An Inedit Chapter in the Catalan Historiography from the 16th Century: Joan Benito Guardiola’s Work

The life and work of the Benedictine monk Friar Joan Benito Guardiola are enough unknown in the Catalan historiography. This article offers the first news of this monk of the Monastery of Sahagún (León), author of the Antigüedad del insigne Prinçipado de Cataluña y de la nobleza valor y proezas de los famosíssimos catalanes y de los de las yslas adherentes, an ambitious project of the History of Catalonia that is preserved handwritten and unpublished in the Arxiu de la Reial Acadèmia de Bones Lletres de Barcelona, in the Real Academia de la Historia de Madrid and in the Biblioteca Nacional de España, and proposes a first approximation to the formal analysis of the work and the sources used.