This is a skilful metafictional literary pirouette that seems to give more credibility to the text, making the reader believe that Don Quixote was a real person and the story is decades old.

In the preface of Part One of the novel (published in 1605), Cervantes indicates that he is not the original author, but is simply passing on information that can be found in "the archives of La Mancha".

In Part Two (published in 1615), the young scholar Carrasco informs Don Quixote that the story of his adventures is well-known, thanks to the publication of his history by Cide Hamete.

However, in Part Two, Chapter XLIV, Benengeli writes, "I, though a Moor..." Cervantes' use of the supposed translation of a true record of events is a parody of an element commonly found in the books of chivalry.

For example, Wolfram von Eschenbach attributes his Parzival to a translation made by the Provençal Kyot of an Arabic manuscript from Toledo; in the Cristalián de España, author Beatriz Bernal claims that she found a book in an ancient tomb, and explains her decision to copy it.

The tweaking of this narrative convention gave Cervantes the opportunity to make humorous, ironic comments, and even play several fictional games.

It has been proposed by Max Herman that "Benengeli" is in fact a hapax legomenon signifying "good angels," as from the Italian "bene angeli," Spanish "buenos angelos," Latin "angeli boni," and the like, with "Hamete" implying "hook" or "barbed" from the vocative adjectival form "hamate" of the Latin "hamatus"; i.e. "for catching good angels."