The Gothic Novel ‘Curial e Güelfa’: an erudite Creation by Milà i Fontanals

Abstract

Curial e Guelfa is not a chivalric novel written in the 15th century, but a ‘Gothic’ novel written in the 19th century by its professed discoverer, Manuel Mila i Fontanals. The text reveals a clear portrait of its author: an erudite scholar who had read vastly, from Muntaner’s Cronica to Il Novellino, from Paris e Viana to Petit Jehan de Saintre; someone familiar with the troubadours Rigaut de Berbezilh and Raimbaut de Vaqueiras; an author who had read, among many other works, Fulgentius’ Mitologiae and Enrique de Villena’s Glosas de la Eneida; Alfonso de la Torre’s Vision deleitable, Manrique’s Verses and El cortesano by Luis Milan. The concordances with these works make it evident that the book is a composite imitation by the highly erudite Catalan writer. Moreover, they attest to the fact that Curial e Guelfa can by no means have been written in the 15th century, as no writer could have had all the aforementioned works at his disposal at the time, and it was naturally impossible to read books published after the alleged date of writing of Curial e Guelfa.