Bernat Metge (1340?-1413) brought Petrarchan humanism to medieval Catalan prose, most notably in his dialogue Lo Somni (“The Dream,” to be published in its first English translation by Ashgate Publishing Co.). He was also private secretary to King John I, and in that capacity dangerously involved in the politics of the Crown of Aragón. Indicted and jailed after John’s death, he may well have been guilty of malversations and treasonable connivance with foreign powers.

Metge’s misadventures offer an opportunity to view the major crises of that era (the Great Schism, the Hundred Years War) through their repercussions in a peripheral but by no means negligible Mediterranean kingdom. We welcome proposals for papers that explore Metge’s political attitude, his religious scepticism and/or his satirical wit, to provide diverse perspectives on the intellectual climate of the Catalan court at the birth of Iberian humanism.