Somnis i visions en l'obra espiritual d'Arnau de Vilanova

Abstract

Arnau de Vilanova’s works include references to dreams or visions on six occasions. Two visions are concerned with the genesis of his own treatises, while two moralising dreams by two nuns, as well as dreams by King Frederic of Sicily and King Jaume II of Aragon, are reported in his Interpretatio de visionibus in somniis. His personal involvement differs, according to the source: he recounts and interprets his own dreams, merely narrates the nuns’ dreams, and interprets the royal dreams. The purpose, always pragmatic, also varies, from legitimization in his visions to the exemplary function of the nuns’ dreams and the political intent of the royal dreams, where a reform of the Church and Christendom is the objective