[, IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature]

Lo Somni (The Dream) is a dream allegory divided into four chapters or books. It was written ca. 1399 and is considered Bernat Metge’s best work. It is extremely innovative within the context of Catalan (and Iberian Peninsular) literature of the 1300’s. It consists of a dialogue between Metge-the-character and several participants (in fact the book is a dialogue between Metge and the Classical and Biblical tradition) on the topics of the immortality of the soul, the essence of religion and the dignity and moral essence of the human being. In addition to using many Classical and medieval literary sources, Lo Somni can be considered one of the first (if not the first) Humanist books to be ever written in the Iberian Peninsula. Metge wrote Lo Somni supposedly while in prison (house arrest?) following a dubious accusation about his involvement in the death of King Joan I. Metge wrote this work as a personal defense to exonerate himself and as an attempt to gain the confidence of the new King Martí l’Humà and his wife Queen María de Luna. Lo Somni ends when Metge-the-character is awaken from his dream. This foundational work also touches upon political themes pertaining to the Crown of Aragon, literary fashion and reception of Italian humanist works at the court, as well as on matters of fashion, cultural customs, taste and style.

This volume offers a variety of perspectives on two of the main topics situated at the crossroads between lexical semantics and syntax, namely: (a) aspect and its correspondence with syntactic structure; and (b) the delimitation of syntactic structures from verb classes. Almost from Aristotle’s Metaphysics, it has been assumed that verbs invoke a mental image about the way in which eventualities are distributed over time. When it comes to determining time schemata, the lexical class to which the verb belongs represents a first step. Speaking about verb classes does not exclusively mean a semantic similarity; rather, verb classes exhibit a bundle of common features and thus show a set of recursive behavior patterns. Beyond the meaning of the verb, both semantic and syntactic factors, together with pragmatic ones, play a decisive role when establishing the aspectual classification of an eventuality. The contributions collected in this book approach the aforementioned lines, either analyzing the relationships between aspect and syntactic structure or traversing the path from a verb class to its syntactic manifestation. Some of them stress diachronic filiations, while others include processes of word formation in the debate; some of them focus on certain classes, such as movement verbs or psychological verbs, while others examine specific constructions. A number of chapters also discuss relevant theoretical issues concerning the analysis of aspect. In sum, the kaleidoscopic view provided by this book allows the reader to delve deeper into one of the most controversial – as well as exciting – topics within current linguistics.

This book aims to contribute to the knowledge of the cultural and linguistic relations between Italy and the Crown of Aragon in the 15th century. In particular, it studies some relevant aspects of the chivalric romance entitled Curial e Guelfa, written in Italy around 1443-1448 in Catalan, but mainly Italian in spirit, sources and onomastics. It is probably the very first work of a genre known as “humanistic chivalry”, the epitome of which will be Ariosto’s Orlando furioso.

The literary context of Milan and Naples (The Three Crowns, Troubadour Lyrics, Humanism) is analyzed in the first part of the volume. It is this context that made possible the gestation of the Curial, an extraordinary anonymous romance, which was most likely written by the knight Enyego d’Àvalos (Inico d’Avalos), born in Toledo but raised in Valencia. The second part of the volume is devoted to the study of some lexical, stylistic and syntactic aspects of the Curial, which show the author's excellent knowledge of Catalan and the constant influence of Italian in the romance.



Questo libro si propone di contribuire alla conoscenza delle relazioni culturali tra l'Italia e la Corona d’Aragona nel XV secolo. In particolare, studia il romanzo dal titolo Curial e Güelfa, scritto in Italia intorno al 1443-1448, dotato di italianità, fonti e onomastica, ma scritto in catalano. È probabilmente la primissima opera di un genere noto come “cavalleria umanistica| , la cui epitome sarebbe l’Orlando Furioso dell’Ariosto.

Questo volume analizza il contesto letterario di Milano e Napoli che ha reso possibile questo straordinario romanzo anonimo, di cui conosciamo ormai con quasi assoluta certezza che il suo autore era Enyego o Inico d'Avalos. I contributi in questo volume approfondiscono alcuni degli aspetti lessicali, stilistici e sintattici di Curial e Güelfa, e mettono in evidenza l'eccellente conoscenza del catalano da parte del suo autore, nonché la presenza onnipresente della lingua italiana.

El libro pretende contribuir al conocimiento de las relaciones culturales entre Italia y la Corona de Aragón en el siglo XV. En concreto se ocupa de la novela Curial e Güelfa , gestada en Italia hacia 1443-1448, de espíritu, fuentes y onomástica principalmente italianos, pero redactada en lengua catalana. Es probablemente la manifestación más primeriza del género literario conocido como “caballería humanística”, que tendrá su punto culminante con el Orlando furioso, d’Ariosto.

Este volumen analiza el contexto literario de Milán y Nápoles que hizo posible esta extraordinaria novela anónima, de la que ahora sabemos con casi absoluta certeza que su autor fue Enyego o Inico d’Avalos. Las contribuciones de este volumen profundizan en algunos de los aspectos léxicos, estilísticos y sintácticos de Curial e Güelfa, y destacan el excelente conocimiento del catalán de su autor, así como la presencia omnipresente de la lengua italiana.