ABSTRACT
Cervantes’s novel Don Quixote is born at the historical moment when the most popular books of fiction in Spain nostalgically recalled legendary exploits of chivalry, proliferating tales of valiant knights who set forth to seek adventure. 1 The literary history of these immensely well-received novels is complex, but what is of import to my essay is their genealogical trope: the knights-errant’s progeny propagate the genre from the late medieval to the early modern period. 2 The first and most famous Castilian novel of chivalry, and no doubt Cervantes’s favorite, was Amadís de Gaula [Amadis of Gaul]. 3 It was soon followed by many others; according to Henry Thomas, for the next hundred years, some 50 new novels were published at a rate of almost one yearly between 1508 and 1550, and nine added between 1550 and 1558. 4 Amadís de Gaula is a collection of 12 books, the first four of which recount the exploits of the knight Amadís; the fifth, Las aventuras de Esplandián [The Adventures of Esplandián], written by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, deals with Amadís’s son. 5 This book went through no fewer than nine editions from 1510 to 1588. Book 6 also dealt with the young sons of Amadís’s brothers Galaor and Florestán; Book 7, written by Feliciano de Silva, revives the series’ fame with the adventures of Esplandián’s son, Lisuarte de Grecia [Lisuarte of Greece]. Lisuarte would go on to sire his own son, Amadís de Grecia [Amadís of Greece] who, in turn, sires Florisel de Niquea [Florisel of Nicaea], the hero of a new chronicle. The last of the Amadís clan, Silves de la Selva [Silves of the Forest], son of Amadís of Greece, appears in Book 12 (Thomas 76–7). 6
