James Fitzmaurice-Kelly

“ El Conde Lucanor is essentially the production of a conscious artist, deliberative and selective in his methods. Don Juan Manuel has not Boccaccio’s festive fancy nor his constructive skill; he is too persistently didactic and concerned to point a moral; but he excels in knowledge of human nature, in the faculty of ironical presentation, in tolerant wisdom and in luminous conciseness. ”

“ Nothing is more striking than the curious and varied erudition of the turbulent prince who weaves his personal experiences with historical or legendary incidents, with reminiscences of Aesop and Phaedrus, with the Disciplina clericalis, with Kalilah and Dimnah, with countless Oriental traditions, and with all the material of anecdotic literature which he embodies in the Libro de patronio, best known by the title of El Conde Lucanor (the name Lucanor being taken from the prose Tristan) . ”

“ Alphonso XI.’s repudiation of Constanza, whom he imprisoned at Toro, drove Don Juan Manuel into opposition, and a long period of civil war followed. On the death of his wife Constantina in 1327, Don Juan Manuel strengthened his position by marrying Doña Blanca de la Cerda; he secured the support of Juan Nuñez, alférez of Castile, by arranging a marriage between him and Maria, daughter of Don Juan el Tuerto; he won over Portugal by promising the hand of his daughter, the ex-queen Constanza, to the infante of that kingdom, and he entered into alliance with Mahomet III. of Granada. ”