Joanot Martorell

• 1. Introduction

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  Joanot Martorell appears at the center of one of literature's most famous book burnings. In Don Quixote de la Mancha, a priest and a barber review Alonso Quijano's library and condemn nearly every chivalric novel to the flames. But one book survives. Miguel de Cervantes has the priest swear to his companion that this one book is "the best book of its kind in the world." That book is Tirant lo Blanch. Martorell was born around 1410 in Valencia and died around 1465, broke and without descendants. The novel he wrote was not even printed until 1490. He spent much of his life in legal disputes and financial need, traveling to England, Portugal, and Naples on knightly business. How a man so consumed by confrontation produced a work of such lasting reach is what his biography sets out to answer.

• 2. Disputes and Travels

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  His first formal appointment of knighthood came in 1433. According to historian Jaume Chiner, his family was originally from Gandía. His grandfather Guillem Martorell served as a royal advisor, and his father Francesc Martorell, married to Damiata Abelló, was butler to King Martin the Humane. A sister named Isabel married the writer Ausiàs March.

  Fourteen "lletres de batalla," formally exchanged challenges known in English as battle letters, document the disputes Martorell collected across his lifetime. These letters were published in editions of Tirante el Blanco edited by Martí de Riquer in 1969 and 1979. Among the confrontations they record: Martorell challenged his cousin Joan de Monpalau between 1437 and 1445. Monpalau had apparently promised to marry one of Martorell's sisters and then refused. Between 1444 and 1450, a separate conflict with Gonzalo de Híjar, commander of Montalbán, arose over the sale of some properties. That case was settled in Martorell's favor. A lawsuit against Philip Boïl in 1442 concerned a matter of testimony.

  In 1438, during a stay in England, Martorell translated the 12th-century poem Guy of Warwick. He also traveled to Portugal and, in 1454, to Naples to assist Alfonso the Magnanimous. Back in Valencia, his finances grew worse as he sold off his estates. Martí Joan de Galba, who lived in Valencia, regularly lent him money.

  Martorell lived at the Plaça de Sant Jordi, now called the Plaça de Rodrigo Botet, next door to the writer Joan Roís de Corella. That proximity would later become relevant to how scholars read the text of Tirant lo Blanch.

• 3. Tirant lo Blanch

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  On the 2nd of January 1460, Martorell began writing Tirant lo Blanch. He dedicated the work to Prince Ferdinand of Portugal, a man he had met during his stays in that country. The novel follows a knight named Tirant through wars set in the Byzantine Empire. His romance with a character named Carmesina carries a highly erotic charge. The work is considered one of the most representative of the Valencian Golden Age and is regarded as the first modern novel in Europe.

  Nicolás Spindeler's press in Valencia produced the first printed edition in 1490. A second edition followed in Barcelona. Together, both printings survive in only four copies. Three come from the Valencia edition: one is held at the University of Valencia, one is in London, and one is in New York. The fourth is from the Barcelona edition.

  Translations into Spanish and Italian appeared in the first half of the 16th century. A French translation came later. Ariosto knew the work, and so did Shakespeare. Tirant lo Blanch is also recognized as one of the first works of alternate history. Its action unfolds in a Byzantine Empire that diverges from the historical record.

  The text that reached Spindeler's press in 1490, however, may not have been exactly what Martorell originally produced.

• 4. An Uncertain Text

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  The original manuscript had been pledged as collateral against a loan of one hundred reales from Martí Joan de Galba. Martorell died before repaying it. Galba then died too, before printing was finished and before the repayment deadline had passed.

  The colophon of the 1490 edition names Galba as the translator of the fourth part of the novel. Most scholars consider that designation an addition by the printer rather than an accurate description. Galba was not known as a writer, and he died before the book finished printing. The more likely explanation is that Galba divided the manuscript into chapters and composed the rubrics, or section headings, that accompany them.

  A manuscript circulating in handwritten form for around 25 years before publication creates its own uncertainties. During that period, additional material may have been added to the text. Scholars have pointed to the possible influence of Joan Roís de Corella, Martorell's neighbor, as one source of those additions.

  Martorell also left behind an unfinished work called Guillem de Varoic, which he had incorporated into the opening chapters of Tirant. A fragment titled Flor de caballeria also exists, though its attribution to Martorell remains uncertain. Whether that fragment is genuinely his remains an open question that scholars who work on the earliest Valencian prose tradition have not yet settled.