Joan Roís de Corella and Jaume Roig: Valencian Literature

Joan Roís de Corella (1435? - 1497)

Joan Roís de Corella, probably born in Gandia, belonged to a noble family that maintained close relations with the poet Ausiàs March. He was intended for military studies, but ultimately pursued religious ones. Despite his religious vocation, he had several relationships and a son and a daughter, Isabel Martínez Vera.

Works

Given the thematic diversity of his prose, it is classified into four groups:

• Love-themed
• Religious-themed
• Mythological-themed
• Works of circumstance

Style

Corella's prose is rhetorical, a new Latinizing style that was called *Valencian prose*. He was an aristocrat, a writer, and a teacher of theology, with extensive and varied literary works that include both prose and poetry.

Poetry

As a poet, Corella is the author of religious poetry, occasional poetry, and poetic works of love with sincere and personal items of sentimental autobiography. One notable poem is included in the prose work *Tragedy of Caldesa*, about a lady who was unfaithful and is passionate and sarcastic. In other poems, such as *Ballad of the Heron and Merlin*, Corella uses two birds as a metaphoric reference to the lady and the poet to introduce the topic of death for love.

Corella's poems reflect his rhetorical and musical training, his Latin and humanist aspirations, with a style inspired by the classics. However, his poems retain the typical Provençal accent of the *decasíl·lab*, with the fourth syllable and subsequent caesura (4+6), although sometimes he follows the Italian model with emphasis on the sixth, or fourth and eighth without caesura.

Jaume Roig (Around 1400 - 1478)

Jaume Roig was a Valencian doctor who belonged to the prestigious bourgeois class and held several important positions. In 1460, fleeing the plague that plagued Valencia, he took refuge in Callosa d'En Sarrià, where he began writing the book *Espill* (Mirror) or *Book of Women*, the only work known to him.

Themes of *Espill***

The theme of *Espill* is inserted into the medieval tradition of misogyny, which accused women of all sorts of wrongs, especially those concerning "sins of the flesh". Misogyny had a long tradition and ancient religious roots. The criticism of women in *Espill* is a caricature; only two women are spared: Mary and the author's wife, Isabel Pellicer.

Social Commentary

In *Espill*, there is a critique of the society of the time, with a satirical realism that shows a gloomy picture of the customs, urban life, entertainment, meals, and hospitals of the 15th century.

Style and Language

*Espill* is a narrative in verse with four-syllable rhyming couplets (16,359 verses), which the author called *new rhyming comedies*, that is, games. The language is very rich and popular, as there are abundant colloquial expressions.