[126] _De Institutione Christianae Feminae_, Bk. I, cap. 5: ‘Tum et de pestiferis libris cuiusmodi sunt in Hispania [= the whole Peninsula], Amadisius, Splandianus, Florisandus, Tirantus, Tristanus, quarum ineptiarum nullus est finis; quotidie prodeunt novae: Caelistina laena, nequitiarum parens, carcer amorum: in Gallia Lancilotus a Lacu, Paris et Vienna, Ponthus et Sydonia, Petrus Provincialis et Magelona, Melusina, domina inexorabilis: in hac Belgica Florius et Albus Flos, Leonella et Cana morus, Curias et Floreta, Pyramus et Thisbe’ (_Ioannis Ludovici Vivis Valentini Opera Omnia_, 7 vols., Valentiae Edetanorum, 1782-8, iv. 87). A Portuguese _Tristan_ may have existed, a Portuguese original of _Tirant lo Blanch_ less probably, although Pedro Juan Martorell, who began it in the Valencian or Lemosin _a ii de Giner de lany 1460_, declares that he had not only translated it from English into Portuguese but (_mas encara_) from Portuguese into Valencian. He dedicated it to the _molt illustre Princep_ Ferdinand of Portugal. Very probably the fame and origin of _Amadis_ accounted for this ‘English’ original, as mythical as the Hungarian origin of _Las Sergas de Esplandian_, and for its alleged translation into Portuguese. [127] Braunfels, _Versuch_: ‘Montalvo hatte, um einer Uebersetzung den Ruhm des mustergiltigen Styls und des reinsten Kastilianisch zu verschaffen, ein Geist ersten Rangs sein müssen, was er nicht war.’ Montalvo was probably not the real author even of the fourth book. The words (in this _Prólogo_ of his _Amadis_), _que hasta aquí no es memoria de ninguno ser visto_, refer not to the fourth book but to Montalvo’s _Sergas de Esplandian_, which is conveniently replaced by dots in T. Braga, _Questões_ (1881), p. 99, and _Hist. da Litt. Port._, i (1909), p. 313, and which the priest in _Don Quixote_ properly consigned to the flames. [128] His connexion with Portugal was not voluntary. It was probably when he was a prisoner after the battle of Aljubarrota (1385) that he wrote the _Rimado de Palacio_, in which (st. 162) _Amadis_ is mentioned. [129] For the later writers of Galician (second half 14th c.) see Professor Lang’s _Cancioneiro Gallego-Castelhano_ (1902). [130] _Lua_ (glove), _cedo_, &c., of course occur in early Spanish prose. _Soledad_ certainly occurs in the first three books more frequently than in other Spanish prose. The Portuguese atmosphere is altogether absent in _Las Sergas_. [131] Cap. 63: _o Livro d’Amadis, como quer que soomente este fosse feito a prazer de hum homem que se chamava Vasco Lobeira em tempo d’El Rey Dom Fernando, sendo todalas cousas do dito Liuro fingidas do Autor._