#bandits

The document is compiled at the end of a chronicle from 1846 that explains a trial against a group of 15 bandits in Les Illes (Northern Catalonia), and this manual was one of the proofs held against them. Even though "The Catechism of the Good Bandit" was attributed (with no proof) to the bandit Ramon Vicenç i Prada alias Felip, it's unknown who the real author was. Either way, historians agree that this is a real document, but it's not known how widespread the book was.

Banditry was a persistent problem in Catalonia for centuries, since the Middle Ages and reaching its peak in the 1600s and 1700s, followed by the trabucaires of the 1800s. Many of the most famous bandits are well-known by the population thanks to the legends and songs about them (the most famous case being Serrallonga, of course), but these criminals were not leaving us detailed information of their crimes written down. For this reason, almost all of the reliable historical information we have about them comes from the documents compiled in the processes in which they were tried for their crimes. We can read what the bandits, their victims, and other witnesses confess and explain, but always in the context of a trial where they have their own interests. This is why it's so unusual to have a document that explains in detail how they operated, explained by bandits themselves!