Don Juan Manuel's Libro de los ejemplos del conde Lucanor y de Patronio ("Book of the examples of Count Lucanor and of Patronio"), known commonly as "El Conde Lucanor" or "Libro de los ejemplos" (original Old Castilian: "Libro de los enxiemplos del Conde Lucanor et de Patronio"), one of the earliest works of prose in Castilian Spanish. It was first published in 1337.
The book is a series of 51 short stories (some no more than a page or two), drawn from various sources, such as Aesop and other classical writers, and Arabic folktales. The story of the Dean of Santiago and the mage Illán (story XI), has had a relative identified in Japanese folktales, and the story of the lady called doña Truhana (story VII) is identified by Max Müller as originating in the Hindu cycle "Panchatantra".
The didactic, moralistic purpose, which would color so much of the Spanish literature to follow (see Novela picaresca), is the mark of this book. El Conde (the Count) Lucanor engages in conversation with his advisor Patronio, putting to him a problem ("Some man has made me a proposition..." or "I fear that such and such person intends to...") and asking for advice. Patronio responds always with the greatest humility, claiming not to wish to offer advice to so illustrious a person as the Conde, but offering to tell him a story of which the Conde's problem reminds him. (Thus, the stories are "examples" ["ejemplos"] of wise action.) At the end he advises the Conde to do as the protagonist of his story did.
Each chapter ends in more or less the same way, with slight variations on: "And this pleased the Count greatly and he did just so, and found it well. And Don Johán (Juan) saw that this example was very good, and had it written in this book, and composed the following verses." A rhymed couplet closes, giving the moral of the story.
The tale of the "young man who married a very strong and fiery woman"[" - De lo que contesçió a un mançebo que casó con una muger muy fuerte et muy brava".] has the basic elements of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew". ]Chapter 32, "What Happened To A King With The Rogues Who Wove The Cloth"[" - De lo que contesció a un rey con los burladores que fizieron el paño".] , tells the story that H.C. Andersen made popular as "The Emperor's New Clothes". ]ources
*Don Juan Manuel. "El Conde Lucanor". Barcelona: Losada, 1997.
*Don Juan Manuel. "The Book of Count Lucanor and Patronio: A Translation of Don Juan Manuel’s “El Conde Lucanor”". Keller, John E., and L. Clark Keating, trans. New York: Peter Lang, 1993.
Bibliography
*Ayerbe-Chaux, Reinaldo. El Conde Lucanor: Materia tradicional y originalidad creadora. Madrid: J. Porrúa Turanzas, 1975.
*Barcia, Pedro Luis. Análisis de El Conde Lucanor. Buenos Aires: Centro Editor de América Latina, 1968.
*Biglieri, Aníbal A. Hacia una poética del relato didáctico: Ocho estudios sobre El conde Lucanor. Chapel Hill: UNC Dept. of Romance Languages, 1989.
*Devoto, Daniel. Introducción al estudio de don Juan Manuel y en particular de El Conde Lucanor: Una bibliografía. Paris: Ediciones hispano-americanas, 1972.
*Deyermond, Alan. "Introduction." Libro del Conde Lucanor. Ed. Reinaldo Ayerbe-Chaux. Madrid: Alhambra, 1985. 3-49.
*Flory, David. El Conde Lucanor: Don Juan Manuel en su contexto histórico. Madrid: Pliegos, 1995.
*Hammer, Michael Floyd. "Framing the Reader: Exemplarity and Ethics in the Manuscripts of the 'Conde Lucanor'." Ph.D. University of California at Los Angeles, 2004.
*Kaplan, Gregory B. "Innovation and Humor in Three of El Conde Lucanor's Most Amusing Exemplos: A Freudian Approach." "Hispanófila" 123 (1998): 1-15.
*Lida de Malkiel, María Rosa. "Tres notas sobre don Juan Manuel." "Romance Philology" 4.2-3 (1950): 155-94.
*Menocal, Maria Rosa. "Life Itself: Storytelling as the Tradition of Openness in the Conde Lucanor." "Oral Tradition and Hispanic Literature: Essays in Honor of Samuel M. Armistead". Ed. Michael M. Caspi. New York: Garland, 1995. 469-95.
*Sturm, Harlan.
** "Author and Authority in El Conde Lucanor." "Hispanófila" 52 (1974): 1-10.
**"The Conde Lucanor: The First Exemplo." "MLN" 84 (1969): 286-92.
*Vasvari, Louise O. "'Hit the Cat and Tame the Bride': Shrew Taming as Wedding Ritual, East to West." "American and British Interactions, Perceptions and Images of North America". Ed. Adel Manai. TSAS Innovation Series: American Center, Tunis, Tunisia, 2000. 122-40.
*Wacks, David.
**" [http://www.spanport.ucsb.edu/projects/ehumanista/volumes/volume_04/Articles/Wacks.pdf Ibn Sahula's Tale of the Egyptian Sorcerer: A Thirteenth Century Don Yllán.] " "eHumanista" 4 (2004): 1-12.
**"Don Yllán and the Egyptian Sorcerer: Vernacular commonality and literary diversity in medieval Castile." Sefarad 65.2 (2005): 413-33.
**"Reconquest Colonialism and Andalusi Narrative Practice in Don Juan Manuel's Conde Lucanor." diacritics 36.3-4 (2006): 87-103.
*Madsen, Annette. Count Lucanor by Don Juan Manuel as Inspiration for Hans Christian Andersen and Other European Writers, In Johan de Mylius, Aage Jørgensen and Viggo Hjørnager Pedersen (eds.), "Hans Christian Andersen. A Poet in Time." Papers from the Second International Hans Christian Andersen Conference 29 July to 2 August 1996. The Hans Christian Andersen Center, Odense: Odense University Press, 1999. http://www.andersen.sdu.dk/forskning/konference/tekst_e.html?id=10922
