Legal and literary Catalan

Cagliari, National Art Gallery, Madonna and Child ca. 1550, detail (unknown Aragonese artist), “MiC — National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari”

With the conquest of the island by the Crown of Aragon, Sardinia became part of the group of Mediterranean regions in which Catalan is the hegemonic language.
The new conquerors are concerned with spreading their language at the legal level, introducing it into institutional communication and, in particular, as the vehicle language of the Parliament of the new unified Kingdom of Sardinia.
Numerous artists, men of culture, poets and writers come to Sardinia from the Catalan countries following the conquering army and become the instrument of a literary production in the Catalan language that certainly must have had a significant circulation.
The cities of Alghero and Cagliari, subjected to a sort of “ethnic cleansing” and repopulated entirely by Catalans, are the two driving centers of the dominance of the Iberian language during this period.
Among the works on which scholars have focused their attention, the “Cobles de la Conquest des Francesos” (about 1400) should certainly be remembered, which tell, from the point of view of the winners, of the failed attack by the legitimate judge of Arborea, the Viscount of Narbonne, on the Catalan city. A song on a political topic, which survived thanks mainly to the fact that it came from the side of the winners. This was not the case for some 'Lauds in honor of the judge of Arborea Ugone III', written in Sardinian, of which we have news, but which have not been saved.

MONOGRAPHS
R. Muntaner - Pietro IV d'Aragona, La conquista della Sardegna nelle cronache catalane, saggio introduttivo e cura di G. Meloni. Nuoro, Ilisso, 1999 (Bibliotheca Sarda; 38)

Update

25/6/2026 - 09:43