The influence of classical Latin literature can be seen in the works of five major Catalan medieval authors. In previous chapters we have provided the historical context; in this chapter we highlight just some of the aspects that demonstrate the capacity of medieval authors to create a new literature in the vernacular from their knowledge of classical texts.

Bernat Metge: Taking Petrarch's Secretum as a Model

Bernat Metge, John I's secretary, wrote his most mature work after serving as ambassador to the papal curia in Avignon from early February to early April 1395. King John sent letters of recommendation for his ambassadors to Benedict XIII, to several cardinals, and to Juan Fernández de Heredia (Riquer 1959: *227–8). It was during Metge's sojourn in Avignon that he must have had the opportunity to access works by Cicero and above all Petrarch, such as the Epistulae familiares (Letters on Familiar Matters) and the Secretum (The Secret). Shortly after his return, he wrote an Apologia (Apology), of which only the very beginning survives, truncated mid-sentence, in a fifteenth-century manuscript. This fragment contains the preface and the first exchanges of a conversation between Bernat and his friend Ramon, in the style of the Ciceronian dialogues that were such an influence on Petrarch's Secretum and De remediis utriusque fortunae (Remedies for Fortune Fair and Foul), without verba dicendi. Metge explains in the preface, addressing the book:

In the previous paragraph, Metge takes inspiration from the introduction of the Secretum to define his work: in writing ‘so that I should not forget them [i.e. the matters that Bernat and Ramon discussed] […] I have decided to commit to thee, my little book which I want to name Apology’, he is adapting ‘So that such an intimate conversation as this might not be lost, I decided to set it down in writing […] So you, little book […] do not forget your own name. For I shall call you My Secret.