BY MIREYA CASTAÑEDA —Granma International staff writer—

ON September 26, 1604 a royal privilege was emitted in favor of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra that allowed him, three months later, to have printed his book Don Quixote de la Mancha, El ingenioso higalgo. The first edition appeared on January 16, 2005 and became what is nowadays called a bestseller.

The second part of the book was published in Madrid in 1615, and virtually became a posthumous work, as a few months later, on April 23, 1616, Cervantes died.

Don Quixote, as it is colloquially known, a literary monument that has become a Heritage of Humanity, was printed in Spanish on more than 30 occasions in the 17th century, 40 in the 18th, 200 in the 19th, and at a rate of three times per year in the 20th century. Given the 400th anniversary of that work, counting recent editions is impossible.

According to a documented website prepared by the José Martí National Library (www.bnjm.cu/quijote), in Cuba, Cervantes’ greatest work was published for the first time in 1605 (printed in the Diario de la Marina), and would not see the light again in relation to the island’s publishing houses until 1960 when, at Alejo Carpentier’s request, it was edited by the Imprenta Nacional. It was reprinted in 1972 (by the Cuban Book Institute), in 1974 and 1980 (Arte y Literatura Publishers) and in 1985 (Pueblo y Educación Publishers).

In its collection of rare and valuable books the National Library itself treasures around 20 volumes published between 1605 and 1888. According to the website information the 1605 edition was printed in Valencia, and the volume in question has Page 192 wrongly numbered. The library has a second edition of Don Quixote de la Mancha. El ingenioso cavallero, published in 1616. It likewise guards a 1869 copy published in Paris with etchings by Gustav Doré; a facsimile 1887 copy printed in Barcelona; and another from 1957, illustrated by Salvador Dalí.

It should be noted that one year after the publication of the adventures of El ingenioso hidalgo an edition was printed in Lisbon and then saw an early translation into English in the hands of Thomas Shelton, London, 1612, while the French version came out in 1614 in Paris, thanks to César Oudin, and the Italian in Venice, 1622, by Lorenzo Franciosini of Castelfiorentino.

Still in the 17th century, the novel was translated into German and Dutch; in the 18th, into Danish, Polish and Russian; and in later centuries, into the remainder of languages in use.

It is an accepted affirmation that Don Quixote is the most read book after the Bible. However, its author experienced much economic hardship and died in poverty, which is why the exact location of his grave in Madrid is unknown.

Cervantes’ work is acknowledged not only as the first novel, but the best of all novels, for its intrinsic value and as an inexhaustible source of inspiration. It is the modern novel.

Don Quixote rides throughout time and, in its literary immensity, is the favorite work of great writers of all periods, continents and trends. It was the preferred work of Dickens, Balzac, Flaubert, Stendhal, Dostoyevsky and Galdós, and in the 20th century, of Kafka, Joyce, Proust and Faulkner.

The Cuban poet Carilda Oliver Labra, National Literature Prize winner, described it as a lesson in life and affirmed that she enjoyed to the fullness "the ingenuity, the radiant imagination, the well-administered humor, the effectiveness of the language and unique style, and the way of bringing together reality and fiction and the philosophical meaning of human existence," the virtues to be perceived in El Quijote which, "allied to a rich craft, converted them into an exceptional book that has made Cervantes the grand gentleman of our language, loved by us today."

Scholars agree that it is a work that fascinates on account of its poetry, its extraordinary narrative universe containing all human life, its motor forces, its essential conflicts.

Don Miguel de Cervantes, the prince of geniuses, has made what would appear to be a chimera life itself.

Could it not be that many Quixotes, Sanchos and windmills have existed and still exist in the world.

SELF-PORTRAIT

In the prologue to the Novelas Ejemplares (Exemplary Stories), Miguel de Cervantes (Alcalá de Henares 1547- Madrid 1616) left his self-portrait for posterity.

"The man you see here, with an aquiline face, chestnut hair, a smooth and clear forehead, joyful eyes and a curved but well-proportioned nose; a silvery beard, which less than 20 years ago was golden; a large mustache; small mouth, teeth neither small nor large because I only have six, and those badly fitting and worse set because they are not in line with each other; a body between the two extremes, neither large nor small; a living color more white than dark; a somewhat stooped back, and not very light on the feet; this I say is the face of the author of La Galatea and Don Quixote de la Mancha, and the one who did the Viaje de Parnaso (Parnassus Journey), in an imitation of César Caporal Perusino, and other works adrift here and there, perhaps without the name of their owner. He is generally known as Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. He was a soldier for many years, and a prisoner for five and a half, where he learned to have patience in adversity. In the naval battle of Lepanto he lost his left hand from an aequebus, a wound that, while it looks ugly, he regards as beautiful, for having received it in the most memorable and lofty occasion seen in past centuries and probably in those to come, being active under the winning flags of Carlo V, son of the warrior king, blessed be his memory."