The Reception and Dissemination of Historiographical Humanistic Models in the “Tirant lo Blanc” printed in Valencia in 1490

Abstract

The fall of Constantinople in May 1453 had a significant impact on the writing of chivalric romances. The figure of a knight-errand defending Constantinople as a captain of the imperial army became a widely disseminated motif. Martorell lived in Naples from 1450 until the death of Alfonso the Magnanimous in 1458. In that courtly milieu, Martorell learned about Alfonso’s crusade project in 1455 and 1456. At that time, Martorell must have modified his original idea of composing a treatise for knightly education, like Guillem de Varoic, and began planning his novel. With Tirant lo Blanc, Joanot Martorell issued a call to arms against the Turks for the Christian reconquest of the city. In that same milieu, he must have become acquainted with the poetics that defined historiography as an opus oratorium maxime, through which he transformed his initial writing into a work of much greater ambition. This oratorical conception of Tirant is what distinguishes it from other chivalric romances.