Jean Canavaggio (1936–2023) was professor emeritus at the Université Paris Ouest Nanterre and director of the Casa de Velázquez from 1996 to 2001. Prominent among the books he authored are Cervantes (1986, latest ed. 2015), Cervantes, entre vida y creación (2000), Don Quijote, del libro al mito (2006) and Retornos a Cervantes (2014). In addition to serving as editor of Historia de la Literatura española (Barcelona, 1994–95) and contributing to the Don Quixote edited by Francisco Rico, he edited French translations of Cervantes’s works in prose (2001), a selection of works by Saint Teresa and Saint John of the Cross, and Don Quixote, all published as part of the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade collection. During his last years he collaborated on an edition of Mérimée’s complete works. He was awarded the Goncourt Prize for Biography and the Grand Cross of the Order of Alfonso X the Wise.