The chivalric investiture: tradition and translation of an initiatory passage in 16th Century Spanish Books of Chivalry

Abstract

Investiture is a initiatory step in the life of literary knights-errant. After receiving the order, the novices can begin their adventures. However, not all investitures are identical, but the motif, like many other chivalric clichés, is reiterated with significant variations in the corpus of Spanish chivalric books of the Renaissance. On some occasions, the importance given to this act is underscored by intercalated adventures, symbolism and very common codified gestures, indebted to the investitures which, took place in reality from the Middle Ages onwards. This is the case, for example, of the chivalry books Valerián of Hungría  and Leandro el Bel, both translated into Italian by Pietro Lauro. The present article attempts to give a sample of Lauro’s tendencies in translation when facing an episode that has a codified, specific and varied development in the chivalric texts considered. It also brings up some considerations about the authorship of Leandro el Bel.