Published in Manifestations of the Ancient and Medieval World

Keywords: Keywords: Curial and Guelfa, History and Literature, Humanism, Novel Cavalry, Representation.

When we glimpse the slow turning off of the medieval lights in the fifteenth century, we see the gradual transformation (and secularization) of the code values that guided that civilization (ethics, morality, courtesy, Christian education, etc.). In this sense, literature offers the historian, who focuses on transition time, a remarkable promontory where we can observe the interpenetration of different historical times, as taught Fernand Braudel (1902-1985). That is why the study of the cavalry novel (realistic) Curial and Guelfa allows this unveiling of life in the high layers of that century. Life in the courts, civilized life, polished life. Thus, it is in our interest to analyze how the author of the novel built a certain idealized image of their own past, as forged in a text (beautifully written) an ideal chivalrous – under the humanist guise – to take as paradigmatic model King Peter III, the Great (1239-1285) of Aragon and Valencia and Count of Barcelona. For this, we will use of the (first) translation into Portuguese made by Ricardo da Costa (by invitation of the Universitat d'Alacant) to the International project IVITRA, that was published in the University of Santa Barbara (California). Our theoretical framework is based on the concept that the real power of the Middle Ages was built by cultural advertisements of heralds that lived in the cuts, thesis defended by José Manuel Nieto Soria. Besides that, we use the concept of representation exposed by Roger Chartier (1945- ).