At the end of the 17th century Spanish novel Don Quixote de La Mancha, the author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra warns a plagiarizing rival author “to let Don Quixote’s weary and moldering bones rest in the grave, and not seek, against all canons of death, to carry him to Old Castile, compelling him to leave the tomb where he really and truly lies stretched out full length, powerless to make a third expedition and new sally.”
It turns out Cervantes was right to give a warning, but not necessarily to a rival author. Archaeologists digging in a church in Madrid’s Literary Quarter in 2015 found a coffin marked with tacks in the form of the initials M.C. They surmised these initials may stand for Miguel de Cervantes, the exact location of whose remains was lost in time. It took a few more months before they could say with any certainty if the grave actually belonged to the famed author. Let’s follow their, and Cervantes’ journey...
Portrait of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra by Juan de Jáuregui. (Public Domain)