Literature and social promotion: literary reading and creation among medieval Catalan artisans

This article aims to prove the active role played by artisans as consumers (readers, owners, copyists) and authors of literature besides elite and court circles, and links it to the strategies of social promotion launched by that dynamic social group. The analysis is based on two types of sources: on the one hand, on an extensive sample of the presence of literary works in the libraries of the medieval Catalan lower middle classes, derived from the main documentary collections on history of the books produced to date; and, on the other hand, on some literary codices copied by individuals belonging to that social sphere, which have been re-examined. In addition, some individuals are identified regarding the transmission of some works of Francesc Eiximenis (Llibre de les dones andLlibre dels angels) and the Catalan translation of La Queste del saint Graal, as well as regarding the origin of Jaume Conesa's translation of Guido delle Colonne's Historia destructionis Troie.