Bernat Metge’s Masterpiece: A Journey Through Humanism
Bernat Metge’s First Book
During this part, the author, who is locked in prison, receives a visit in his dreams from the soul of King Joan I. They engage in a religious and philosophical dialogue on the immortality of the soul. Of the four books, this one most reflects humanistic thinking, doubting all things and arguing rationally.
Bernat Metge’s Second Book
We learn the identity of King Joan’s two companions, who are the characters of classical mythology: Tiresias and Orpheus. This is also a clearly humanistic element: the reference to the classics. King Joan I also explains that the fate of his soul is not hell, but purgatory, where his soul is purified and then could go to heaven. This is an important part in defending the innocence of Bernat Metge.
Bernat Metge’s Third Book
Orpheus gives an explanation of his life, and then describes hell in the same way as Virgil and Dante. Tiresias delivers an indictment against women.
Bernat Metge’s Fourth Book
Conversely, a doctor makes extensive praise to all women, starting with ancient times and extending throughout history. He criticizes men, and later comments point by point on Tiresias’ arguments against women. Finally, the book ends when the author wakes from his dream.
The Renaissance is the historical period and cultural movement that starts from the Italian humanist current and was imposed throughout Europe during the sixteenth century. The art of the Renaissance is characterized by its classic and elegant lines.
Bernat Metge, Joanot Martorell, and Ausiàs March gave excellent quality and great prestige to Catalan literature. After the Modern Age came a long period of decline, which has often been called the Decadence. During the Modern Age, literary cultivation was curtailed and did not produce great works of this period’s movements.
Petrarch is the founder of humanism and one of the greatest poets of world literature. His *Canzoniere* became the most imitated book of poetry from the Renaissance to the beginning of the twentieth century.
The large variation of the theme of medieval religious drama allows for several cycles: the Christmas cycle, dedicated to the birth of Christ; the Easter series, dedicated to the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ; the cycle of Mary, dedicated to the Virgin Mary; and the hagiographic cycle, devoted to the lives of saints. Alongside profane popular theater, the most important genre from the late Middle Ages to the 18th century was the farce or comedy sketches. It is a short dramatic piece, one-act, with a comic or burlesque character and a popular atmosphere. The most frequent topics revolve around a series of stereotypical characters. The purpose of this genre was fun, and it used to be represented in squares and streets. Its language was colloquial, live, and direct.
The Baroque is characterized by artifice and ornamentation, flaunting skills in order to try to help the public evade an unpleasant world. Francesc Vicent Garcia, known as the Rector of Vallfogona, has written an extensive work characterized by its diversity of forms and registers: elegant sonnets, burlesque romances, narrative poems, etc. Due to this great diversity and the constant rhetorical artifice, Garcia is the top representative of the Baroque era in Catalonia.