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

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

. It was first published in 1335.

The book is divided into four parts. The first and most well-known part is a series of 50 short stories (some no more than a page or two) drawn from various sources, such as Aesop

Aesop

Aesop was a Greek writer credited with a number of popular fables. Older spellings of his name have included Esop and Isope. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a...

 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

The Milkmaid and Her Pail

The Milkmaid and Her Pail is a folktale of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 1430 about interrupted daydreams of wealth and fame. Ancient tales of this type exist in the East but Western variants are not found before the Middle Ages...

, was claimed by Max Müller

Max Müller

Friedrich Max Müller , more regularly known as Max Müller, was a German philologist and Orientalist, one of the founders of the western academic field of Indian studies and the discipline of comparative religion...

 to originate in the Hindu cycle Panchatantra

Panchatantra

The Panchatantra is an ancient Indian inter-related collection of animal fables in verse and prose, in a frame story format. The original Sanskrit work, which some scholars believe was composed in the 3rd century BCE, is attributed to Vishnu Sharma...

.

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.

Purpose and structure

A didactic, moralistic purpose, which would color so much of the Spanish literature to follow (see Novela picaresca), is the mark of this book. 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 Count, but offering to tell him a story of which the Count's problem reminds him. (Thus, the stories are "examples" [ejemplos] of wise action.) At the end he advises the Count 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.

Treatments derived from Tales of Count Lucanor

Tale 44, "Of what happened to a young Man on his Wedding Day" has the basic elements of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...

.

Tale 7, "Of that which happened to a King and three Impostors" tells the story that Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...

 made popular as The Emperor's New Clothes

The Emperor's New Clothes

"The Emperor's New Clothes" is a short tale by Hans Christian Andersen about two weavers who promise an Emperor a new suit of clothes that is invisible to those unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent...

.

Tale 23, What happened to a good Man and his Son, leading a beast to market is the familiar fable The miller, his son and the donkey

The miller, his son and the donkey

The miller, his son and the donkey is a widely dispersed fable, number 721 in the Perry Index. Though it may have ancient analogues, the earliest extant version is in the work of the 13th century Arab writer Ibn Said. There are many eastern versions of the tale and in Europe it was included in a...

.

The stories

The titles in the following list are those given in James York's 1868 translation into English.

The Prologue

1. Relates to what happened to a Moorish king of Cordova

2. Treats of that which happened to Lorenzo Suarez Gallinato, and Garciperez of Vargas, and another knight

3. Treats of that which happened to Don Rodrigo el Franco and his knights

4. Of a Hermit who sought to know whom he should have for his companion in Paradise, and of the leap made by King Richard of England

5. Of that which happened to the Emperor Frederick and Don Alvar Fañez, with their wives

6. Of that which happened to the Count of Provence and Saladin the Sultan of Babylon

7. Of that which happened to a King and three Impostors

8. What happened to a King with a man who called himself an Alchymist

9. Of that which happened to two Cavaliers who were in the service of the Infant Prince Henry

10. Concerning what happened to a Seneschal of Carcasona

11. Of that which happened to a Moor who had a Sister pretending to be alarmed at any ordinary occurrence

12. Of that which happened to a Dean of Santiago, with Don Illan, the Magician, who lived at Toledo

13. What happened to King Ben Abit, of Seville, with Queen Romaquia, his wife

14. Concerining what happened to a Lombardian, in Bologna

15. What Count Fernan Gonzales said to Nuno Lainez

16. Of what happened to Don Rodrigo Melendez de Valdez

17. Concerning that which happened to a great Philosopher and a young King, his pupil

18. Relates what happened to a Moorish King, who had three Sons, and who desired to know which would become the best Man

19. Of that which happened to the Canons of the Cathedral Church of Paris, and to the Friars of Saint Francis, called Minors

20. Of that which happened to a Falcon and a Heron, and, more particularly, to a cunning Falcon, which belonged to the Infant Don Manuel

21. Recounts what happened to Count Fernan Gonzalez, and the Reply which he gave to his Vassals

22. Of that which happened to a King and his Favourite

23. What happened to a good Man and his Son, leading a beast to market

24. Of what a Genovese said to his soul when about to die

25. What happened to the Crow, with the Fox

26. What happened to the Swallow, with the other birds, when he saw the flax sown

27. Relates what happened to a Man who carried a very precious Treasure hung round his neck, and who had to pass a River

28. Of what happened to a woman called Truhana

29. Of that which happened to a Man who was suffering from a malady and whose liver had to be cleansed

30. Of what happened to a man who through poverty and lack of other food, was reduced to eat some peas

31 What happened to a Cock and a Fox

32. What happened to a Man catching Partridges

33. Relates to what happened to a Man with his Friend who had invited him to dinner

34. What happened to the Owls and the Crows

35. The advice which Patronio gave to Count Lucanor, when he said he wished to enjoy himself, illustrated by the example of that which happened to the Ants

36. Of that which happened to a good Man and his Son, who boasted of having many Friends

37. Relates to what happened to the Lion and the Bull

38. Relates to the advice which Patronio gave to Count Lucanor, when he expressed a desire to obtain a good reputation; and the example was what happened to a Philosopher who was suffering from a severe illness

39. Of what happened to a man who was made Governor of a large territory

40. Of that which happened to Good and Evil, illustrated by what occurred to a Man with a Madman

41. Of the association between Truth and Falsehood

42. Of what happened to a Fox who pretended to be dead

43. What happened to two blind Men travelling together

44. Of what happened to a young Man on his Wedding Day

45. Of what happened to a Merchant who went to buy brains

46. What happened to a Man with a grey Sandpiper and a Swallow

47. What happened to the Devil, with a Woman who went on a pilgrimage

48. The advice which Patronio gave to Count Lucanor when informed that a Man had offered to teach him the art of foretelling coming events, which he exemplified by what happened to a good Man who became first rich and afterwards poor by the intervention of the Devil

49. What happened to Don Lorenzo Xuares Gallinato, when he beheaded the renegade Priest

50. Concerning that which happened to Saladin and a Lady, wife of a Knight in his service