This book belongs to the series L’atélier du médiéviste, which aims to provide advanced students and researchers from other specialities with introductory guides to a discipline, a language, a category of sources or a research theme, on this occasion medieval Catalan. Michel Zimmermann has coordinated a group of scholars who in turn managed the different chapters, with sub-chapters entrusted to specialists on the different topics treated. This means that the coordinators I will quote in the review of the book are not the only authors at work on it, which makes it a collaborative oeuvre in the real sense of the word.

The Introduction (5-22), by Michel and Marie-Claire Zimmermann and Joan Anton Rabella, provides context to the reader by explaining the extension of Catalan today; the etymology of the term Catalan/Catalonia; the position of the language in relation to other Romance languages; and a brief recapitulation of its history after the Middle Ages--the increasing influence and imposition of Castilian, the Renaixença (Renaissance), the interdiction during Franquism, the new political and cultural horizons after the death of the dictator. Finally, the purposes of the book are outlined, i.e., introducing the reader to the Catalan language and, through it, to the customs and social transformations that it makes perceptible, as well as to the literary creations that it inspires (19). The editorial criteria explained in the final section of the introduction (21-22) are clear but are not fully applied in the editions of the texts collected in the second part of the book.

Part One, about medieval Catalan language, by Joan Anton Rabella, opens with the first chapter, divided into subsections. The origins of the language are studied in Chapter 1.A (25-42), with important remarks on the historical context that has allowed the creation of the first appearance of the language in written documents (29-30) and on the necessity of applying scientific criteria when dealing with very ancient testimonies (41-42). Chapter 1.B (42-61) shows the development of the language during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with the emerging of the first writers, Ramon Llull and Arnau de Vilanova, and the fixation of the written language with the royal chancellery (48-50), followed by the application of the written language to legislation, historiography, Fachliteratur, and literature (51-61). Chapter 1.C (61-76) demonstrates how, by means of legal documentation, it is possible to differentiate the spoken language from the learned development that writers and the chancellery officials applied. Finally, Chapter 1.D (76-79) completes the history of the language with the fifteenth and sixteenth century, when there is a rising of dialectal differentiation, and the first reflections on the language appear, namely with the Regles d’esquivar vocables. Chapter 2 (81-91) gives a brief overview of the linguistic and morphosyntactic features of medieval Catalan and is followed by a reasonably large bibliography for more in-depth coverage of the topics, which includes all the classic studies as well as very recent contributions (the most recent one published in 2023).

Part Two of the book is the largest and has the form of an anthology of texts on different topics, with commentary. The structure, repeated throughout the volume, consists of an introduction by the coordinator of the chapter, a presentation of the topic, and the transcription of different documents, most of them unpublished before, with their French translation and a comment for each of them, followed by a specific bibliography. The remarks are diverse, depending on the commentator and on the different possibilities of research that every one of them can open, thus showing the great variety of textual production as well as the various research avenues that each document can open.

Chapter One (109-196), coordinated by Aymat Catafau, opens the anthology with the first documents in which Catalan is used, which are related to feudality and show the passage from oral to written expression. The documents here analysed are oaths of loyalty; grievances and complaints; capbreus (inventories of seigneurial rights); an epitaph for a knight; the Catalan translations of the Liber judiciorum; and other legal documents.

Chapter Two (197-257), coordinated by Claude Denjean, focuses on documents useful for the reconstruction of social and economic history, that show the semi-literacy of the members of urban elites. The official texts discussed are letters and inventories from kings; merchants; and political, religious, and social representatives (including a document in Hebrew); and economic contracts.

Chapter Three (259-333), coordinated by Stéphane Péquignot, is centred on the written production of the royal authority; it is not only focused on the great variety of document typology but aims at understanding how these fragments belong to a bigger history, that of the power relations inside the Crown of Aragon. The documents published are letters and declarations from the kings and queens, which help to contextualise the political history of the Catalan-Aragonese kingdom thanks to the comments presented.

Chapter Four (335-386), coordinated by Claire Ponsich, follows the same path of the preceding chapter, concentrating on private epistolary. In this chapter, the majority of the letters are sent from women, thus giving a precise focus on queenship.

In Chapter Five (387-445), coordinated by Robert Vinas, the four Chronicles are analysed, thus starting to shift attention from archival material to literary texts. Some linguistic elements of all the Chronicles are studied at the beginning of the chapter (pp. 390-396), while the text selection is very useful in showing the great variety of themes that emerge from this kind of text.

Chapter Six (447-559), coordinated by Dominque de Courcelles, deals with religious texts, from an anonymous translation of the liturgy and the Cant de la sibil·la (The Song of the Sybil) to the great authors such as Vicent Ferrer, Ramon Llull, Francesc Eiximenis, and Isabel de Villena. It also includes the few religious plays that have been preserved, among them one of the first Assumptionist plays in Europe.

Chapter Seven (561-635), coordinated by Marie-Claire Zimmermann, ends the literary excursus and completes the literary selection of the anthology with other elements that constitute Catalan literature: the Troubadours and Arthurian influence, the emancipation of Catalan poetry from Occitan stylistic and linguistic features with the poet Ausiàs March, and the great novel Tirant lo Blanch.

Chapter Eight (637-680), coordinated by Xavier Barral i Altet, goes back to archival documentation, this time to read and comment on texts linked with the arts and architecture. Additionally, it includes library inventories and building descriptions or interpretations from literary sources.

The volume is completed by an index nominum (681-698), lists of the contributors (699-700) and illustrations (701), and a general summary (703-705). This book is thus a real mine of information that can definitely help students and scholars already acquainted with Catalan history to understand how to work with textual elements, where to find information, and how many different fields of study can be developed thanks to the enormous quantity of written texts still preserved in the archives. In particular, the anthological part can be used in class as well to learn different methods (historical, literary, linguistic) through the serious effort that every one of the collaborators to this volume has applied.

If we have to find flaws, one is innate to the nature of anthologies, i.e., that some information is repeated or is dispersed in the book, although it would be important to know it at the beginning. For example, the history of the archives from which the major part of the volume’s documentation was taken is explained only at pp. 300-302; or the chronological history of the Crown of Aragon is discussed only in Chapter Five, even though in the previous two chapters documents from the kings and queens are already analysed. Finally, the price could be as well a deterrent for students, comparing it to other books of the same series.