This edited volume explores the ways in which Miguel de Cervantes adopted humanist positions, whether he submitted these to critical examination or made them the target of his satires. It tries to determine how familiar Cervantes was with the contemporary developments of humanism in different European countries, and if references to particular humanist thinkers can be identified in his work.

The contributions gathered in this volume, all from acknowledged Cervantes experts, tackle among others the following questions: How does Cervantes analyse the humanist connexion between science and virtue? Does Don Quixote’s conflictive reenaction of chivalric novels come from the humanist ideal of 'imitatio'? Do the many dialogues in Cervantes’ work originate in the rhetorical tradition? What is the role of Plato’s aesthetic of the καλὸς κἀγαθός in Cervantes? Does Cervantes portray doctors and jurists as typical members of an ascending bourgeois class? Does he question, like Erasmus or Vives, their professional ethos?