questions of the Papal Schism and the royal succession
to the Crown of Aragón, but most of all, perhaps, it is
his contribution to Catalan language and literature that
have ensured him a place in history.
Now regarded as patron of the city of Valencia
and revered as a worker of miracles, his canonization
process was begun under the Valencian pope, Calixtus
III, in 1455, and completed three years later under his
successor, Pius II.
See also Eiximenis, Francesc
Further Reading
Cátdera, Pedro M. Sermón, sociedad y literatura en la Edad
Media: San Vicente Ferrer en Castilla (1411–1414). Sala-
manca, 1994.
Sanchisi Sivera, J. (ed.) Quaresma de Sant Vicente Ferrer,
Predicada a València l’any 1413. Bercelona 1927.
Schib, G. “Els Sermons de Saut Vicent Ferrer.” In Actes del Tercer
Col-loqui Internacional de Llengua i Literatures catalanes
celebrat a Cambridge des gal 14 d’abril de 1973. Oxford,
- 325–36.
Jill R. Webster
FLORES, JUAN DE
(c. 1455–c. 1525)
A courtier, writer, knight, royal administrator, and dip-
lomat, Flores was associated with the court of Garci
Álvarez de Toledo, First Duke of Alba and, eventually,
with that of the Catholic Monarchs. Extant documenta-
tion suggests that he was the nephew of Pedro Álvarez
Osorio, third señor of Cabrera y Ribera and the fi rst
count of Lemos, and politically allied with the Enríquez,
Osorio, Álvarez de Toledo, and Quiñones families.
His formative years were probably spent at the ducal
palace of Alba (Alba de Tormes), where he enjoyed
considerable educational and political advantages, and
in Salamanca, where he appears to have been active in
local politics. On 20 May 1476 he was appointed offi cial
chronicler to Fernando and Isabel, and subsequently
joined the royal entourage. During the civil war of the
1470s, he is known to have participated in attacks against
the Portuguese and their juanista allies; there is evidence
that he later joined Fernando in the Granada campaign.
Documentation also suggests that he received various
judicial assignments in Castile after 1477, and may have
held the title of protonotario de Lucena. The dates of
his birth and death are uncertain, but early genealogical
sources suggest a long life, from about 1455 to 1525. He
appears to have married Beatriz de Quiñones, a distant
relative of Suero de Quiñones, and a son named Gaspar
was apparently appointed chaplain to Isabel in 1503.
The extant works bearing Flores’s name belong to
a large body of courtly prose that examines the tragic
nature of human passion, devotion, and intimacy. They
include two sentimental romances, Grisel y Mirabella
and Grimalte y Gradisa, and an allegorical vision narra-
tive, Triunfo de Amor, recovered in 1976. All probably
were written between 1470 and 1477, the period of
Flores’s affi liation with the fi rst duke of Alba. Of the
three works, Grisel experienced the greatest commercial
success, especially in the sixteenth century, when it was
translated into numerous European languages as (His-
toria de) Aurelio et Isabel. It constitutes an ambiguous
response to Pere Torroellas’s Coplas de las calidades
de las donas (before 1458), a superfi cially virulent, but
arguably only playful, misogynistic poem. Although
Grisel implicitly promotes the cause of women by
condemning the egocentric nature of male passion and
the political abuses of men, there are ironic indications
that women lack the virtues they self-righteously claim
for themselves. The romance ends with the ritualistic
slaughter of Torrellas—a fi ctional persona of the real-life
poet—by the queen of Scotland and her retinue. Flores
may have intended to point out the equal contribution of
both sexes to illicit love, while underscoring the inher-
ently self-destructive nature of passion.
Owing to its emotional intensity and narrative so-
phistication, Grimalte is now generally recognized
as Flores’s masterpiece. A continuation and implicit
interpretation of the Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta of
Boccaccio (1313–1375), it seeks to reconcile the contra-
dictory notions of sexual freedom, devotion, and social
responsibility as perceived by Fiometa (Fiammetta),
her lover Pánfi lo, and their counterparts Gradisa and
Grimalte. Grimalte’s vain attempts to reunite the Italian
couple ultimately result in Fiometa’s suicide, Pánfi lo’s
self-imposed exile, and the breakup of his own unstable
relationship with Gradisa. Philosophically complex and
engaging, Grimalte explores the selfi sh motivations
for love and the tragedies that ensue from a one-sided
passion. Grimalte became a favorite source of senti-
mental material for later chivalric romances, including
Tristán de Leonis (1501) and the Quarta parte de don
Clarián de Landanís (1528), which contain substantial
plagiarisms.
Though largely addressing the same erotic themes as
the romances, Triunfo is more lighthearted. A felicitous
combination of courtly romance, political allegory, and
fi ctionalized chronicle, it tells the story of Cupid’s cap-
ture by disgruntled dead lovers seeking redress for their
amorous suffering. Following a trial and death sentence,
the god of love is rescued, and his supporters receive as
a reward the reversal of the customary courting ritual:
men replace women as the custodians of virtue and
women importune them for sexual favors. In response to
the social turmoil of the period, political issues receive
prominent attention, but Flores tends to exploit them as
a vehicle for exploring the inevitable tension between
joyous and tragic love.FERRER, VICENTE, SAINT