Once the Mélusine romance appeared in print the story soon spread to other areas of western Europe too. Within two decades of the appearance of the first printed Mélusine version – Richel's 1473–4 edition of the German translation – there were not only five editions of the prose HM and at least ten editions of the German Melusine, but also a Castilian and a Dutch edition. The romance's early transfer to print was undoubtedly a significant factor in the creation of the Castilian and Dutch translations, since both are based on a printed exemplar of Jean's HM. Moreover, these translations are found exclusively in a printed context, as there is no evidence of any manuscript versions. The earliest witnesses to the translations were printed less than two years apart, but the Castilian translation has a slightly earlier date, and so I examine the Castilian editions first. The Dutch editions are discussed in the next chapter.

The earliest known witness to the Castilian translation of La historia de la linda Melosina is the edition printed by Juan Parix and Estevan Cleblat in Toulouse, dated 14 July 1489. The translation is in prose and is modelled on the HM. The prologue even retains Jean's dedication to the Duke of Berry and his sister, or the ‘muy alto e poderoso señor Juan’ (very high and mighty lord Jean) and ‘la muy noble señora dona María’ (the very noble lady Marie). Interestingly, though the text is based on one of the French versions, the edition also has links with the German translation, as most of its sixty-three woodcuts are derived directly from the woodblocks first used for Richel's editio princeps of the German Melusine. The romance evidently continued to appeal to Castilian readers, as some decades later, in 1526, Jacobo and Juan Cromberger printed another Castilian Melosina from their workshop in Seville.4 Like Parix and Cleblat, the Crombergers also reused existing woodblocks to illustrate their edition, though in their case the recycled images were not designed specifically for the story of Mélusine.