The Homilies of Organyà is considered the first literary text written in Catalan and it is the first known translation into the Romance languages. According to the latest studies, the author of this manuscript is an Augustinian monk of the Tortosa Cathedral.
There are other books in Catalan written before the Homilies, but they are administrative documents or translations of latin juridic texts, practical texts. Anyway, the presence of written Catalan is a gradual process of which the Homilies is a great step; at the same time, it represents an elaborate written practice, and is considered the first purely literary example of Catalan language.
The Homilies presents a lively language, very expressive and mature, and is the testimony of the antiquity of the Catalan language, of its deep roots in the times, the lands, and the people. In the Homilies, the Catalan language finds its certificate of authenticity, the testimony of being the foundations of the cultural patrimony, and the historical model of the contemporary language.
The Homilies was discovered in 1904 in the Church of Saint Mary of Organyà.
We have 1 facsimile edition of the manuscript "The Homilies of Organyà": Homilies d'Organyà facsimile edition, published by Millennium Liber, 2010
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