See supra.
Ed. Edwin Place, I, 11, II. 3-9.
Set also the comment on the «malos escritores» quoted below. Although he has not the slightest idea who wrote the book, he does believe that it was the work of more than one person, an interesting detail.
Frida Weber de Kurlat studies this aspect from a different point of view in «Estructura novelesca del Amadís de Gaula», Revista de Literaturas Modernas, 5 (1966), 29-54, as did previously Raymond Willis, in The Phantom Chapters of the Quixote (New York: Hispanic Institute, 1953).
Ed. cit., p. 9, II. 85-94.
P. 7 of the edition of Dennis Nazak (supra, note 78 to Chapter 2); p. 403 of that of Gayangos (BAE, 40). It should be noted that Montalvo felt it necessary to speak of the continuation with a metaphor, no doubt because of the novelty of the concept.
The eastern Mediterranean was the usual setting of all the later romances of chivalry, and therefore the term «ciclo greco-asiático», used by Gayangos to categorize some of the romances, is not particularly useful. For Montalvo's precedents, see L. Stegagno Picchio, «Fortuna iberica di un topos letterario: la corte di Costantinopoli dal Cligès al Palmerín de Olivia», in Studi sul Palmerín de Olivia. III. Saggi e richerche (Pisa, 1966), 99-136.
See Chapter 18 of the Sergas de Esplandián, where Elisabat's reliability is stressed.
Nevertheless, at the end of the princeps of Primaleón both it and its predecessor are said to have been translated from Greek (quoted by G. di Stefano in his edition of Palmerín de Olivia [Pisa, 1966], p. 783.
Aside from this, the exceptions are minor: Don Clarisel de las Flores, Floriseo, and Policisne de Boecia are the only ones I am aware of.
This pretense has contributed to an enormous bibliographic muddle, from which the romances of chivalry have not yet completely extricated themselves. Additional confusion has been caused by romances of chivalry in other countries, which, following the Spanish example, said they were translations from other languages, including Spanish. Such is the case with Florimón, which Nicolás Antonio assumed existed in Spanish, although this is almost certainly false.