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{{Short description|Valencian poet and knight}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Ausiàs March
| image            = Ausias Marc.jpg
| alt              = 
| caption          = A 15th-century painting by [[Jacomart]] in the Church of Santa Maria in [[Xàtiva]], once thought to portray Ausiàs March
| birth_date       = 1400
| birth_place      = [[Kingdom of Valencia]] ([[Crown of Aragon]])
| death_date       = 1459
| death_place      = [[Valencia]], Kingdom of Valencia ([[Crown of Aragon]])
| occupation       = [[Poet]] and [[knight]]
| nationality      = 
| period           = 
| genre            = 
| subject          = 
| language         = [[Valencian language]]
| movement         = 
| notableworks     = ''Plena de Seny'', ''Llir entre Cards'', ''Amor, amor'', ''Mon darrer bé'', ''Oh, foll amor''
| spouse           = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Isabel Martorell|1439|1441}}
* {{marriage|Joana Escorna|1443|1450}}
}}
| children         = 
| relatives        = {{unbulleted list|[[Pere March]] (father)| [[Jaume March II]] (uncle)|[[Arnau March]] (cousin)}}
| awards           = 
| signature        = 
| website          = 
| portaldisp       = 
}}
'''Ausiàs March''' ({{IPA|ca-valencia|awziˈaz ˈmaɾk|lang}}; 1400{{snd}}March 3, 1459) was a [[Valencian language|Valencian]] poet and [[knight]] from [[Gandia]], Valencia. He is considered one of the most important poets of the "Golden Century" (''Segle d'or'') of [[Catalan literature]].

==Biography==
Not much is known of March's life. He was born in approximately 1400 to a Valencian noble family. His father, [[Pere March]], was himself a poet and served at the court of the younger brother of King [[Alfonso IV of Aragon|Alfonso IV]], Peter. His uncle, [[Jaume March II]], was also a poet. March was one of the two children of Pere's second wife, Lionor of Ripoll; he had a younger sister, Peirona.<ref name="Bio@Iluisvives.com">{{cite web | url=http://www.lluisvives.com/bib_autor/ausiasmarch//include/pausiasmarch_autor.jsp | title=Ausiàs March – L'autor | publisher=Iluisvives.com | access-date=19 March 2014 | language=ca}}</ref>

In 1413, the still-young March became head of his family—part of the Valencian petty nobility—upon the death of his father. From a very young age he took part in the expeditions that King [[Alfons V of Aragon|Alfons el Magnànim]] carried out in the Mediterranean. After returning from these expeditions in 1427, he settled in [[Gandia]]. After his return, he would never again leave the region where he was born. March was twice married: first to Isabel Martorell (sister of the writer [[Joanot Martorell]]), and later to Joana Escorna.

In 1450, he moved from Gandia to [[Valencia]]. It was there that he died on March 3, 1459. While March himself was buried in his family's chapel at the [[Valencia Cathedral]], his two wives and family are buried in the [[Monastery of Sant Jeroni de Cotalba]].<ref>[[Las Provincias]]. [http://www.lasprovincias.es/safor/201611/24/hallan-sant-jeroni-cotalba-20161124004909-v.html "Hallan en Sant Jeroni de Cotalba los restos de las dos esposas y el padre de Ausiàs March".] Published 14 November 2016.</ref> Five illegitimate children but no legitimate heirs have been attributed to him.

==Poetry==
[[File:Ausias march.jpg|thumb|left|upright|March's tomb, in the [[Valencia Cathedral]]]]
Inheriting an easy fortune from his father, Pere March—the treasurer to the [[Duke of Gandia]]—and enjoying the powerful patronage of [[Charles of Viana]], prince of [[Kingdom of Aragon|Aragon]], March was able to devote himself to poetical composition. He was an undisguised follower of [[Petrarch]], carrying the imitation to such a point that he addressed his ''Cants d'amor'' (love songs) to a lady whom he professed to have seen first in church on [[Good Friday]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=March, Auzias|volume=17|page=688}}</ref> So far as the difference of language allows, he reproduced the rhythmical cadences of his model, but this should be qualified as the medieval tradition of ''locus communis'' requested this following. This is something Petrarch himself did and it need not to be stressed{{by whom?|date=October 2025}}.<ref>For a thorough treatment of ''imitatio'', see Thomas M. Greene's ''The Light in Troy''</ref> March is a very original and idiosyncratic poet. In the ''Cants de mort'' (death hymns) he touches a note of brooding sentiment peculiar to himself.<ref name="EB1911"/> It can be said{{by whom?|date=October 2025}} that he developed Petrarch's rhetoric and used it for more inner psychological meditations, as other major poets such a  [[Luís de Camões|Camões]] and [[Shakespeare]] would.{{citation needed|date=October 2025}}

March was one of the first poets to use the local vernacular, [[Valencian language|Valencian]], instead of the [[troubadour]] language, [[Occitan language|Occitan]].{{citation needed|date=October 2025}} 
His poems are marked by obscurity, a sometimes monotonous morbidity, and a conflicting battle between desire and morality, achieved at its apex in the great ''Cant Spiritual''.{{citation needed|date=October 2025}} 
He was fully entitled to the supremacy{{according to whom?|date=October 2025}} which he enjoyed among his contemporaries, and the success of his innovation no doubt encouraged [[Juan Boscán Almogáver|Boscán]] to introduce the Italian metres into [[Names given to the Spanish language|Castilian]].{{citation needed|date=October 2025}}
His verses were transmitted in manuscript tradition until its first print edition in Valencian in 1543, but they had already become known through the Spanish translation in 1539.<ref name="EB1911"/>

March's poetry has been set to music by [[Raimon]], [[Joan Brudieu]] and other composers.<ref>Four settings by Brudieu: Fantasiant, Amor a mi descobre. Si fos Amor substança rahonable. Lir entre carts, lo meu voler se tempra. Plena de seny, donau-me una crosta. on CD accompanying book, Magraner, Charles. ''Fantasiant, Música y poesía para Ausiàs March'' CDM 0927, Valencia 2009</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery class="center">
File:Ausiàs March, sala de personatges il·lustres del palau del marqués de Dosaigües 02.JPG|Portrait at the Palace of the Marqués de Dosaigües, Valencia
File:Estàtua d'Ausiàs March, biblioteca municipal central de València.JPG|Statue of March at the Central Municipal Library of Valencia
File:Estàtua d'Ausiàs March a Gandia.JPG|Monument in Gandia
File:A Ausiàs March.JPG|Monument on the premises of a secondary school in Barcelona
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[Monastery of Sant Jeroni de Cotalba]]
* [[Route of the Valencian classics]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*{{Cite CE1913|wstitle=Auzias March|first=J.D.M.|last=Ford}}

==External links==
{{commons}}
*[http://www.escriptors.cat/autors/marcha Ausiàs March in the AELC] (Association of Writers in the Catalan Language), {{in lang|en|ca|es}}
*{{lletra|URL_name=ausias-march}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061017212557/http://www.anglo-catalan.org/publications/acsop.php?r=acsop&d=08Ausias_March%2C_A_Key_Anthology&f=00Title.txt A key anthology ] translated to English by the Anglo-Catalan Society.
*[http://www.mallorcaweb.com/magteatre/AusiasMarch/AusiasMarch4.htm Biography and some poems]
*English verse translations of [http://poemsintranslation.blogspot.com/2009/06/ausias-march-poem-i-from-catalan.html poem I], [http://poemsintranslation.blogspot.com/2009/06/ausias-march-poem-iv-from-catalan.html poem IV], and [http://poemsintranslation.blogspot.com/2009/06/ausias-march-poem-xxviii-from-catalan.html poem XXVIII]
* {{Librivox author |id=16288}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:March, Ausias}}
[[Category:1400 births]]
[[Category:1459 deaths]]
[[Category:Catalan-language poets]]
[[Category:Medieval Catalan-language writers]]
[[Category:15th-century Spanish poets]]
[[Category:People from Gandia]]
[[Category:Writers from the Valencian Community]]
[[Category:Monastery of Sant Jeroni de Cotalba]]
[[Category:15th-century writers from the Crown of Aragon]]