Abstract

Literature has no frontiers but those of language, and these may be eliminated with the assistance of a good translator. In the sixteenth century, as a result of the wide diffusion of literary creations made possible by the revolutionary invention of printing, already firmly established by that time, the great fifteenth-century Catalan writers had a deep influence on the texts of Castilian authors, in what was to become a pivotal moment for the creation of new literary forms. In narrative, the crucial case is that of the greatest chivalric novel written on the Iberian Peninsula, Tirant lo Blanch by Valencian writer Joanot Martorell: ¹ despite only being in print very briefly during the sixteenth century, its influence on Iberian literature was profound, as an examination of its many great readers will show. ²