Josep Perarnau i Espelt (born 1928 in Avinyó, Bages) is a Catalan priest, theologian and historian.
He is deeply interested in the Middle Ages history, and has studied mediaeval manuscripts, specially the ones of Catalan authors.
From his position as director of the Arxiu de textos catalans antics (ATCA) (Archive of Ancient Catalan Texts)[1] of the Institute of Catalan Studies he has made valuable researches of unpublished works of the Middle Ages of authors such as Ramon Llull or Arnau de Vilanova.
He has gathered all the forgeries that the 14th century inquisitor Nicolau Eimeric used in order to decree the existence of more than a hundred heresies in Ramon Llull's texts.
These two last awards were given by the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan regional government).