Ramon Llull and Catalan Chronicles: Literature of the 13th-14th Centuries
The Prose of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries: Ramon Llull
Objectives
- Converting the infidels
- Writing books to spread the Christian faith
- Building schools to train missionaries
Narrative Work
Blanquerna: This book, a standout among all books, presents actors performing a journey in search of an ideal. The heroes travel the world to achieve a specific objective.
Book Blanquerna
A noteworthy work due to its narrative verisimilitude and detailed environments of medieval society. The characterization of the urban society of that time is made through two aspects: the appearance of a neighborhood and a custom at the time (offering alms to the poor when a rich person died).
Book of Wonders
Its objective is to reach God through knowledge of the world. It contains abundant examples (short stories used for teaching purposes). It is a fable independent of the rest of the work, featuring a satire of human political intrigues faced by carnivorous and herbivorous animals within the animal kingdom.
Didactic Work
Philosophical and Religious Teaching
Llull’s evangelist desire pursued two objectives: to promote Christian piety and spread his art.
Education and Social Policy
Example: Book of Chivalry. It aimed to order Christian knights formed within the parameters of medieval society, although influenced by feudalism.
Lyric Work
Poems in Prose
Example: Book of the Lover and the Beloved. It consists of about 366 short verses, a dialogue between the Lover (the human) and the Beloved (God), talking about love.
Chronicles
The literary genre originated from the interest in leaving a written historiography and had its origins in two events:
Folk Epic Poetry
The narrator and hero of the Geste was written in the vernacular or disclosed orally by the Romanesque and minstrels.
Erudite Chronicles
Written in Latin by the monks of the monasteries, narrating historical events quite remote.
Catalan Historiography
Regarding the erudite chronicles, the most important was the Gesta comitum barchinonensium et Regum Aragoniae written in the monastery of Ripoll in the 13th century. From this derivation came the four major popular chronicles.
The Songs of Lost Deeds
No sample is preserved in Catalan folk epic, but three of the four major historical chronicles show clear signs of prosified songs of feat.
From Verse to Prose
The prosification of epic poems was a resource widely used by medieval chroniclers when making historical stories.
The Four Major Chronicles
The chronicles of James I, Ramon Muntaner, Peter the Great, and Bernard Desclot. Characteristics of the public:
- The authors consider contemporary events.
- The contents of the chronicles reflect one of the moments of greatest glory in our history: the medieval expansion of the Catalan-Aragonese crown. Therefore, there is a patriotic intent.
- The language of the Catalan chronicles presents a formal uniformity.
Book of Facts: Autobiographical tone, direct participation.
Bernard Desclot: Officer of the chancellery. The purpose of this chronicle is to glorify the figure of the great King Peter II.
Ramon Muntaner: The largest chronicle of all. The book of memory tells all the events, highlighting his presence through a dialogue with the public listeners.
* Almogáver – a mercenary soldier who lived off the loot obtained.
Jordi de Sant Jordi
- Theme: The death of love, as a result of which the image of the ship shall be determined in the retina of the lover even when dead.
- Form: Using poetry awards estramps poet greater freedom of expression while giving solemnity and harmony of the composition.
- Language: Occitan.