Of what happened when Martin Sarmiento got on the Moor’s Muzaraque Zebra and met Cervantes on the road to Alcalá

Abstract

This study remembers the importance Martín Sarmiento had in the discovery of Cervantes’ birthplace. As the authors explain, the novelty was not previously raised by Juan de Iriarte, as it was stated by his nephew in a letter published by Juan Antonio Pellicer. By the contrary, it was Sarmiento who found it in the spring of 1752, due to a triple coincidence: Firstly, the essay of the writing Sobre la Zebra, which drove Sarmiento to look documents and old Spanish texts up, to explain that zebras were hunted in Spain during the Middle Ages; secondly, the association of the word zebra with Cervantes in the Dictionary of the Real Academia Española; and thirdly, the acquisition of Haedo’s book on those dates. On the other hand, the authors indicate the nonexistence of information to demonstrate that Martinez Pingarrón got in before Agustin Montiano in obtaining the certificate of Cervantes’ baptism.