Some notes on the influence of Joan Roís de Corella’s mythological fables in Francesc Alegre’s «Transformacions»

Abstract

This article establishes a comparison between Joan Roís de Corella’s mythological fables and Francesc Alegre’s translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses into Catalan. The author proves by means of examples that Alegre drew on Corella’s Lamentacions and Parlament en casa de Berenguer Mercader while translating his work between circa 1472 and 1492. Further, he may have also known Corella’s Raonament de Telamó i Ulisses. Thus, even if Alegre based his text on the Latin poem, he surely completed the translation with the aid of other sources that are not made explicit, such as Bonsignori and Corella. In addition, the author suggests that Corella might have known and used Bonsignori’s Italian compilation or another version of Ovid’s poem which depended on it.