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How did Tirant lo Blanc draw on Catalan experiences in the Middle East?

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Catalan literature Ausias March, detail of a lithograph

The chivalric romance Tirant lo Blanc (c. 1460), authored by Joanot Martorell and Martí Joan de Galba, does not merely invent its setting; it offers a fictionalized treatment of historical Catalan exploits in the Middle East.1

Specifically, the novel draws upon the real-life adventures of the Grand Catalan Company, whose expedition to the Morea in southern Greece is famously chronicled by Ramon Muntaner. By incorporating these historical experiences into its narrative framework, Tirant lo Blanc grounds its chivalric themes in the documented military history of the Catalans in the eastern Mediterranean.12