# Miguel de Cervantes' coffin possibly found **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 27, 2015, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miguel-de-cervantes-coffin-possibly-found/710993 "2015-01-27T10:30:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miguel-de-cervantes-coffin-possibly-found/710993/1 "2015-01-27T10:30:58Z")
I thought this an interesting find. More here: [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/don-quixote-author-miguel-de-cervantes-coffin-found-after-ninemonth-search-10003928.html](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/don-quixote-author-miguel-de-cervantes-coffin-found-after-ninemonth-search-10003928.html) Hopefully it turns out to be him. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miguel-de-cervantes-coffin-possibly-found/710993/2 "2015-01-27T16:14:23Z")
I thought that was interesting too. I liked that maybe-Cervantes was under tons of books. 🙂 I also had no idea that he’d had his left arm shot up and rendered useless, and spent 5 years as a slave. Neat stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miguel-de-cervantes-coffin-possibly-found/710993/3 "2015-01-27T16:49:12Z")
Will opening his coffin unleash the curse of Don Quixote on an unwitting Spain? :eek: Will life there begin to resemble a picaresque novel? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miguel-de-cervantes-coffin-possibly-found/710993/4 "2015-01-27T16:55:39Z")
> [@](#): > > “The penniless author was buried in April 1616 in the Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians, a nunnery in Madrid’s historic Barrio de las Letras quarter.” Its sounds like one Hell of a way to go. “Are your sure its him…?” “My friend, even after more than 400 years… that skull is STILL smiling…” ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miguel-de-cervantes-coffin-possibly-found/710993/5 "2015-01-27T17:00:05Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > I thought that was interesting too. I liked that maybe-Cervantes was under tons of books. 🙂 I also had no idea that he’d had his left arm shot up and rendered useless, and spent 5 years as a slave. Neat stuff. He is known as _“El Manco de Lepanto”_ (The One-Handed Man of Lepanto), just as Shakespeare is known as The Bard. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miguel-de-cervantes-coffin-possibly-found/710993/6 "2015-01-27T17:01:40Z")
Nice find; thanks for posting it. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miguel-de-cervantes-coffin-possibly-found/710993/7 "2015-01-27T17:45:51Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Will opening his coffin unleash the curse of Don Quixote on an unwitting Spain? :eek: > > Will life there begin to resemble a picaresque novel? :eek: The Quixote is not picaresque, but life in Spain has been full of _picardía_ and _picaresca_ since way before the genre was invented… _Barrio de las Letras_ means “Burough of Humanities” or, less literally but more appropriately, “Burough of the Writers”. It receives that name from the amount of famous writers who lived there during the _Siglo de Oro_, the Golden Century of Spanish arts. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miguel-de-cervantes-coffin-possibly-found/710993/8 "2015-01-27T18:31:37Z")
He should have plagiarized Will… > [@](#): > > Blessed be the man that spares these stones, > And cursed be he that moves my bones. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miguel-de-cervantes-coffin-possibly-found/710993/9 "2015-01-27T19:37:27Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > He is known as _“El Manco de Lepanto”_ (The One-Handed Man of Lepanto. “…and he’s going to the rodeo!” Does anybody remember the biopic with Horst Bucholz? Jose Ferer was his Turkish captor, but unlike in Lawrence of Arabia he kept it on a platonic level. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miguel-de-cervantes-coffin-possibly-found/710993/10 "2015-01-28T00:13:33Z")
Really. _Pícaros_ have been afoot and often in charge in Spain and its former empire for a while now… > [@dangermom](#): > > I thought that was interesting too. I liked that maybe-Cervantes was under tons of books. 🙂 I also had no idea that he’d had his left arm shot up and rendered useless, and spent 5 years as a slave. Neat stuff. Yep, dude knew what _real_ “adventure” could mean, and cost. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miguel-de-cervantes-coffin-possibly-found/710993/11 "2015-01-28T01:26:58Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > He should have plagiarized Will… That wouldn’t have been in keeping with Spanish burial practices. Moving bones to ossuaries is a very old custom. Unless you can afford a personal mausoleum, you know your bones will eventually be moved. > [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Jose Ferer Ferrer. Promise. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miguel-de-cervantes-coffin-possibly-found/710993/12 "2015-01-28T04:41:09Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > He is known as _“El Manco de Lepanto”_ (The One-Handed Man of Lepanto), just as Shakespeare is known as The Bard. And Cervantes was proud of that nickname; so much so that when Avellaneda, the alleged writer of the Apocryphal Quixote, wrote in his novel disparaging remarks to the war wound of Cervantes, Cervantes felt insulted and was more driven to finish the real sequel of Don Quixote to answer properly and devastatingly to Avelllaneda. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miguel-de-cervantes-coffin-possibly-found/710993/13 "2015-01-28T11:07:18Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > That wouldn’t have been in keeping with Spanish burial practices. Moving bones to ossuaries is a very old custom. Unless you can afford a personal mausoleum, you know your bones will eventually be moved. > > Ferrer. Promise. It wasn’t in keeping with English practice either. A curse on a grave of the early 17th century was very unusual. Still, not to go off topic but it’s noticeable that the greatest of Spanish writers(am I correct that he was viewed this way latterly during his life?) was buried in such an insignificant way. It makes Shakespeare’s burial almost a state funeral in comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miguel-de-cervantes-coffin-possibly-found/710993/14 "2015-01-28T16:20:45Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](#): > > It wasn’t in keeping with English practice either. A curse on a grave of the early 17th century was very unusual. Yeah, but the curse itself goes against the Spanish practice of moving the bones. It would be like saying “woe is he who puts salt on my fried egg!” Uh… they’re supposed to have salt… ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miguel-de-cervantes-coffin-possibly-found/710993/15 "2015-01-28T16:39:44Z")
I didn’t even know he was sick! ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miguel-de-cervantes-coffin-possibly-found/710993/16 "2015-01-28T17:56:00Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](#): > > It wasn’t in keeping with English practice either. A curse on a grave of the early 17th century was very unusual. And it probably wouldn’t be plagiarizing Shakespeare. There’s not much reason to think he wrote that couplet. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miguel-de-cervantes-coffin-possibly-found/710993/17 "2015-01-29T16:46:08Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](#): > > Still, not to go off topic but it’s noticeable that the greatest of Spanish writers(am I correct that he was viewed this way latterly during his life?) was buried in such an insignificant way. It makes Shakespeare’s burial almost a state funeral in comparison. All I know is, he wanted to be buried with that particular church because they had helped ransom him and his brother from slavery. Update: They’ve found a chunk of wooden coffin with the initials M C on it. Said chunk was associated with a pile of bones from a bunch of different people. Sorting is ongoing.