Eiximenis, Francisc

Eiximenis, Francisc (c.1340–c.1409), Catalan Franciscan friar and author of Lo Crestià (‘The Christian’), an encyclopedia of the Christian life. Thirteen books were planned but only four were finished. It is aimed at a popular, not a learned, audience, and hence it is written not in Latin but in the vernacular, Catalan. As a result it has had no influence on other European authors of the Middle Ages (see literature of wine).

Its third book, Lo terç del Crestià, dated 1384, is concerned with sin. The section on gluttony deals with drunkenness (chs. 350–9) and the etiquette of wine drinking (chs. 362–7, 393–5). Eiximenis is aware of the medical properties of wine, but his interest is in the moral aspects of drinking. Drunkenness, he says, leads to every conceivable vice, but, taken in moderation, wine is a good thing. All other nations, except perhaps the Italians, drink too much: only the Catalans have the art of sensible drinking. This means three cups at dinner, three at supper: one should never have more than four, and there is to be no drinking between meals. Although he disapproves of the fastidious habits of connoisseurs, he does tell where the best wines are to be found. They are the strong, sweet wines of the Mediterranean, particularly malmsey (Malvasia), the Cretan Candia, and Picapoll from Mallorca (Majorca). He ranks Italian wines above French wines, and insists that strong wines (these do not include the wines of France) should be mixed with water, the stronger the wine the more water.