Comic Casuistry and Common Sense: Sancho Panza’s Governorship

Abstract

Key background to Sancho Panza’s governership of Barataria ( Don Quijote II. 42–53) includes the specula principum tradition, treatises on statecraft (Furi ó Ceriol, Ribadeneira, Castillo de Bobadilla) and other casuistic tratados . Demonstrating the importance of circumstance and narrative economy, of wisdom derived from experience and of properly knowing oneself ( nosce te ipsum ), Sancho embodies many traits of the ideal ruler, even as he improvises in his own inimical manner.