Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-6c7dr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-12T17:21:24.497Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

19 - The Iberian Arthur in the Middle Ages

from Part II - Arthurian Literary Developments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2026

Raluca L. Radulescu
Affiliation:
Bangor University, Wales
Andrew Lynch
Affiliation:
The University of Western Australia
Get access

Summary

The first reliable accounts concerning King Arthur reached the Iberian peninsula in the twelfth century, but they did not become popular until the fourteenth century. From then on, the success of the texts was reflected in translations, retellings and imitations. The political particularities of the peninsula changed over time as the cultural references shifted from Al-Andalus to Castile: while in the early stages a classical tradition survived along with some Oriental influences from the Arabs, in the thirteenth century there was an increase in the French influence, which lasted into the fourteenth century and then gave way to the influence coming from Italy thanks to the expansion of the kingdom of Aragon in the Mediterranean. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Rodríguez de Montalvo’s Amadís de Gaula (1508) revived the model.

Information

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Primary Sources

Andorra la Vella, Arxiu de les Set Claus, MS 1Google Scholar
Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya, MS 8Google Scholar
Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya, MS 271Google Scholar
Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya, MS 2434Google Scholar
Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya, MS 8999/1Google Scholar
Berkeley, Bancroft Library, MS 125Google Scholar
Campos (Mallorca), Arxiu ParroquialGoogle Scholar
Cervera (Lérida), Arxiu Històric Comarcal, MS B-343Google Scholar
Lisbon, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, MS 643Google Scholar
Lisbon, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Cod. 10.991Google Scholar
Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, MS Cod. Leg. Carp. 1501 B, n.7Google Scholar
Madrid, BNE, MS 431Google Scholar
Madrid, BNE, MS 8817Google Scholar
Madrid, BNE, MS 9611Google Scholar
Madrid, BNE, MS 11309Google Scholar
Madrid, BNE, MS 20262.19Google Scholar
Madrid, BNE, MS 22021Google Scholar
Madrid, BNE, MS 22644.1-51Google Scholar
Madrid, Monasterio de El Escorial, MS Y-III-9Google Scholar
Madrid, Real Academia Española, MS 213Google Scholar
Madrid, Real Academia Española, MS RM-6952Google Scholar
Madrid, Real Academia de la Historia, MS 9-10-2/2100Google Scholar
Mataró (Barcelona), Library of Francesc Cruzate (private collection)Google Scholar
Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, MS I.79 SupGoogle Scholar
Paris, BnF, MS Esp. 36Google Scholar
Paris, BnF, MS Esp. 37Google Scholar
Paris, BnF, MS fr. 342Google Scholar
Porto, Arquivo Distrital do Porto, MS I/18/2-2.12Google Scholar
Salamanca, Biblioteca Universitaria, MS 1877Google Scholar
Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, MS G.II.34Google Scholar
Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica, MS Vat. lat. 6428Google Scholar
Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica, MS Vat. lat. 7182Google Scholar
Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS Lat.Ser.Vetus 2594Google Scholar

Secondary Sources

Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya, 10-V-39Google Scholar
Oviedo, Biblioteca Universitaria, R-33215Google Scholar
Rigall, Casas, Juan (ed.). Libro de Alexandre (Madrid: Castalia, 2007)Google Scholar
Castillo, Hernando del. Cancionero general, ed. Cuenca, Joaquin González, 5 vols. (Madrid: Castalia, 2004)Google Scholar
Catalán, Diego and de Andrés, Maria Soledad (eds.). Edición crítica del texto español de la Crónica de 1344 (Madrid: Seminario Menéndez Pidal-Gredos, 1971)Google Scholar
Cooper, Louis (ed.). El Liber regum: Estudio lingüístico (Zaragoza: Institución Fernando el Católico, 1960)Google Scholar
Díaz de Games, Gutierre. El Victorial, ed. Beltrán Llavador, Rafael (Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, 1997)Google Scholar
Flórez, Enrique (ed.). ‘Anales Toledanos Primeros’, in España sagrada, 56 vols. (Madrid: Antonio Marín, 1767), vol. xxiii.Google Scholar
Gras, Mossèn. Tragèdia de Lançalot, ed. de Riquer, Martín (Barcelona: Quaderns Crema, 1984)Google Scholar
Martorell, Joanot (Martí Joan de Galba). Tirant lo Blanch/Tirante el Blanco, ed. Hauf, Albert and Escartí, Vicent, 2 vols. (Valencia: Editorial Tirant lo Blanc, 2005)Google Scholar
Rey, Agapito (ed.). Leomarte, Sumas de historia troyana (Madrid: S. Aguirre, 1932)Google Scholar
Sharrer, Harvey L. (ed.). The Legendary History of Britain in Lope García de Salazar’s Libro de las bienandanzas e fortunas (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1979)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ten Cate, Yo (ed.). El Poema de Alfonso XI (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1956)Google Scholar
Wagner, Charles Philip (ed.). Libro del cauallero Zifar (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1929)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ailenii, Simona. A tradução galego-portuguesa do romance arturiano (Porto: Estratégias Criativas, 2019)Google Scholar
Alemany, Rafael. Introducció al ‘Tirant lo Blanc’ (Alzira: Bromera, 2007)Google Scholar
Alvar, Carlos. ‘Antroponimia artúrica: Ayer y hoy’, Acta Romanica Basiliensia, 24 (2013), 2151Google Scholar
Alvar, CarlosConsideraciones a propósito de una cronología temprana del Libro de Alexandre’, in Collera, Ana Menéndez and López, Victoriano Roncero (eds.), Nunca fue pena mayor: En homenaje a Brian Dutton (Cuenca: Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 1996), pp. 3544Google Scholar
Alvar, Carlos ‘The Matter of Britain in Spanish society and literature from Cluny to Cervantes’, in Hook (ed.), Arthur of the Iberians, pp. 187270Google Scholar
Alvar, CarlosPoesía gallego-portuguesa y Materia de Bretaña’, in Brea, Mercedes (ed.), O cantar dos trovadores (Santiago de Compostela: Junta de Galicia, 1993), pp. 3151Google Scholar
Alvar, Carlos El rey Arturo y su mundo (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1991)Google Scholar
Alvar, CarlosTristanes italianos y Tristanes castellanos’, Studi mediolatini e volgari, 47 (2001), 5775Google Scholar
ARTURIANA: Digital Hispanic Arthurian Literatures, ed. Trujillo, José Ramón, http://arturiana.es/inicio.htmlGoogle Scholar
Badia, Lola. ‘Traduccions al català dels segles XIV–XV i innovació cultural i literària’, Estudi general, 11 (1991), 3150Google Scholar
Beltrán Llavador, Rafael. ‘Tirant lo Blanch’ de Joanot Martorell (Madrid: Síntesis, 2006)Google Scholar
Bohigas, Pedro. ‘Profecies de Merlí’, Butlletí de la Biblioteca de Catalunya, 8 (1928–32), 253–79Google Scholar
Bohigas, PedroLa Visión de Alfonso X y las Profecías de Merlín’, Revista de filología española, 25 (1941), 383–98Google Scholar
Cigni, Fabrizio (ed.). Il romanzo arturiano di Rustichello da Pisa (Pisa: Pacini Editore, 1994)Google Scholar
Contreras Martín, Antonio Miguel. ‘The Hispanic versions of the Lancelot en prose’, in Hook (ed.), Arthur of the Iberians, pp. 289308Google Scholar
Cuesta Torre, María Luzdivina. ‘The Iberian Tristan Texts’, in Hook (ed.), Arthur of the Iberians, pp. 309–63Google Scholar
Di Stefano, Giuseppe. ‘El romance de Don Tristán: Edición crítica y comentarios’, in Studia in honorem prof. M. de Riquer, 3 vols. (Barcelona: Quaderns Crema, 1988), vol. iii, pp. 271303Google Scholar
Dutton, Brian and Cuenca, Joaquin González (eds.). Cancionero de Juan Alfonso de Baena (Madrid: Visor Libros, 1993)Google Scholar
Eisenberg, Daniel and Carmen Marín Pina, María. Bibliografía de los libros de caballería castellanos (Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza, 2000)Google Scholar
Entwistle, William James. The Arthurian Legend in the Literatures of the Spanish Peninsula (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1925)Google Scholar
Gómez Redondo, Fernando. ‘Carta de Iseo y respuesta de Tristán’, Dicenda: Cuadernos de filología hispánica, 7 (1987), 327–56Google Scholar
Gómez Redondo, Fernando Historia de la prosa medieval castellana, 4 vols. (Madrid: Cátedra, 1998–2007)Google Scholar
Gracia, Paloma. ‘Arthurian material in Iberia’, in Hook (ed.), Arthur of the Iberians, pp. 1132Google Scholar
Gracia, Paloma ‘The Post-Vulgate Cycle in the Iberian Peninsula’, in Hook (ed.), Arthur of the Iberians, pp. 271–88Google Scholar
Gutiérrez García, Santiago. ‘Arthurian literature in Portugal’, in Hook (ed.), Arthur of the Iberians, pp. 58117Google Scholar
Hook, David. ‘Esbozo de un catálogo cumulativo de los nombres artúricos peninsulares anteriores a 1300’, Atalaya, 7 (1996), 135–52Google Scholar
Hook, David“Espladian” (Logroño 1294) and the Amadis question’, Journal of Hispanic Research, 1 (1992), 273–4Google Scholar
Hook, DavidTransilluminating Tristan’, Celestinesca, 1.2 (1993), 5384CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hook, David (ed.). The Arthur of the Iberians: The Arthurian Legends in the Spanish and Portuguese Worlds (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2015)Google Scholar
Kasten, Lloyd, ‘The utilization of the Historia Regum Britanniae by Alfonso X’, Hispanic Review, 38.5 (1970), 97114Google Scholar
Laranjinha, Ana Sofía. Artur, Tristão e o Graal: A escrita romanesca no ciclo do Pseudo Boron (Porto: Estratégias Criativas, 2010)Google Scholar
Lida, María Rosa. ‘Notas para el texto del Alexandre y para las fuentes del Fernán González’, Revista de filología española, 7 (1945), 4751Google Scholar
Lorenzo Gradín, Pilar. ‘The Matière de Bretagne in Galicia from the XIIth to the XVth century’, in Hook (ed.), Arthur of the Iberians, pp. 118–61Google Scholar
Lucía Megías, José Manuel. ‘The surviving Peninsular Arthurian witnesses: A description and an analysis’, in Hook (ed.), Arthur of the Iberians, pp. 3357Google Scholar
Luna Mariscal, Karla Xiomara. ‘De Stith Thompson a las plataformas digitales’, Historias fingidas, 8 (2020), 55128Google Scholar
Luna Mariscal, Karla Xiomara El motivo literario en “El Baladro del sabio Merlín” (1498 y 1535): Con un índice de motivos (Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 2017)Google Scholar
Martines, Vicent (ed.). ‘La versió catalana de la Queste del saint Graal: Estudi i edició’, unpublished PhD thesis, Universidad de Alicante (1993)Google Scholar
Menéndez Pidal, Ramon. Romancero hispánico, 2nd edn, 2 vols. (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1968)Google Scholar
Mérida Jiménez, Rafael Manuel. ‘La Materia de Bretaña en las culturas hispánicas de la Edad Media y del Renacimiento’, Revista de literatura medieval, 22 (2010), 289350Google Scholar
Miranda, José Carlos Ribeiro, Ailenii, Simona, Correia, Isabel, Laranjinha, Ana Sofia and Rabaçal, Eduarda (eds.). Estória do Santo Graal: Livro portugués de José de Arimateia (Porto: Estratégias criativas, 2016)Google Scholar
Moure, José Luis. ‘Sobre la autenticidad de las cartas de Benahatin en la Crónica de Pero López de Ayala’, Incipit, 3 (1983), 5393Google Scholar
Pietsch, Karl (ed.). Spanish Grail Fragments, 2 vols. (University of Chicago Press, 1924)Google Scholar
Ramos, Rafael. ‘Amadís de Gaula’, in Hook (ed.), Arthur of the Iberians, pp. 364–81Google Scholar
Riquer, Isabel de. ‘La literatura francesa en la Corona de Aragón en el reinado de Pedro el Ceremonioso (1336–1387)’, in Lafarga, Francisco (ed.), Imágenes de Francia en las letras hispánicas (Barcelona: Promociones y Publicaciones Universitarias, 1989), pp. 115–26Google Scholar
Riquer, Martín de. Història de la literatura catalana, 4 vols. (Barcelona: Edicions Ariel, 1964)Google Scholar
Riquer, Martín de Tirant lo Blanch, novela de historia y de ficción (Barcelona: Acantilado, 1994)Google Scholar
Sharrer, Harvey L.La fusión de las novelas artúrica y sentimental a fines de la Edad Media’, El Crotalón, 1 (1984), 147–57Google Scholar
Sharrer, Harvey L.Letters in the Hispanic Prose Tristan text: Iseut’s Complaint and Tristan’s Reply’, Tristania, 7 (1981–2), 320Google Scholar
Sharrer, Harvey L.La materia de Bretaña en la poesía gallego-portuguesa’, in Beltrán, V. (ed.), Actas del I Congreso de la Asociación Hispánica de Literatura Medieval (Barcelona: Promociones y Publicaciones Universitarias, 1988), pp. 561–9Google Scholar
Soriano Robles, Lourdes. ‘The Matière de Bretagne in the Corona de Aragon’, in Hook (ed.), Arthur of the Iberians, pp. 162–86Google Scholar
Trujillo, José Ramón. ‘Literatura artúrica en la península Ibérica: Cuestiones traductológicas y lingüísticas’, e-Humanista: Journal of Iberian Studies, 28 (2014), 487510Google Scholar
Trujillo, José RamónTraducciones y refundiciones de la prosa artúrica en la Península Ibérica (XIII–XVI)’, in Zarandona, Juan (ed.), De Britania a Britonia: La leyenda artúrica en tierras de Iberia: Cultura, literatura y traducción (Bern: Peter Lang, 2014), pp. 69116Google Scholar
Vicent Santamaria, Sara (ed.). Guillem de Torroella: La Faula (Valencia: Tirant lo Blanch, 2011)Google Scholar
Wagner, Charles Philip. ‘The sources of El cavallero Cifar’, Revue hispanique, 10 (1903), 5104Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×