Scala Dei (Stairway to God / Tractat de contemplació)
Scala Dei
A verified public-domain excerpt for this text is still being set. The folio is catalogued and linked below; an original Sub Rosa rendering will follow.
What it is
Dedicated by the Franciscan reformer Francesc Eiximenis to Maria de Luna, Queen of Aragon and wife of Martin I, who likely requested two personal copies (c.1397 and 1404), this devotional prayer book combines an instruction on the Ten Commandments, essays on the virtues of queenship and femininity, treatment of the seven deadly sins, a treatise on penance, and a contemplative ascent to God. Eiximenis used it as the vehicle to promote Observant Franciscan reform at the Aragonese court. Under the reigns of Maria de Luna and her fifteenth-century successors, the Scala Dei and the companion Llibre de les dones became the defining templates of female virtue and royal piety at the court of Aragon.
Why it still matters
Its structure — commandments, virtues, sins, penance, contemplation — offers a complete programme for personal spiritual examination and growth that remains fully usable today. The Wikipedia article (Scala Dei, Eiximenis) provides a good entry point to the scholarly literature.
Kept alongside
Lo Crestià (The Christian) — especially the Primer del Crestià
Lo Crestià (Primer del Crestià)
Peter IV of Aragon not only sponsored Lo Crestià but reportedly ordered Eiximenis to remain in his convent until the work was completed. The encyclopaedic Christian formation manual — planned in thirteen books and actually running to four completed volumes — was explicitly written to encourage the study of theology among laypeople and to instruct rulers in Christian governance. The Primer (first book, 1379–1381) laid out foundations of the Christian life; subsequent readers of the series included John I and Martin I of Aragon, Queen Maria de Luna, and the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII. It is the last great medieval Summa in the vernacular and the first major theological-didactic work in Catalan literature.
Llibre de les dones (Book of Women)
Llibre de les dones
Dedicated to Sanxa Ximenes d'Arenós, Countess of Prades, and written at the request of Catalan noblewomen in the orbit of the Aragonese court, this moral formation manual tracks a woman's spiritual journey through the stages of life — girl, maiden, wife, widow — advising on Christian virtue at each stage. Eiximenis drew on it when composing the Scala Dei for Queen Maria de Luna, and together the two works became the formal template for female virtue and spiritual formation at the court of Aragon under Martin I and his successors. The text is now available in the Library of Congress and in digital editions.
Llibre d'amic e amat (Book of the Lover and the Beloved)
Llibre d'amic e amat
Embedded within Blanquerna as its fourth book, this collection of 365 brief mystical sayings — one for each day of the year — constitutes the most widely used devotional text in the Lullian corpus. In each aphorism the Lover (the soul) addresses or seeks the Beloved (God/Christ), using imagery drawn from Sufi mysticism, the Song of Songs, and troubadour poetry. Llull was deeply connected to the Aragonese court and the work circulated among the Crown's ruling class; Peter IV, John I, and Martin I of Aragon all engaged with Lullian texts. The standalone manuscript tradition shows it was extracted and circulated independently from Blanquerna for private devotional use.