The Provincial Council of Valencia has joined the celebration of Book Day with the dissemination of images of the only known manuscript fragment in the world of the chivalry novel Tirant lo Blanch, by Joanot Martorell, since no manuscript of it has been preserved. the work.
In a statement, the provincial institution explains that the content of this fragment, which was discovered in the early 90s by Jaime J. Chiner in the Duquesa de Almodóvar fund, corresponds to a part of chapters 407 and 408, that is, almost from the last part of the work.
The deputy of the General Administration area, Ricardo Gabaldón, stressed that “this discovery once again highlights the historical and heritage value of the funds preserved by the Provincial Council, not only on an artistic level, with works by great figures such as Sorolla, Benlliure and Pinazo, but also in terms of photographic material and documents, many of them from private collections that have been donated to the institution for its conservation and dissemination.”
The same sources report that the most curious thing is that the handwritten sheet was used as a guard for a 15th century lawsuit. The sheet was torn from the manuscript to be reused, folded in half, as a folder to protect the documents of a judicial process that took place in 1454 related to the Loris family (Isabel de Loris is mentioned in the colophon of Tirant). It must be taken into account that the first edition of the work was made in Valencia in 1490, and this manuscript fragment can be dated prior to that date.
The Archive of the Duchess of Almodóvar comprises approximately 700 installation units (boxes and volumes) and covers the period from the mid-13th century to the beginning of the 19th century, hence the difficulty of finding the precious document.
To explain how the Duchess of Almodóvar’s funds ended up in the Archive of the provincial institution, we must go back to the will of the last Duchess of Almodóvar, written in 1804 and in which Mrs. Josefa Dominga Catalá de Valeriola y Luján names her testamentary executors. and, after some legacies, he orders that with the remaining name heirs his soul and in suffrage of the same, ordering that his goods or the product of those sold, be distributed among poor orphans of both sexes who were in a state of to marry and are of honest customs and who were his vassals.
After the Duchess died in 1813, the testamentary office was organized to execute her will and did so autonomously until the Charity Law of June 20, 1849 created the Provincial Charity Boards, which were in charge, as auxiliaries of the Government, of the Establishments. Provincial Charities. When they were suppressed, on December 17, 1868, all the directive and administrative functions they performed were assumed by the Provincial Councils, passing to them the documentary funds and effects of the Provincial Boards.
