The Splendor and Opulence of the PastThe Splendor and Opulence of the Past traces the career of Jaume Caresmar (17171791), a church historian and a key figure of the Catalan Enlightenment who transcribed tens of thousands of parchments to preserve and glorify Catalonia's medieval past in the face of its diminishing autonomy. As Paul Freedman shows, Caresmar's books, essays, and transcriptionssome only recently discoveredprovide fresh insights into the Middle Ages as remembered in modern