Francesc Eiximenis
Catalan Franciscan friar, theologian and writer (c. 1330–1409), probably born in Girona, trained at the most prestigious universities of his time — Oxford, Paris, Cologne and Rome — where he absorbed both the scholastic tradition and Aristotelian political thought, and later active in Valencia, where he exerted notable moral and political influence over the court of the kings of Aragon, becoming confessor to Queen Maria de Luna. A prolific author in Catalan — a language he helped decisively consolidate as a vehicle for learned thought at a time when Latin still dominated erudite writing — his unfinished magnum opus is Lo Crestià, an encyclopaedic project intended to comprise thirteen volumes on the whole of Christian life, of which he completed only four: Primer del Crestià, Segon del Crestià, Terç del Crestià and Dotzè del Crestià, the last devoted entirely to the theory and practice of good political government. Within this project, the Regiment de la cosa pública stands out especially, a standalone treatise of political doctrine addressed to the jurats (magistrates) of Valencia, defending an ideal of government grounded in civic virtue, distributive justice and citizen participation, and constituting one of the most important works of political thought produced in the medieval Crown of Aragon. Another of his most widely read works, the Llibre de les dones (Book of Women), is an extensive treatise devoted to the moral and practical education of women of every social condition, combining spiritual counsel with strikingly concrete observations on daily life, household economy and family relations. Eiximenis also wrote the Vida de Jesucrist (Life of Christ) and the Llibre dels àngels (Book of Angels), among many other works, in a body of writing characterised by a plain, moralising style deliberately addressed to a broad readership rather than an exclusively academic one, which ensured its enormous manuscript circulation throughout the Crown of Aragon during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.