Is this 15th-century Valencian knight’s tale the world’s first modern novel?

Art · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Tirant lo Blanch, a chivalric romance published in 1490, defied medieval conventions by depicting its hero as a flesh-and-blood human rather than a platonic ideal. Praised by Miguel de Cervantes as the best book in the world, this masterpiece arguably invented the genre of alternate history centuries before its time.

Written by the Valencian knight Joanot Martorell between 1460 and 1464, Tirant lo Blanch tells the story of a Breton knight who travels across Europe before arriving in Constantinople to defend the Byzantine Empire against Ottoman invaders. Unlike the typical chivalric romances of the era, which focused on contemplative, platonic love, Martorell’s protagonist is defined by his sensuous nature, sarcasm, and very human vulnerabilities. The novel is notably grounded in daily life, featuring characters who eat, sleep, and even write wills before they die.

The work is a complex tapestry of intertextuality, drawing heavily from sources like Ramon Llull’s Book of the Order of Chivalry and the Four Great Catalan Chronicles. Martorell’s depiction of the defense of Constantinople mirrors the real-life exploits of Roger de Flor and his Catalan Company, leading many scholars to view the novel as a form of uchronia. By rewriting the history of the Byzantine Empire—which had fallen to the Ottomans in 1453—Martorell created a narrative that functioned as a wish-fulfillment for his contemporaries.

The authorship of the book remains a subject of debate, as Martorell pawned the manuscript to his friend Martí Joan de Galba to cover debts, and Galba later claimed co-authorship. Modern analysis of the text’s varying linguistic styles suggests a potential double authorship, with the first three parts appearing more archaic than the final two. Regardless of its origins, the novel’s influence on Western literature is profound; Miguel de Cervantes famously lauded it in Don Quixote, and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa has hailed it as the first example of a total novel.

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