Who printed the 1605 first edition of Don Quixote?

Juan de la Cuesta printed the 1605 first edition of Don Quixote.

The edition was produced in Madrid for the bookseller Francisco de Robles, who financed and marketed the book after contracting with Miguel de Cervantes. Cuesta managed the printing shop and handled the physical production of the type, paper, and pages.

A common mix-up is calling Robles the printer. He was the publisher or bookseller behind the edition, while Cuesta was the printer. The title page identifies the work with Cuesta’s name and the year 1605, making him the canonical answer to this question.

The first edition was printed rapidly and contains numerous typographical errors. Its success was immediate: additional editions appeared soon afterward, helping Cervantes’s novel spread across Europe. Part Two followed in 1615, also during Cervantes’s lifetime.