Peter van Diest

Who is Peter van Diest?

Peter van Diest 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. Little else is known of this writer; he has been identified with the Carthusian monk Petrus Dorlandus, who lived in Diest and wrote lives of the saints. This identification, however, is controversial among philologists.