Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo

Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo (also Garci Ordóñez de Montalvo, * 1440, † 1504 ) was a Spanish writer.

Life

Little is known about the life Montalvos. He came from the village of Villa de Montalbo in the province of Cuenca. After the conquest of Alhama de Granada during the Reconquista Montalvo was 1482 knight in the service of the Catholic Monarchs. Later, in the period 1490-1500, he was the municipal council of Medina del Campo. He was passionate about horses and hunting lovers.

He edited the best-known of all the romances of chivalry, Amadis de Gaula (German: Amadis of Gaul ), which dates back to late medieval templates an unknown, probably Castilian author. The edited version of Montalvo, published in 1508, is the oldest preserved text version of the novel.

The three surviving volumes Montalvo added a fourth book added. He later wrote a sequel under the title Las Sergas de Esplandian ( oldest extant edition 1510), in which the adventures of the eldest son of Amadis are described. Other authors continued the Amadis novels.

In Esplandian Montalvo described a legendary island called California, which lie to the west of India and should be populated by Amazons. The novel influenced Hernán Cortés and other explorers in the exploration of the west coast of America. In contemporary and later created even maps to the 18th century Lower California was shown as an island, despite the discovery of Francisco de Ulloa in 1539 that Baja California is a peninsula.

Works

• Amadis de Gaula ( 1508)
• Las Sergas de Esplandian (1510 )