Abstract

This article first surveys the use of the first person in medieval writing, showing its literary worth, and establishing the validity of this approach to Catalan literature. Secondly, it is suggested that Catalan fourteenth ­century noves rimades are a genre in which a substantial amount of creativity and empirical circumstance were virtually unavoidable, at least when written in a courtly environment. Both these general points of view provide the framework for a close analysis of Pere March's noves. Special attention is given to his merging of a wide range of literary traditions that interact with his different personae, either to build up courtly divertimenti (Lo compte final, Lo mal d'amor) or to epitomise chivalric culture (L'arnés del cavaller).