Book history: Exhibition timed to the 400th anniversary of issue of “Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes in Tsaritsyno

Exhibition "Don Quixote" in Russia and Don Quixotes on the throne" opened at the Museum-Reserve "Tsaritsyno" in the inter-museum project "Book of the Century." It is timed to the 400th anniversary of the publication of the full version of the novel by Miguel de Cervantes “The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha" in Spanish.

The exhibition is held in the cross Year of the Russian language in Spain and Spanish language in Russia, under the support of the Spanish Embassy and the Cervantes Institute in Moscow.

Cervantes’ book influenced the worldview of many statesmen, became part of the literary and theatrical life of our country. The exhibition not only tells the story of the novel in our country, but also gives an idea of how its influence was manifested in the architecture, secular rituals, literature, music art of the second half of the 18th – 19th century.

In the center of attention is the idea of chivalry, embodied in the image of Don Quixote, who, as wrote Yuri Eichenwald in his book "Don Quixote on Russian soil," "exists in Russian life in two ways: as an idea, the name-parable, the interpretation of which changed and as a whole string of live incarnations, historical embodiments of quixotism."

The exhibition focuses on two "incarnations" of Servantes’ character: it is Paul I and his youngest son Nikolai I. The halls dedicated to these emperors (the first went down in history as the "Russian Don Quixote", and the second - as "Don Quixote of autocracy") tell about their beautiful ladies, tastes, hobbies and political allegiances. Using multimedia technologies, there was reconstructed the image of the Crimson drawing room of the palace of Paul I in Gatchina with tapestries from the series "Don Quixote" (in 1782, Louis XVI granted them to Grand Duke Paul Petrovich and Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna).

The exhibition includes rare editions of the novel "Don Quixote" in Russia, numerous engravings, paintings, ball gowns and ceremonial uniforms of Russian monarchs, armor, dueling pistols, letters and even mash notes – totally about 500 items from the collections of the leading Russian museums.