Note 126 — II 1325-1521

De Institutione Christianae Feminae, Bk. I, cap. 5: ‘Tum et de pestiferis libris cuiusmodi sunt in Hispania [= the whole Peninsula], Amadisius, Splandianus, Florisandus, Tirantus, Tristanus, quarum ineptiarum nullus est finis; quotidie prodeunt novae: Caelistina laena, nequitiarum parens, carcer amorum: in Gallia Lancilotus a Lacu, Paris et Vienna, Ponthus et Sydonia, Petrus Provincialis et Magelona, Melusina, domina inexorabilis: in hac Belgica Florius et Albus Flos, Leonella et Cana morus, Curias et Floreta, Pyramus et Thisbe’ (Ioannis Ludovici Vivis Valentini Opera Omnia, 7 vols., Valentiae Edetanorum, 1782-8, iv. 87). A Portuguese Tristan may have existed, a Portuguese original of Tirant lo Blanch less probably, although Pedro Juan Martorell, who began it in the Valencian or Lemosin a ii de Giner de lany 1460, declares that he had not only translated it from English into Portuguese but (mas encara) from Portuguese into Valencian. He dedicated it to the molt illustre Princep Ferdinand of Portugal. Very probably the fame and origin of Amadis accounted for this ‘English’ original, as mythical as the Hungarian origin of Las Sergas de Esplandian, and for its alleged translation into Portuguese.