Melchior de Gualbes was a Catalan

Catalan language

Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

 knight

Knight

A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

, politician, and author of three short poems. His poetry is preserved in the Cançoner Vega-Aguiló

Cançoner Vega-Aguiló

The Cançoner Vega-Aguiló is a chansonnier predominantly carrying Catalan and Occitan pieces, but also some Castilian and Middle French verse.-Bibliography:*Anna Alberni Jordà , PhD thesis, University of Barcelona....

, in a section badly damaged by humidity. Only the use of ultraviolet radiation has made possible full readings of all his pieces.

The Gualbes family of bankers played an active role in the local government of Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

 during the interregnum between 1410 and 1412. They supported Ferdinand of Antequera

Ferdinand I of Aragon

Ferdinand I called of Antequera and also the Just or the Honest) was king of Aragon, Valencia, Majorca, Sardinia and Corsica and king of Sicily, duke of Athens and Neopatria, and count of Barcelona, Roussillon and Cerdanya...

 and were richly rewarded on his accession. Bernat de Gualbes sat on the council which decided the Compromise of Caspe

Compromise of Caspe

The Compromise of Caspe made in 1412 was an act and resolution of parliamentary representatives on behalf of the Kingdoms of Aragon and Valencia and the County of Barcelona, to resolve the interregnum commenced by the death of King Martin I of Aragon in 1410 without a legitimate heir, in Caspe.The...

 and Melchior was the messenger who, in a rapid journey of seven hours, brought the news of the Compromise to the Parliament

Parliament of Catalonia

The Parliament of Catalonia is the unicameral legislature of Catalonia. It is formed by 135 members , who are elected every four years in ordinary period, or extraordinarily upon dissolution and call of elections by the President of Catalonia, by universal suffrage in proportional lists with four...

 convened at Tortosa

Tortosa

-External links:* *** * * *...

. In 1413 Ferdinand rewarded Melchior for his service with the castellany

Castellany

A castellany was a district administered by a castellan.Castellanies appeared during the Middle Ages and in most current states are now replaced by a more modern type of country subdivision....

 of Castellví de Rosanes

Castellví de Rosanes

Castellví de Rosanes is a municipality in the comarca of the Baix Llobregatin the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The municipality had 1.370 inhabitants as of 2005 and has 17,09 square kilometers, in which are settled the population areas named as Els Àngels, Can Sunyer del Palau,...

 and the procuratorship of Martorell

Martorell

Martorell is a town near Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain, primarily known for its medieval Devil's bridge.It has three railway stations - one on the RENFE line from Manresa to Sant Vicenç de Calders called "Martorell", and three on the FGC line from Barcelona to Manresa called "Martorell-Vila",...

. That same year Alfonso the Magnanimous, Aragonese infante, appointed Melchior commissioner

Commissioner

Commissioner is in principle the title given to a member of a commission or to an individual who has been given a commission ....

 of the regions Girona and Roussillon

County of Roussillon

The County of Roussillon was one of the Catalan counties in the Marca Hispanica during the Middle Ages. The rulers of the county were the Counts of Roussillon, whose interests lay both north and south of the Pyrenees.-Visigothic county:...

.

Melchior was of the same generation as the poets Jordi de Sant Jordi

Jordi de Sant Jordi

Jordi de Sant Jordi was born in the Kingdom of Valencia. He was Chamberlain at the court of King Alfons V of Aragon but is best known for his poetry....

, Andreu Febrer, and Gilabert de Próixita

Gilabert de Próixita

Gilabert de Próixita was a Valencian poet with twenty-one extant Occitan pieces. He is credited by his first editor with a renovellament of Catalan poetry through the incorporation of Italian and French ideas into a model of courtly love taken from the classical troubadours...

. In his poetry love was de-sensualised and idealised. The phrase cor gentil ("gentle heart"), a favourite of the stilnovisti, appears in his poem Molt m'es plasens, belha, com senyorega. This phrase was ignored by the Occitan troubadours and in this way Melchior appears more influenced by the Italians. Other phrases borrowed from Petrarch

Petrarch

Francesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...

 and Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...

have been found in Melchior's poetry. His metre and diction are nonetheless influenced by the troubadour lyric. His other poems are Acompanyat d'un amoros desir and Pus me suy mes en l'amorosa questa.

External links

• Incipitario di Melcior de Gualbes, with links to edited original-language texts of all his works