# Anselmo — Don Quixote character guide

> Anselmo in Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** the Anselmo

**First appearance:** 0038-part-i-xxxii

## Snapshot

A Florentine gentleman whose craving for proof of his wife's virtue turns a private doubt into a public catastrophe.

## Who they are

Anselmo belongs to the world of wealthy Italian gentlemen whose honor rests on reputation and the appearance of virtue. Rather than trust his marriage, he pressures his closest friend into testing Camilla's fidelity, treating suspicion as a puzzle to be solved. His fatal flaw is the belief that virtue must be verified to be real, and that experiment is harmless. He sets the tale's central moral trap in motion.

## Relationships

### [Camilla](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/characters/camilla)

_family_

Anselmo is Camilla's husband, but his obsessive test of her fidelity leads to tragedy.

### [Lothario](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/characters/lothario)

_friendship_

Anselmo and Lothario are close friends, but Anselmo's destructive request destroys their bond.

### [Lothario](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/characters/lothario)

_friendship_

Anselmo and Lothario are close friends, but Anselmo's destructive request destroys their bond.

### [Camilla](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/characters/camilla)

_family_

Anselmo is Camilla's husband, but his obsessive test of her fidelity leads to tragedy.

### [Lothario](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/characters/lothario)

_friendship_

Anselmo and Lothario are close friends, but Anselmo's destructive request destroys their bond.

### [Camilla](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/characters/camilla)

_family_

Anselmo is Camilla's husband, but his obsessive test of her fidelity leads to tragedy.

## In the story

### [The Ill-Advised Curiosity](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/chapters/part-i-xxxiii)

A wealthy Florentine gentleman who marries Camilla and becomes obsessed with testing her fidelity.

### [XXXIV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/chapters/part-i-xxxiv)

The husband who, driven by ill-advised curiosity, tests his wife's fidelity by encouraging Lothario's advances, remaining blissfully unaware of the actual betrayal.

### [Which treats of the heroic and prodigious battle Don Quixote had with certain skins of red wine, and brings the novel of The Ill-Advised Curiosity to a close.](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/chapters/part-i-xxxv)

Dies from grief after his ill-advised test of Camilla's fidelity.

### [LI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/chapters/part-i-li)

Eugenio's rival for Leandra's hand, who now laments her loss by singing verses to the accompaniment of a rebeck.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/characters/anselmo
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/don_quixote_se/characters