Introduction

Abstract

In the second decade of the new millennium we are witnessing the celebration of most of the centenaries related to the life and work of Miguel de Cervantes. With the exception of the dates of the writer's birth (1547) and the publication of La Galatea (1585), between 2013 and 2017 we are concentrating on the four hundred years since the publication of the Novelas ejemplares (1613), the Viaje del Parnaso (1614), the Ocho
comedias y ocho entremeses y la Segunda Parte del Quijote (1615) and Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda (1617). No less significant is the date in 2016 when we remember the death of the Alcalá-born writer, which occurred before he finished his last novel. Finally, to complete the panorama of Cervantes' anniversaries, we add the fourth centenary of the appearance of the book by the supposed Fernández de Avellaneda, which, in fact, became an essential component of the Second Part of Cervantes' masterpiece.