published in two volumes, in 1605 and 1615. Cervantes continued writing novels, plays, and poetry, living in Madrid from 1606 until his death in 1616.