Peter van Diest

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Peter van Diest (Latinised as Petrus Diesthemius) was a medieval writer from the Low Countries. The late-15th-century morality play Elckerlijc is attributed to him.

Elckerlijc, which was translated into English to become the famous Everyman , has come down to us in manuscripts that fail to mention the play's author. A 1539 Latin translation by Georgius Macropedius, however, states that its original author is one Petrus Diesthemius ('Peter of Diest'). Little else is known of this writer; he has been identified with the Carthusian monk Petrus Dorlandus (14541507), who lived in Diest (in present-day Belgium) and wrote lives of the saints. This identification, however, is controversial among philologists.

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