Joan Roís de Corella (Gandia, 1435 - Valencia, 1497), was a medieval writer and theologian who wrote mythological and religious prose and poetry that come together in a wide-ranging oeuvre that reflects a multifaceted and coherent literary personality.

The eldest son of a knight, Ausiàs Roís de Corella, and of Aldonça, of the Cabrera family. A contemporary of Joanot Martorell, Roís de Corella was involved in fifteenth-century social and civic life in Valencia and he was also notable as a dynamic presence in the cultural and intellectual life of his times.

At an early age he began to write prose and poetry inspired in the classical works of Ovid and Seneca, inter alia, but also influenced by other European authors who used vernacular language. His literary corpus includes pieces that have passed into literary posterity, for example "Tragèdia de Caldesa" (Tragedy of Caldesa), "Trihumfo de les dones" (Triumph of Women) and the poem "Balada de la garsa y l'esmerla" (Ballad of the Magpie and the Merlin). After completing his training as a theologian in 1473, Roís de Corella devoted the last years of his life to translating the Psalms and the Vita Christi of Ludolph of Saxony.

Although he was long ignored or undervalued in the circles of Catalan literary criticism, he is unquestionably one of the key authors in the transition from medieval to renaissance literature with works endowed with his personal style within the domain of Valencian prose while also presenting their own complex world.



Web page: Abel Ramon Vidal per a AELC.
Image of the author: factitious portrait by Manuel Boix reproduced in the book Poesías (Poetic Works), edited by Eduard J. Verger and brought out by the Valencia-based publisher Denes in 2004.