Fra Francesc Moner (1462 3-1491 2) is a Catalan author who flourished in Barcelona during the
second decade subsequent to the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in
1469. Moner's extant production amounts to seventy-four pieces a collection of poems and prose
works of various genres written in Catalan and in Castilian. A comprehensive study that
profiles the creativity of a whole career is a rare occurrence for a Hispanic author like Moner
whose lifetime straddles the boundaries between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This book
highlights the two main aspects of Fra Francesc's contribution: first the resourceful
bilingualism stemming from Moner's mastery of not only his native Catalan but also Castilian
the language that in the late 1400s kept gaining the ascendancy and prestige of officialdom
throughout the Spanish realm second the fashioning of an iconic text of subjectivity in the
wake of the landmark innovations brought about by Ausiàs March the Valencian luminary of the
first half of the fifteenth century. Moner develops a love-centered poetics that integrates the
distinctive strains of multiple traditions. By probing into Moner's poetics of love and reason
the reader catches a glimpse of an author engaged in intense soul-searching. Moner in turn
shares with his readers some extraordinary insights into the compelling moments of the human
condition - precisely the condition of the human being torn between the allure of the flesh and
the aspiration toward the Divine.
