Joanot Martorell

Joanot Martorell (c. 1410–1465) was a Valencian knight and writer, born in Valencia into a minor noble family from Gandia. Knighted by 1433, he spent long years in England, Portugal and Naples over his many chivalric disputes, and in 1454 joined Alfonso the Magnanimous at Naples.

In 1460 he began his Valencian romance Tirant lo Blanch. He died in Valencia in 1465, leaving the manuscript with his creditor Martí Joan de Galba, who had it printed there in 1490. Cervantes later praised the book in Don Quixote.