Curial e Güelfa
Curial e Güelfa is an anonymous Catalan chivalric romance of the fifteenth century, notable for incorporating elements of Italian humanism.
Known from a single manuscript and unpublished until the twentieth century, it is today considered a highly original masterpiece.
Curial travels widely, performing deeds of chivalry, but a rift opens between him and Güelfa.
[5] Most recently, Abel Soler has suggested Íñigo Dávalos, a Castilian who served Alfonso in Valencia and Italy.
[12] It was coined, in the Spanish form Curial y Güelfa, by Antoni Rubió i Lluch, the editor of the 1901 edition.
[13][14] The action in Curial e Güelfa takes place in Italy, Germany, Hungary, France, England, Greece, the Holy Land, Egypt and Tunisia.
[1] In the assessment of Martí de Riquer, Curial is "a strikingly original work, written with skill, an excellent style, and a good narrative sense.
As a result of rumours about his relationship with Güelfa spread by two jealous courtiers, Curial is banished from court by the marquis.
The duchess's father, the duke of Bavaria, offers the hand in marriage of his other daughter, the beautiful Laquesis.
[17] Curial eventually returns to Montferrat to clear his name from certain slander, but Güelfa renounces her protection of him until the French court meeting at Le Puy intervenes on his behalf.
[13] At Saint Catherine's Monastery in Sinai, he meets the reformed Boar of Vilahir, now a Franciscan.
[17] In a dream,[13] he visits Mount Parnassus, where the Muses ask him "whether Achilles' defeat of Hector in the Trojan War was in accord with the laws of chivalry.
[13] There he is forced to work seven years as a slave for Fàraig, whose daughter Càmar falls in love with him.
[18] In its realism, Curial has some resemblance to contemporary French chivalric narratives, such as Livre des faits du bon messire Jehan le Maingre, dit Boucicaut and Livre des faits de Jacques de Lalaing.
[16] It draws heavily on the works of the early Italian humanists: Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio.
[3] Boccaccio's Filocolo and Benvenuto da Imola's commentary on Dante's Divine Comedy have been identified as models.
[18] The author of Curial was familiar with the story of Paris e Viana [ca], a copy of which was catalogued in the royal library in Valencia in 1417.
The name of Laquesis is that of Lachesis from Plato's Republic, the Latin translation of Manuel Chrysoloras and Uberto Decembrio having reached Naples in 1440.
[5] Abel Soler argues that the echoes of the chronicles of Desclot and Ramon Muntaner were mediated by Italian historiography and are not reflective of the author's direct acquaintance.
