Llibre dels àngels


The Llibre dels àngels is a literary work that was written by Francesc Eiximenis in 1392 in Valencia in Catalan. It was dedicated to Pere d'Artés, who was a kind of Chancellor of the Exchequer of the Crown of Aragon, and who was a close friend of him. It has two hundred and one chapters, and it is divided into five treatises.

General information

This book is a real treatise about angelology, but with several political thoughts. It was maybe the most successful Eiximenis' book, since it was translated into Latin, into Spanish, into French, and even into Flemish.
Furthermore, one of the French incunable editions was the first printed book in the Swiss city of Geneva. We could say that this matter should have been treated in Eiximenis' Huitè of his encyclopedic project Lo Crestià. This book should have dealt with the order of things and creatures according to medieval mentality. This order appears in what he calls "strata", and he considers that angels are one of these strata, according to the theological Medieval mentality. It appears in the famous Peter Lombard's Four Books of Sentences Quattuor libri sententiarum. The second book deals with angels. Eiximenis confirms that in the 43rd chapter of his Segon del Crestià.

Influence on the city and Kingdom of Valencia

Without exaggerating, it can be said that this book had a decisive influence in the spread of the cult and devotion of angels in the city of Valencia and the Kingdom of Valencia. The same year that the Llibre dels àngels was written, the Consell General de València agreed on 9 August to decorate the Sala del Consell with several figures, and one of these was the guardian angel. This cult and devotion was progressing and spreading years later. So in 1411 a service for the guardian angel of Valencia was composed, and it appears in some breviaries of those years. In 1446 in the Cathedral of Valencia the yearly festivity of the guardian angel began to be celebrated, according to a certain ritual.

Digital editions of the ''Llibre dels Àngels''

Manuscripts