1
This study forms part of research project PB-94-0894-A of the DGICYT of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture.
2
For the state of the question up to 1993, see Badia 1993a. Some later studies insist on the presence of Corella, amplify the importance of classical historiography, of the Històries troianes of Guido delle Colonne and the Heroides of Ovid, and present data concerning the use of the tragedies of Seneca, the Scipiò e Anibal of Antoni Canals and various works of Boccaccio (Cingolani 1995-96; Renedo 1995-96; Pujol 1995-96, 1997, 1998 and 1999; Annicchiarico 1996; Guia 1996b; Martínez 1998: 155-98).
3
The concepts referring to knowledge and ignorance come from a well-known letter of battle from Martorell to Joan de Monpalau in which, replying to the latter's malicious allusions to Martorell's use of scholastic terms, he refutes him with the accusation that «you charge me with knowledge, keeping for yourself the glory of ignorance» (Riquer and Vargas Llosa 1972: 75). The phrase passed literally into chapter 131 of Tirant to Blanc, in one of Carmesina's reproaches to Tirant, and, a little before this, in chapter 127, Carmesina had praised «the glory of knowledge which foreigners possess».
4
What follows is merely intended to indicate some lines of cultural interpretation without attempting to be complete. Consequently, I do not take into account all the literary sources of the Tirant, nor am I concerned with aspects that go beyond the justifications of historiography and classicizing rhetoric, as for instance the treatment of amorous passion which, apart from the question of sources, should be read in a theoretical context of the «recreative» justification of literature on the lines of Olson 1982.
5
«The plagiarism is frankly scandalous» is Riquer's only commentary (1990a: 278). Moreover, I am not aware that anyone has ever considered whether the prologue which follows the dedication is original to Martorell or not. In any case, like the dedication, it is a veritable cento of historiographical commonplaces which should be related to the appropriate referents. It should be added that, not surprisingly, a few linguistic formulae in this prologue seem to echo Antoni Canals's translation of Valerius Maximus, as I intend to show elsewhere.
6
For this type of academic prologue, see Minnis (1988: 28-9), who on pp. 160-5 studies its use in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century English literature. For academic prologues in fifteenth-century Castilian literature, see Weiss 1990: 107-17.
7
Probably the most accomplished Hispanic example of this military assimilation of classical historiography is Pero López de Ayala's prologue to his translation of Pierre Bersuire's French version of the Decades of Livy. See Wittlin's edition (1984: 215-20) and also Lawrance (1986: 67-9) and Gómez Moreno (1995: 87-90), who also note the military interest in the Latin Iliad of Pier Candido Decembrio and in the Aeneid (concerning the latter, see the translation by Enric de Villena, ed. Cátedra [1989 I: 31 ]).
8
For these categories, see Parkes (1991: 58-59).
9
Without wishing to affirm that Martorell was using the academic category of the recitatio, it is worth pointing out the fundamental similarity to the role of recitator which many late-medieval authors adopt. For English examples, see Minnis (1988: 192-3).
10
For example, the Fra Pere Busquets who translated Domenico Cavalca: «And it had been translated from that language [Tuscan] into Catalan by the priest Pere Busquets ... who had been in Italy for more than fifteen years and knew that language quite sufficiently» (Gallina 1967 I: 23).