Tirant Lo Blanch was first published in Valencia, in 1490. Of this edition there are three copies extant: one in the British Museum, another in the Biblioteca Provincial in Valencia, and the third in the library of the Hispanic Society of New York.[3] Mr. Archer M. Huntington, founder of the above Society and a distinguished patron of Spanish letters, had two hundred facsimile copies made from the last one mentioned.[4] One of these was used in the investigations connected with this dissertation.
[3] For the history and description of these three copies see D. Isidro Bonsoms y Sicart, La Edición príncipe del “Tirant lo Blanch” Cotejo de los tres ejemplares impresos en Valencia, en 1490, únicos conocidos hoy día (Discursos leídos en la Real Academia de Buenas Letras de Barcelona en la recepción pública de D. Isidro Bonsoms y Sicart, Barcelona, 1907). Also see Juan Givanel Mas, Estudio crítico de Tirant lo Blanch, Madrid, 1912; pp. 27-34.
[4] Ibid., p. 59.
A second edition was published in Barcelona, in 1497. While I was in that city in the summer of 1915, I saw fragments of a copy of this edition in the Institut d’Estudis Catalans. It is to these fragments that Givanel Mas refers in the following words: “Los únicos pliegos que se conocen hoy día de la edición barcelonesa de 1497 del Tirant lo Blanch, se hallan en la Biblioteca del Institut d’Estudis Catalans; comprenden desde el capítulo ccxviiii al ccccxciii y del ccccxxxix al ccccxlv.”[5]
[5] Ibid., p. 41, footnote 2.
It therefore affords me great pleasure to be able to announce that the Hispanic Society of New York has in its possession a complete copy of the edition of 1497. It is gilt edged and is bound in leather of a yellowish, almost brown, color. Its back is decorated with gilded lines and bears the title Roman del Cavaller | Tirant Blanc | Barcelona | 1497. The title page is missing, but at the end of the book a fragment of paper bearing the words “Tirant lo Blanch” in large letters is pasted on a flyleaf. This fragment is probably a part of the title page. The edges of several pages at the beginning and at the close of the book had been torn, but they have been neatly mended. A considerable number of pages are somewhat soiled, but all are easily legible. The facsimile reproduction of a page of the fragments in Barcelona, which Givanel Mas has inserted in his work, coincides exactly with the corresponding page of the book in the library of the Hispanic Society. This author has also set forth other interesting details concerning the edition of 1497.[6] The colophon of the edition reads:
[6] Ibid., pp. 38-42.
A honor y gloria d’nostre senyor deu Jeusucrist: fon principiat a stampar lo present libre per mestre Pere miquel condam y es acabat per Diego de gumiel castella en la molt noble e insigne ciutat de Barcelona a .xvi. de Setembre d’l any .M. CCCC. XCVII.[7]
[7] To the honor and glory of our Lord God, Jesus Christ: the printing of this book was begun by Master Pere Miquel Condam and is completed by Diego de Gumiel, a Castilian, in the most noble and excellent city of Barcelona on the sixteenth day of September of the year 1497.