Francesc Eiximenis is an outstanding figure in the ranks of the mendicant orders who, in the late Middle Ages, strove to educate the lower echelons of society. Born in Gerona, around 1330, probably to a comfortable middle-class family, Eiximenis entered the Franciscan order at a very early age, studied in Oxford, and probably also in Paris, and obtained the degree of master of theology in Toulouse. Later he combined teaching with the composing of his works. Among these stands out the monumental and widely known Lo Crestia (The Christian), in which Eiximenis aimed to include all contemporary...

The Valencian Ausias March (1400-1459) was one of the greatest poets writing in Europe in the fifteenth century. His work is characterized by a powerful and unique voice and by the constant innovation that allowed him not only to develop traditional genres, but to compose poems that virtually created genres of their own. This selection includes poems on love, a cycle of six compositions on grief, a long poem on God and predestination, others of praise and vilification, or on philosophical themes. While March has previously been translated into English prose, this anthology offers translations...

La exactitud y la precision de las noticias recogidas por los Jesuitas en estas cartas han sido elogiadas por historiadores de la talla de Gregorio Maranon y Pascual de Gayangos. Hace 16 anos Crosby compilo este Indice para su propia utilidad al anotar una serie de 28 cartas desconocidas de Quevedo, redactadas en la carcel. Como se trata de un periodo importantisimo en la historia de Europa, y puede ser de gran utilidad a otros investigadores, Crosby decidio publicarlo para ofrecerles acceso a las 3.451 paginas de los siete tomos impresos de la correspondencia de los Jesuitas espanoles a...

Written around 1381 by Bernat Metge, the most important Catalan writer of the fourteenth century, the Llibre de Fortuna i Prudencia is a fantasy in verse, drawing on learned sources, principally The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius. Early one morning, Bernat, the protagonist and narrator, decides to alleviate his sorrows by strolling around the harbour of Barcelona. He meets an old man, apparently a beggar, who tricks him into getting into a boat which, despite the absence of sails and oars, conveys him to an island where the goddess Fortuna appears to him. In a heated discussion, Bernat...

The Life of Christ (Vita Christi), written by the abbess Isabel de Villena, is the only literary work to have been preserved in Catalan and to bear the signature of a woman during the Middle Ages. It was composed to provide spiritual direction for the nuns within the community of Poor Clares which Sor (i.e. Sister) Isabel oversaw at the Convent of the Holy Trinity in Valencia. The work was only able to emerge from obscurity by accident. In 1497 Queen Isabel of Castile, the wife of Ferdinand of Catalonia-Aragon, who had heard news of the book's existence, asked Sor Isabel's successor for a...

Dialogue is one of the Classical genres reclaimed by the Renaissance, which turns it into a hallmark of the period. In the Catalan-speaking world nearly forty dialogues were written in the course of the Renaissance. Despuig's Dialogues, written in 1557, stand out from the rest by the extent to which they incorporate the most innovative aspects of the genre: the dramatisation of Renaissance multiple perspectives and the consistency of the fictional plot that provides a structure for the ideas. The Dialogues offer a critical review of a host of issues that were topical at the time. The three...

Lucas Fernandez (1474-1542) fue musico, dramaturgo y poeta. De sus obras solo quedan las Farsas y eglogas que se publicaron en 1514 en Salamanca. La edicion que aqui se presenta no pretende ofrecer lo que pudo ser el manuscrito original y se basa en el estudio cuidadoso de los dos unicos ejemplares que quedan del impreso de 1514. Va acompanada de una introduccion novedosa, de numerosas notas a pie de pagina, imprescindibles hoy para la comprension del texto, de un importante glosario y de una bibliografia al dia. Francoise Maurizi es profesora en la Universidad de Caen, Francia. Lucas...

The Romance of Evast and Blaquerna is a novel in which Ramon Llull rebelled against secular literature of chivalry and the court in general, which was so successful in his time. Written around 1283, it tells the fictional biography of Blaquerna, a virtuous young man who aspires to be a hermit, not a knight, but who on encountering the disorder of the world is obliged to remain in it. In his reform efforts, Blaquerna passes through several estates before being elected Holy Father in Rome, allowing him to intervene in all Christendom and work decidedly in favor of the conversion of infidels ....

Ramon Llull wrote the Doctrina pueril between 1274 and 1276 to provide minimum knowledge to those people---children, but also adults--- who did not have the opportunity to acquire a sufficient doctrinal and intellectual education. In the late thirteenth century this meant stressing the basics of Christian doctrine and also accessing some aspects of general culture. The most important part of the Doctrina is dedicated to the catechism (articles of faith, commandments, sacraments, vices and virtues, etc.). Especially interesting, however, are the more general sections, encyclopedic in nature,...