Joanot Martorell's Life and the Masterpiece Tirant lo Blanc

Joanot Martorell: Life, Legacy, and the Birth of a Masterpiece

The Author's Troubled Life

While the exact circumstances surrounding the completion of Tirant lo Blanc remain debated, it is believed that the manuscript, perhaps unfinished at the time of Joanot Martorell's death in 1468, passed into the hands of Martí Joan de Galba, who seemingly completed its revision. Martí Joan de Galba, a friend of Joanot Martorell, may have received the manuscript from the author, perhaps due to Martorell's severe financial difficulties.

Joanot Martorell was born in Gandia, the son of a noble family. Educated as a courtly knight, he read extensively while learning to fight, aspiring to be a perfect gentleman even as the era of chivalry had long entered a crisis. Upon his father's death, when he took charge of the family, he encountered significant problems with his cousin, who had seemingly dishonored his sister. Martorell sought to compel his cousin to marry her.

As the great gentleman he believed himself to be, he sought to defend his sister's honor at all costs. He traveled to England to petition King Henry VI of Lancaster to preside over a judicial duel between him and his cousin. However, his cousin never went to England, despite Martorell waiting patiently for a year, a period during which he immersed himself in English literature. Ultimately, his cousin paid 4,000 Damiata gold florins as compensation, and the case was closed.

Martorell never married, had no children, and seemingly died in ruin. His life reflected the decline of the nobility in the face of the rising power of a new social class: the bourgeoisie.

Tirant lo Blanc: A Revolutionary Chivalric Novel

Literary Innovations and Realism

Tirant lo Blanc stands as a perfect model of the complete chivalric novel. Joanot Martorell excels in his descriptions of battles, wars, and social customs. He clearly shows influence from the new Italianate currents of the time, even incorporating a Latin letter by Petrarch translated into Catalan.

Knight Tirant is consistently portrayed as the best, achieving his feats without the aid of magic. His prowess stems primarily from his brilliant strategic mind. Battles are depicted with overwhelming realism, devoid of excessive exaggeration, instead possessing a shocking rawness.

Love, Humanity, and Irony

Tirant is also a formidable lover. The novel features several love stories, which diverge significantly from the conventional covenants and oaths of courtly love. The characters are revealed as profoundly human and honest with each other, a dimension that fully embraces jealousy, suffering, and other complex emotions.

The reader will also not miss the ironic tone with which Joanot Martorell treats emotional issues. If sometimes things go well enough, they often go wrong, and Tirant frequently appears ridiculous in the eyes of the reader.