Analogy, Exemplum, and the First Tale of Juan Manuel's El Conde Lucanor

In Juan Manuel's fourteenth-century masterpiece El Conde Lucanor, the analogical relationship between the narrative frame and the intercalated apologues has often been mentioned. This article makes use of recent work on the way analogies function in order to better understand the much-vaunted "didacticism" of the Conde Lucanor. Investigation of the first ejemplo from the standpoint of recent theoretical work on analogies reveals that two analogies are in fact in operation, the second of which "thinks" the Conde Lucanor as a book and makes Patronio and his apologues indispensable to Count Lucanor for the duration of book 1.