Recognition and legacy
In the 1390s, the Franciscan theologian Francesc Eiximenis adapted his previous work, the Llibre de les dones, for Maria de Luna, and composed for her the Scala Dei ("Ladder of God"), a devotional text accompanied by a set of prayers written in Catalan (with some notes in Latin) and presented to her shortly after she became queen. Eiximenis did not just have a literary influence of Maria de Luna. Around thirty years older than her, he knew her from the time she was a child and acted as a paternal figure for Maria and Marti. He never served as an official counselor, but he was an executor o Maria's will and testament.
The Scala Dei includes the Ten Commandments, essays on the virtues of femininity and queenship, the seven deadly sins, a treatise on penance, and a treatise on contemplation. Eiximenis hoped that the Scala Dei would attract the Crown of Aragon to the reform movement of Observant Franciscanism, which was then in its beginnings. Maria de Luna's reputation during her ascent to the throne sharply contrasted with that of Violant de Bar, whom the Franciscans saw as "overly frivolous, too French, and scandalously neglectful of the affairs of the state".
Maria de Luna likely requested two copies of the Scala Dei for herself, one in 1397 and one in 1404. As Eiximenis explained in the dedicatory preface to his work:
Most High Lady, many times your great Ladyship has encouraged me, for the improvement of your spiritual life, to prepare as you request some little book from which you might derive some guidance or light to better guard you from any offence to God, and that you might most aptly enjoy in all virtue, and better please God: for which, Most High Lady, I—wishing to satisfy your pious intentions, and for the sound increase of your devotion—have assembled the following book.
The structure and message of the Scala Dei reflect broader traditions of devotional literature meant for women in the later Middle Ages. "At this time women were considered susceptible to excesses of passion; hence, conduct and devotional literature were intended to calm them and—following Saint Augustine—to redirect the troublesome influences of passions on the body and the mind to more salubrious and pious ends."
Eiximenis' views on gender influenced his portrayal of Maria de Luna in the Scala Dei. For Eiximenis, "feminine space was constructed around and limited to the home, the family, and the body", which meant that instead of characterizing her as queen-lieutenant and governor, he placed her in a secondary, dependent role. Queens, Eiximenis believed, have a distinct and secondary status because they are female:
[The queen] owes it to her husband at all times to conserve the peace in the kingdom and ensure swift, righteous, and clear justice to their peoples, and not under any circumstances act as a tyrant, but rather to show herself likable and dear to her people, and take counsel from a small group chosen from among them, and fearing God, and eschewing greed, and who are committed to the common good and not their own affairs.
In keeping with other late medieval devotional texts, Eiximenis' dictates that "the queen is to pray with humility, to kiss the ground before the image of Christ, to kneel, and to look at him with humility and reverence. Praying alone in a private room or chapel, at night or early in the morning, served not only to underline the humility and authenticity of devotion, but quite simply to ensure that she would not be interrupted."
Nuria Silleras-Fernandez, in Chariots of Ladies, suggests that the Scala Dei, and Maria de Luna's personal relationship with Eiximenis more generally, substantially shaped her queenship and subsequent reputation. Ultimately, she did launch the Observant Franciscan movement in the region of her domain. Silleras-Fernandez argues that "Eiximenis inspired Maria to cultivate became the kernel of her royal persona, or, as she preferred to call it in her letters, her 'queenly dignity' (dignitat reginal)." Furthermore, he "coached her on how to project an image that enabled her to exercise power without upsetting contemporary sensibilities regarding gender roles."
