Jaume Roig (Valencia ? - Benimàmet, Horta, 1478) was a doctor, writer and author of the famous work Espill (The Mirror).

He studied Medicine and Arts and soon became a prominent doctor in the city, where he combined his medical practice with reading and writing. In 1443 he married Isabel Pellisser with whom he had six children. Jaume Roig's Espill was one of the most important works of the fifteenth century. His writing was in the romantic tradition of narrative in verse, not to mention the misogynist didactic tradition with comic and instructive elements. Espill consists of 16,359 couplets by means of which the narrator addresses his nephew, warning him about the ill-treatment he has received from women and therefore advising him to keep away from the female sex. Divided into an introductory poem, a Preface and four "books", Espill had a great impact in its day, so much so that four editions were published in the sixteenth century.

In 1474, Jaume Roig entered the Valencia literary competition with his poem "En lahor de la Verge Maria" (In Praise of the Virgin Mary), which is included the volume Les trobes en lahors de la Verge Maria (Poems in Prise of the Virgin Mary). He died in Benimàmet on 5 April 1478.



Web page: Toni Terrades for AELC.
Documentation: Toni Terrades.
Translation: Julie Wark.
Images: Història de la literatura catalana. Barcelona: Ariel, Vol. 3, 1964.