Bernat Metge

Bernat Metge (Catalan pronunciation: [bəɾˈnad ˈmedʒə]; (c. 1350 – 1410) was a Catalan writer and humanist, best known as the author of The Dream of Bernat Metge[1] (Lo Somni, "The dream"), which he wrote from prison (c. 1398), in which Metge discusses the immortality of the soul.[2]

Life

Bernat Metge was born in Barcelona between 1340 and 1346, the son of an apothecary, Guillem Metge, and a mother named Agnès. This background allowed him to become familiar with Medieval pharmacopoeia, which would later allow him to write the satyric poem Medecina apropiada a tot mal. Upon his father's death, his mother married Ferrer Saiol, scrivener notary of queen Elionor of Sicily. It was under his stepfather's influence that he pursued a career as a notary in the royal court. He was a courtier and Secretary for Joan I of Aragon, queen Violant of Bar, and following some troubles, once more served Martin the Humane of Aragon from 1403 to 1410.[3][2]

His influences included the literature of Provence, Petrarch, and De vetula, wrongly attributed to Ovid and now sometimes claimed for Richard de Fournival.[4]

He had a profound impact on the Catalan letters and was a catalyst for Italian letters to reach the Iberian Peninsula.[2]

Works

  • Llibre de Fortuna e Prudència (1381)
  • Ovidi enamorat
  • Valter e Griselda (1388) (a translation of Petrarch's Griseldis, in turn extracted from The Decameron)
  • Apologia (1395)
  • Lo somni (1399)

Notes

  1. ^ Bernat Metge (2013). The Dream of Bernat Metge. Josh Benjamins. ISBN 9789027240101. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  2. ^ a b c Sarton, George (1948). Introduction to the history of science. Carnegie institution of Washington publicationno. 376-. Vol. 3. Baltimore. hdl:2027/umn.31951d00027255b.
  3. ^ Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (n.d.); Molla (n.d.)
  4. ^ Gilabert 1993: 1083.

References

  • Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (n.d.). "Bernat Metge [Biografia]". Autors i autores (in Catalan). Barcelona: AELC. Retrieved 2009-09-28.
  • Gilabert, Joan (1993). "Bernat Metge". In Germán Bleiberg; Maureen Ihrie; Janet Pérez (eds.). Dictionary of the Literature of the Iberian Peninsula: volume 2, L-Z. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing. pp. 1082–1083. ISBN 0-313-28732-5. OCLC 20993644.
  • Molla, Guillem (n.d.). "Bernat Metge [English biography]". Autors i autores. Barcelona: AELC. Retrieved 2009-09-28.
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