The Memory of James I: Editions and Translations of the "Llibre dels fets"

This exhibition traces the publishing history of King James I’s autobiography and highlights its importance as one of the foundational texts of Valencian literature and culture. It opens with an academic session organized by the Valencian Academy of Official Chroniclers in collaboration with the University of Valencia, marking the start of the commemorative program for the 750th anniversary of the death of King James I. The display offers a chronological visual overview of the written transmission of the "Llibre dels fets", the king’s memorial text and the only surviving autobiographical work by a medieval European monarch. Written in the Catalan or Valencian vernacular spoken by the king, the chronicle recounts his life and major conquests and has become one of the most influential works in Valencian literary and historical heritage. The exhibition begins with the first printed editions of the XVI century. In 1515, Diego de Gumiel published the section of the royal chronicle devoted to the conquest of Valencia in the "Aureum opus regalium privilegiorum". In 1557, the city of Valencia issued the "Chronica o commentari del gloriosissim e invictissim rey en Jacme", regarded as the editio princeps of the work and, for centuries, the only complete edition of the text. Later came the Latin and Spanish translations by Bernardí Gómez Miedes. The exhibition also focuses on the recovery of the "Llibre dels fets" during the Renaixença and on the many critical editions, adaptations, and translations published in the XIX, XX, and XXI centuries in Spanish, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, and Japanese. Notable among them are the editions by Marià Aguiló, Ferran Soldevila, Jordi Bruguera, and the critical edition by Antoni Ferrando and Vicent Josep Escartí, which presents the full text of the chronicle for the first time by incorporating variants from several medieval versions.