Don Juan Manuel – Count Lucanor Fifty Pleasant Stories of Patronio

Don Juan Manuel’s Tales of Count Lucanor, in Spanish Libro de los ejemplos del conde Lucanor y de Patronio (“Book of the Examples of Count Lucanor and of Patronio”), also commonly known as El Conde Lucanor or Libro de los ejemplos (original Old Castilian: Libro de los enxiemplos del Conde Lucanor et de Patronio), is one of the earliest works of prose in Castilian Spanish. It was first published in 1335.

The book is divided into four parts. The first and most well-known part 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. Story 28, “Of what happened to a woman called Truhana“, a version of Aesop’s The Milkmaid and Her Pail, was claimed by Max Muller to originate in the Hindu cycle Panchatantra.

Don Juan Manuel, the author of Tales of Count Lucanor

Tales of Count Lucanor was first printed in 1575 when it was published at Seville under the auspices of Argote de Molina. It was again printed at Madrid in 1642, after which it lay forgotten for nearly two centuries.

About Author:

Juan Manuel, Duke of Penafiel (Escalona, 5 May 1282 – Penafiel, 13 June 1348) is one of the most important Spanish medieval writers, nephew of Alfonso X of Castile, son of Juan Manuel, Lord of Villena and Beatrice of Savoy.

Juan Manuel’s work is marked by a great preoccupation both with the practical and the spiritual life, and is directed not only to the nobility, but also to lower estates, since much of his work speaks not only of the duties of lords, but of their vassals as well. While his work is often classified under the general Medieval rubric of “the education of princes” it also begins to approach the Machiavellianism which is more characteristic of the Renaissance, by virtue of its dedication to the astute art of governing.

The structure of stories in El Conde Lucanor reflects the ordinances and hierarchical structuring of the medieval world. In the first parts a young nobleman, Lucanor, proposes an abstract problem to Patronio; later, he gives an apologue which extracts the solution from Patronio’s tale, applying it to himself. Juan Manuel concludes the story with a short verse, condensing the moral of the story into short, concrete statements.

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