Dante in Catalan culture around the house of Barcelona (1381-1410/12)

© 2016, Universitat de Valencia. All rights reserved. This article analyzes in a historical context the earliest evidences of Dante’s influence on Catalan culture during the reigns of Kings Peter IV, John I and Martin of Aragon, until the interregnum (1410-12) and the change of dynasty resulting from the Compromise of Caspe (1412). French courts, Avignon papal curia and the close personal, political and dynastic ties between the kingdoms of Sicily and Aragon constitute the background on which this paper studies the many echoes of Dante -from the Commedia, from the commentaries on Dante and from the so-called silloge boccaccesca- to be found around the chancellery and the court of Aragon: specifically, in Bernat Metge’s Llibre de Fortuna e Prudència (1381) and Lo somni (c. 1398); in Andreu Febrer’s, Gilabert de Pròixida’s and Melcior de Gualbes’ poetry; in one letter from Martin of Aragon (1408), and in Felip de Malla’s early predication (1411, 1413).