Joanot Martorell

[6] Martorell apparently was a chivalrous man and suffered an early death due to court intrigue, leaving the novel unfinished.

[7] Martorell spent many years in England (on one of his stays, in 1438, he translated the 12th-century poem Guy of Warwick), Portugal and Naples, as a result of various knightly disputes of which he was so fond, and about which information exists thanks to the fourteen "lletres de batalla" (battle letters, or exchanged letters) that Martorell wrote throughout his life and that were published in the editions of Tirante el Blanco edited by Martí de Riquer in 1969 and 1979.

After the sale of his estates, his financial ruin increased; Martí Joan de Galba, who lived in Valencia, often lent him money because Martorell was in such great need.

The novel narrates the war exploits of the knight Tirant and his romance with Carmesina, written with a highly erotic charge.

In fact, Tirant lo Blanch received praise from Cervantes, who saved the novel from the burning of chivalric books at the home of Alonso Quijano by the priest and the barber in the first part of Don Quixote de la Mancha.

Some evidence suggests that the work that came out of Nicolás Spindeler's printing press in 1490 does not exactly correspond to the original manuscript that Martorell gave to Martí Joan de Galba.

Another possibility, though, is that the original version that first circulated in manuscript form for 25 years was subject to some occasional additions, perhaps inspired by Joan Roís de Corella.