This 1987 PhD dissertation, was de facto supervised by professors Lola Badia (Universitat de Barcelona) and Alan Deyermond (Queen Mary University of London), although, because of legal limitations at that time, supervision was officially signed by another professor). This was a pioneer work in the field of women’s studies, particularly in the so-called “querelle des femmes”, although, as the dissertation study specifies, this label would only become known as such in post-medieval times. This work, then, does not deal with all misogynistic references in the whole corpus of medieval Catalan literature (that would be quite impossible in one publication), but only with those texts arguing for or against women in the context of the medieval literary debate on whether women were inherently good or evil. Therefore, an inventory, analysis, and history of the medieval Catalan works engaged with the literary debate on women is presented, work after work. Each topic within this debate is put into its western European context, with a special attention to medieval Latin, French and Occitan works with which the Catalan texts engage or follow. Works studied include: --Troubadour times, with an eye to secular as well as clerical works (including Ramon Llull’s), and within this chapter, troubadour Cerverí de Girona and his debate works, with a special attention to his Maldit bendit, in which this debate develops in detail. Latin as well as vernacular sources are established for it. --Fourteenth century, with attention to lyrical poems, including Jaume March and Pere March, followed by clerical literature, especially Francesc Eiximenis’s Llibre de les dones and Crestià; also the Facet, an educational text translated from a twelfth-century Latin original, as well as the anonymous Sermó del bisbetó, finally focusing on the debate on women within Bernat Metge’s Lo somni, which is dissected in detail, and its cultural references put in context. --Fifteenth century, which is the longest part of this dissertation, as witnesses are more abundant. The chapter starts with a survey of what would happen in neighbouring contemporary Castile, and the problems that would arise when debate on women, usual in Catalan literature, starts arriving in that kingdom (which, unlike most parts of Europe, had kept quite apart from this literary debate). After that, it studies some lyrical works that deal with debate on women, and establishes its cultural debts: Jordi de Sant Jordi, Ausiàs March, Ramon Boter, the Conhort, and the Bendir de dones are analyzed. After that, a survey of this debate on fifteenth-century narrative works is presented, with an eye to a fabliau, Francesc de la Via’s Llibre de fra Bernat, and then to Tirant lo Blanc, Curial e Güelfa, the spectacular pro-feminist Vita Christi by Isabel de Villena, and Joan Roís de Corella’s Triumfo de les dones. But the protagonist of this chapter is Jaume Roig’s Espill, which deals with this debate, taking the anti-feminist part with a force not previously known in western Europe. This formidable inventory of misogynistic topics is dissected and each topic put in its cultural context. This last part would become the origin of Rosanna Cantavella’s later monograph Els cards I el llir: una lectura de l’“Espill” de Jaume Roig (Quaderns Crema, 1992). In sum, this pioneer dissertation shows that this kind of literary production in Catalan followed quite general western European patterns, and especially French models (among many others, Jean de Meung’s Roman de la Rose), which are identified and given the necessary acknowledgement.This 1987 PhD dissertation, was de facto supervised by professors Lola Badia (Universitat de Barcelona) and Alan Deyermond (Queen Mary University of London), although, because of legal limitations at that time, supervision was officially signed by another professor). This was a pioneer work in the field of women’s studies, particularly in the so-called “querelle des femmes”, although, as the dissertation study specifies, this label would only become known as such in post-medieval times. This work, then, does not deal with all misogynistic references in the whole corpus of medieval Catalan literature (that would be quite impossible in one publication), but only with those texts arguing for or against women in the context of the medieval literary debate on whether women were inherently good or evil. Therefore, an inventory, analysis, and history of the medieval Catalan works engaged with the literary debate on women is presented, work after work. Each topic within this debate is put into its western European context, with a special attention to medieval Latin, French and Occitan works with which the Catalan texts engage or follow. Works studied include: --Troubadour times, with an eye to secular as well as clerical works (including Ramon Llull’s), and within this chapter, troubadour Cerverí de Girona and his debate works, with a special attention to his Maldit bendit, in which this debate develops in detail. Latin as well as vernacular sources are established for it. --Fourteenth century, with attention to lyrical poems, including Jaume March and Pere March, followed by clerical literature, especially Francesc Eiximenis’s Llibre de les dones and Crestià; also the Facet, an educational text translated from a twelfth-century Latin original, as well as the anonymous Sermó del bisbetó, finally focusing on the debate on women within Bernat Metge’s Lo somni, which is dissected in detail, and its cultural references put in context. --Fifteenth century, which is the longest part of this dissertation, as witnesses are more abundant. The chapter starts with a survey of what would happen in neighbouring contemporary Castile, and the problems that would arise when debate on women, usual in Catalan literature, starts arriving in that kingdom (which, unlike most parts of Europe, had kept quite apart from this literary debate). After that, it studies some lyrical works that deal with debate on women, and establishes its cultural debts: Jordi de Sant Jordi, Ausiàs March, Ramon Boter, the Conhort, and the Bendir de dones are analyzed. After that, a survey of this debate on fifteenth-century narrative works is presented, with an eye to a fabliau, Francesc de la Via’s Llibre de fra Bernat, and then to Tirant lo Blanc, Curial e Güelfa, the spectacular pro-feminist Vita Christi by Isabel de Villena, and Joan Roís de Corella’s Triumfo de les dones. But the protagonist of this chapter is Jaume Roig’s Espill, which deals with this debate, taking the anti-feminist part with a force not previously known in western Europe. This formidable inventory of misogynistic topics is dissected and each topic put in its cultural context. This last part would become the origin of Rosanna Cantavella’s later monograph Els cards I el llir: una lectura de l’“Espill” de Jaume Roig (Quaderns Crema, 1992). In sum, this pioneer dissertation shows that this kind of literary production in Catalan followed quite general western European patterns, and especially French models (among many others, Jean de Meung’s Roman de la Rose), which are identified and given the necessary acknowledgement.