Uwagi o Księdze aniołów Francesca Eiximenisa

Notes on Francesc Eiximenis’ Book of AngelsFrancesc Eiximenis, a Catalan Franciscan and writer who lived in the 14th century, is not very well known today outside the narrow circle of Catalan researchers of the Middle Ages, even though he was a very popular author at the time and was eagerly translated into other languages. He was most enthusiastic about using his native language, i.e. Catalan, in which he wrote treatises on the truths of faith, theological questions, and social and political issues. The purpose of this study is to introduce Eiximenis and to present a Polish translation of an excerpt from the first book of his angelological treatise entitled Llibre dels angels (Book of Angels). Rozalia Sasor’s translation, together with an initial critical commentary on the text, is the first contemporary edition of this part of the treatise. The paper, which is at the same time an introduction to the translation, is divided into four sections. In the first one, Sasor briefly discusses the state of knowledge about Francesc Eiximenis in Poland; in the second one, she presents his biography with a special emphasis on the time of his studies and his theological and philosophical interests, and in the third she characterises the Llibre del angels and the circumstances surrounding the creation of the work. It is worth noting at this point that the aforementioned characteristics focus on the properties of the language of the original, which contributed to the success of Llibre dels angels among readers; it also takes up the previously undiscussed problem of the sources of the treatise. The paper ends with a comment on the Polish translation, in which Sasor explains how she prepared the source text for translation as there is no contemporary critical edition of the first three books of Llibre dels angels; she also discusses the translation strategy she adopted. The whole publication is completed by a translation of selected excerpts from the first part of Llibre dels angels, i.e. chapters 1–7, 9, 14, and 16–17, with critical commentary.