Joanot Martorell (; c. 1410 – 1465) was a

Valencian Valencian () or Valencian language () is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community (Spain), and unofficially in the El Carche comarca in Murcia (Spain), to refer to the Romance language also known as Catal ...

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

and writer, best known for authoring the novel '' Tirant lo Blanch'', written in

and published at

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

in 1490. This novel is often regarded as one of the peaks of the

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...

Catalan language Catalan (; autonym: , ), known in the Valencian Community and Carche as '' Valencian'' (autonym: ), is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra, and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern ...

and it played a major role in influencing later writers such as

Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best kno ...

, who, in the

book burning Book burning is the deliberate destruction by fire of books or other written materials, usually carried out in a public context. The burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or politi ...

scene of

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of West ...

, says "I swear to you, my friend, this (Tirant lo Blanch) is the best book of its kind in the world". The novel deals with the adventures of a

in the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

; it is considered one of the first works of

alternate history Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, alte ...

. Martorell apparently was a chivalrous man and suffered an early death due to court intrigue, leaving the novel unfinished. It was prepared for publication by his friend and colleague,

Martí Joan de Galba Martí Joan de Galba (; died 1490) was once considered to be the co-author of the famous Valencian epic ''Tirant lo Blanch'', which he worked on after the death of his friend, Joanot Martorell. But the nature of his contributions have been called in ...

Notes and references

External links

Tirant lo Blanch website by the Institut Lluis Vives

Joanot Martorell
by the Association of Catalan Language Writers. Website in Catalan, English and Spanish.
Tirant lo Blanch, by Joanot Martorell
in LletrA, Catalan Literature Online (Open University of Catalonia)] * * 1413 births 1468 deaths People from Valencia Writers from the Valencian Community Medieval Catalan-language writers 15th-century Spanish writers Medieval knights {{spain-writer-stub

See also

Notes and references

External links