Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo
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| Born | 1450 Medina del Campo, Kingdom of Castile |
| Died | 1505 (aged 54–55) |
| Pen name |
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| Occupation | Author |
| Language | Early Modern Spanish |
| Genre | Fiction, chivalric romance |
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Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo (around 1450 – 1505) was a Spanish writer. He is famous for putting together the modern version of a popular adventure story called Amadis of Gaul. This story was originally written in the 1300s by someone whose name we don't know.
Montalvo added a fourth book to the Amadis series. He also wrote a follow-up story called Las sergas de Esplandián. This second book is very important because it's where the name "California" first appeared!
People sometimes called him by other names, like Garci Ordóñez de Montalvo or García de Montalvo el Viejo.
Contents
Life Story of Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo
Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo was born in Medina del Campo, a town in Spain, around the year 1450. He came from a powerful family. His family was one of the seven main groups that helped run the town's council.
Montalvo held important jobs in his town. He was an Alderman of Medina del Campo. He also worked as a clerk for the land around the town. In 1482, he was part of a group sent to protect Alhama. This city had recently been captured from the Moors.
Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo had three children. Their names were Pedro Vaca, Juan Vaca Montalvo, and Francisco Vaca. His grandson, García de Montalvo, later traveled to Venezuela and Peru around 1540. He shared information with another important writer, Fernández de Oviedo.
Records from a lawsuit show that Montalvo had passed away by the year 1505. Many of his writings might have been published after his death.
The Adventures of Esplandián and California
Montalvo spent many years working on the Amadis of Gaul novels. He translated them and made them his own. He also added a fourth book to the series.
After that, he wrote a new story called Las sergas de Esplandián. This title means The Adventures of Esplandián. In this book, Montalvo tells about the life and travels of Amadis's oldest son.
How California Got Its Name
In The Adventures of Esplandián, Montalvo described a made-up place. He called it the "Island of California." He wrote that it was west of the Indies and very close to a place called the Terrestrial Paradise.
He described this island as being full of black women. These women lived like Amazons, meaning there were no men among them.
This novel greatly influenced explorers like Hernán Cortés. They believed this "island" was real and located along the west coast of North America. In 1539, Francisco de Ulloa explored the Gulf of California. He found that it was a peninsula, not an island. However, many maps in Europe still showed California as an island for a long time, even into the 1700s.
Other authors continued the story of Amadis and Esplandián. These later books included Florisando (1510) and Lisuarte of Greece (1514, 1525).
See also
In Spanish: Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo para niños
