In which century was the first part of Don Quixote published?

The first part of Don Quixote was published in the 17th century. Miguel de Cervantes’s Part One appeared in Spain in 1605, making it an early landmark of modern European fiction.

Cervantes sold the publication rights to bookseller Francisco de Robles in July 1604. Printing was completed later that year, and the book was released on 16 January 1605. It was titled The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha and was an immediate success.

A common source of confusion is that the complete novel is usually described as having two parts. Cervantes’s genuine second part was published in 1615, ten years after Part One. The first volume was also internally divided into four sections, so early readers initially encountered it as a complete one-volume work rather than simply the first half of a planned two-volume novel.

The book satirizes popular medieval chivalric romances while following Alonso Quixano, who reinvents himself as the knight-errant Don Quixote.