Lo Crestià
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lo Crestià (English: The Christian) was an encyclopaedia written in Catalan, that was sponsored by the king Peter IV of Aragon and written by Francesc Eiximenis[1] between 1379 and 1392. The first book and the half of the twelfth one (Dotzè in Catalan) were printed by the German printer Lambert Palmart in Valencia in 1483 and 1484.
According to Curt Wittlin the name should be Lo Cristià.[2] Originally it should have consisted of thirteen books, that would have explained "in short all the foundations of Christianism" in order to encourage the study of theology among the laymen. Nowadays it can be considered as an encyclopaedia of mediaeval life. Lo Crestià is a universal work, that marks an important stage in the western history of literature: it is the last mediaeval Summa Theologica, and it is also one of the first works of didactic and theological literature in Europe, that is not written in Latin.