Tirant lo Blanch
A Catalan chivalric novel by Joanot Martorell, published in 1490, that follows a knight through military campaigns and courtly adventures.
Joanot Martorell: A fifteenth-century Valencian knight and writer, best known as the author of Tirant lo Blanch. Martorell wrote the novel, drawing on the world of aristocratic warfare and courtly life.
Carmesina: The Byzantine princess loved by Tirant in Martorell’s chivalric novel. Her courtship with Tirant drives the novel’s intimate and comic episodes.
Valencia: A city on Spain’s eastern Mediterranean coast and the historic center of the Kingdom of Valencia. Its fifteenth-century literary milieu shaped the novel’s language and reception.
Miguel de Cervantes: A Spanish writer of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, best known for Don Quixote. Cervantes praised Tirant lo Blanch in Don Quixote as a valuable and unusual book.
Chivalric romance: A medieval narrative genre centered on knights, adventures, noble conduct, and often courtly love. The novel uses this tradition while giving its battles and social life unusual realism.
Byzantine Empire: The medieval empire centered on Constantinople, continuing the eastern Roman state until 1453. The novel’s campaigns to defend the empire give its military plot a historical setting.
Martí Joan de Galba: A Valencian associated with the completion and publication of Tirant lo Blanch after Martorell’s death. The 1490 colophon credits Galba with bringing the unfinished work to print.
Don Quixote: A novel by Miguel de Cervantes, published in two parts in 1605 and 1615. Its famous appraisal helped preserve Tirant’s reputation for later readers.
Catalan literature: Literature written in Catalan, spanning medieval works through contemporary writing. The novel is a landmark of Catalan prose fiction.
Siege warfare: Military operations aimed at capturing fortified places through blockade, assault, or negotiated surrender. Sieges and the defense of cities shape the novel’s campaign episodes.