Tirant lo Blanch

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For the film, see Tirant lo Blanc (film).
Tirant lo Blanch
Title page of the first Castilian-language translation of Tirant lo Blanch, printed in Valladolid by Diego de Gumiel
AuthorJoanot Martorell
Martí Joan de Galba
Original titleTirant lo Blanch
CountryKingdom of Valencia
LanguageValencian
GenreChivalric romance
Set inEurope, North Africa, Middle East, 15th century AD
PublisherMartí Joan de Galba
Publication date
1490
849.9
Original text
Tirant lo Blanch at Catalan Wikisource

Tirant lo Blanch (Valencian pronunciation:

incunabulum edition. The title means "Tirant the White" and is the name of the romance's main character who saves the Byzantine Empire
.

It is one of the best known

Valencian literature and in the literature in Catalan language as a whole,[3][4][5][6][7] and it played an important role in the evolution of the Western novel through its influence on the author Miguel de Cervantes. The book has been noted for its use of many Valencian proverbs.[8]

Plot

Tirant lo Blanch tells the story of a knight Tirant from

Megaduke of the Byzantine Empire and the captain of an army. He defeats the invaders and saves the Empire from destruction. Afterwards, he fights the Turks in many regions of the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa
, but he dies just before he can marry the pretty heiress of the Byzantine Empire.

Themes

Compared to books of the same time period, it lacks the bucolic, platonic, and contemplative love commonly portrayed in the chivalric heroes. Instead the main character is full of life and sensuous love, sarcasm, and human feelings. The work is filled with down to earth descriptions of daily life, prosaic and even bitter in nature.[citation needed]

Influence

Tirant lo Blanch is one of the most important books written in Valencian. Written by

Almogàvers, which fought in Asia Minor and Greece, both for and against the Emperor of Byzantium. This historical resemblance is evident in the description of events occurring around Constantinople and the defeat of Sultan Mehmed II "the conqueror". While Roger de Flor's almogàvers had the upper hand in the region, the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 was a huge shock to Christian Europe, marking an end to the Byzantine Empire that Martorell's contemporaries wished to change. In writing his novel, Martorell perhaps rewrote history to fit what he wanted it to be - which in a way makes it a precursor of the present-day genre of alternate history
.

The Spanish text of Don Quixote states, in Chapter 6 of Part I, that because of certain characteristics of Tirant – characters with unlikely or funny names such as Kirieleison de Montalbán, the presence of a merry widow, the fact that in the book knights eat, sleep, and die in their beds having made a will, and the title can be understood as "Tirant the Blank", lacking a major victory to put on his shield – the book is quite different from the typical chivalric romance. These aspects make the book exceptional, and made Cervantes state that "por su estilo", which can be translated "because of its style" but more likely means "in its own way", the book is "a treasure of enjoyment and a gold mine of recreation" ("un tesoro de contento y una mina de pasatiempos"), the "best book in the world." It is an (unintentionally) funny book, and Cervantes liked funny books, believed the world needed more of them, and wrote his own in Don Quixote.[9] Cervantes saw this 100-year-old book as the crown jewel of his library.[10]

Translations and adaptations

Translations

The book has been translated into several languages including French,[11] Italian,[12] Spanish,[13] Polish,[14] Russian,[15] Finnish,[16] German, Dutch, Swedish and Chinese. Modern translations of the book into English include Tirant lo Blanc, translated by David H. Rosenthal[4] (1983, 1996), Tirant lo Blanc: The Complete Translation (Catalan Studies, Vol 1), translated by Ray La Fontaine (1994)[3] and The White Knight: Tirant lo Blanc (Project Gutenberg), translated by Robert S. Rudder (1995). There's also an adaptation in modern Catalan[17]

Film adaptation

Main article: Tirant lo Blanc (film)

The plot of the 2006 film adaptation is based on the later part of the adventures of Tirant and events leading to his involvement in Constantinople and afterwards.

Notes and references

  1. ^ Its modern spelling, according to both the Valencian and the Catalan standard, is Tirant lo Blanc, but it is also referred to by its original spelling Tirant lo Blanch, where the h is silent.
  2. ^ Taylor, Barry. "A Catalan classic rediscovered". The British Library.
  3. ^
    ISBN 0820416886
    .
  4. ^
    ISBN 0801854210
    .
  5. doi:10.4000/ccrh.2652
    . Among the Catalan literature of the late Middle Ages, the chivalric romance entitled Tirant lo Blanc is one of the best known works
  6. ^ Manuel Muñoz (30 January 1985). "Rosenthal pudo al fin hablar en Valencia sobre su traducción de 'Tirant lo Blanc'". El País. Spain. Retrieved 13 September 2019. Rosenthal, the first translator into English of the masterpiece of the literature in Catalan language, written by the Valencians Joanot Martorell and Martí Joan de Galba, was boycotted in his first attempt to give a talk in the city [Valencia]
  7. ISBN 0807892297
    . Only in the late 1940s did Hispanists begin to awaken to the considerable literary qualities of this unique Catalan work of fiction
  8. ^ Conca, Maria, and Josep Guia. "A Poetic Game of Proverbs. Study and Annotated Edition of Refranys rimats, a 15th-century Catalan Literary Work." Catalan Review 17 (2003) 53-86.
  9. ^ Daniel Eisenberg, "Pero Pérez the Priest and his Comment on Tirant lo Blanch, MLN (Modern Language Notes), volume 88, 1973, pp. 320-330, https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/deisenbe/cervantes/peroperezhigh.pdf included in Eisenberg, Romances of Chivalry in the Spanish Golden Age, Newark, Delaware, Juan de la Cuesta, 1982. http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/01159841877587238327702/index.htm
  10. ^ Daniel Eisenberg, La biblioteca de Cervantes, in Studia in honorem Martín de Riquer, volume 2, Barcelona, Quaderns Crema, 1987, pp. 271-328; online as "La reconstrucción de la biblioteca de Cervantes", pp. 41-52 of La biblioteca de Cervantes: Una reconstrucción, https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/deisenbe/cervantes/reconstruction.pdf on p. 51.
  11. ISBN 2070751090
    .
  12. ^ Joanot Martorell; Lelio Manfredi (1556). Della historia del valorosissimo et invittissimo cavallier Tirante il Bianco. Domenico Farri.
  13. ISBN 9788484560234
    .
  14. ^ Joanot Martorell; Rozalya Sasor (2007). Tirant Biały. Ksiegarnia Akademicka.
  15. ^ Joanot Martorell; Marina Abramova; P. A. Skobtsev; E. E. Guixina (2006). Tirant lo Blanch. Ladomir: Nauka.
  16. ISBN 9512026678
    .
  17. ^ Joanot Martorell, translation by Màrius Serra. https://www.llibres.cat/products/482338-tirant-lo-blanc.html

External links

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