diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 645026a9ba..a763a7e305 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -437,7 +437,8 @@ AUX_FILES =						\
   gnu/packages/aux-files/python/sitecustomize.py	\
   gnu/packages/aux-files/renpy/renpy.in	\
   gnu/packages/aux-files/run-in-namespace.c		\
-  gnu/packages/aux-files/xml/patch-catalog-xml.xsl
+  gnu/packages/aux-files/xml/patch-catalog-xml.xsl	\
+  gnu/packages/aux-files/xml/docbook-xml/catalog-4.1.2.xml
 
 # Templates, examples.
 EXAMPLES =					\
diff --git a/gnu/packages/aux-files/xml/docbook-xml/catalog-4.1.2.xml b/gnu/packages/aux-files/xml/docbook-xml/catalog-4.1.2.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..cfb1849202
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gnu/packages/aux-files/xml/docbook-xml/catalog-4.1.2.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+<?xml version="1.0"?>
+<!DOCTYPE catalog PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD Entity Resolution XML Catalog V1.0//EN" "http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/entity/release/1.0/catalog.dtd">
+<catalog xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:entity:xmlns:xml:catalog">
+  <public publicId="-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN" uri="docbookx.dtd"/>
+  <public publicId="-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML CALS Table Model V4.1.2//EN" uri="calstblx.dtd"/>
+  <public publicId="-//OASIS//DTD XML Exchange Table Model 19990315//EN" uri="soextblx.dtd"/>
+  <public publicId="-//OASIS//ELEMENTS DocBook XML Information Pool V4.1.2//EN" uri="dbpoolx.mod"/>
+  <public publicId="-//OASIS//ELEMENTS DocBook XML Document Hierarchy V4.1.2//EN" uri="dbhierx.mod"/>
+  <public publicId="-//OASIS//ENTITIES DocBook XML Additional General Entities V4.1.2//EN" uri="dbgenent.mod"/>
+  <public publicId="-//OASIS//ENTITIES DocBook XML Notations V4.1.2//EN" uri="dbnotnx.mod"/>
+  <public publicId="-//OASIS//ENTITIES DocBook XML Character Entities V4.1.2//EN" uri="dbcentx.mod"/>
+  <public publicId="ISO 8879:1986//ENTITIES Diacritical Marks//EN" uri="ent/iso-dia.ent"/>
+  <public publicId="ISO 8879:1986//ENTITIES Numeric and Special Graphic//EN" uri="ent/iso-num.ent"/>
+  <public publicId="ISO 8879:1986//ENTITIES Publishing//EN" uri="ent/iso-pub.ent"/>
+  <public publicId="ISO 8879:1986//ENTITIES General Technical//EN" uri="ent/iso-tech.ent"/>
+  <public publicId="ISO 8879:1986//ENTITIES Added Latin 1//EN" uri="ent/iso-lat1.ent"/>
+  <public publicId="ISO 8879:1986//ENTITIES Added Latin 2//EN" uri="ent/iso-lat2.ent"/>
+  <public publicId="ISO 8879:1986//ENTITIES Greek Letters//EN" uri="ent/iso-grk1.ent"/>
+  <public publicId="ISO 8879:1986//ENTITIES Monotoniko Greek//EN" uri="ent/iso-grk2.ent"/>
+  <public publicId="ISO 8879:1986//ENTITIES Greek Symbols//EN" uri="ent/iso-grk3.ent"/>
+  <public publicId="ISO 8879:1986//ENTITIES Alternative Greek Symbols//EN" uri="ent/iso-grk4.ent"/>
+  <public publicId="ISO 8879:1986//ENTITIES Added Math Symbols: Arrow Relations//EN" uri="ent/iso-amsa.ent"/>
+  <public publicId="ISO 8879:1986//ENTITIES Added Math Symbols: Binary Operators//EN" uri="ent/iso-amsb.ent"/>
+  <public publicId="ISO 8879:1986//ENTITIES Added Math Symbols: Delimiters//EN" uri="ent/iso-amsc.ent"/>
+  <public publicId="ISO 8879:1986//ENTITIES Added Math Symbols: Negated Relations//EN" uri="ent/iso-amsn.ent"/>
+  <public publicId="ISO 8879:1986//ENTITIES Added Math Symbols: Ordinary//EN" uri="ent/iso-amso.ent"/>
+  <public publicId="ISO 8879:1986//ENTITIES Added Math Symbols: Relations//EN" uri="ent/iso-amsr.ent"/>
+  <public publicId="ISO 8879:1986//ENTITIES Box and Line Drawing//EN" uri="ent/iso-box.ent"/>
+  <public publicId="ISO 8879:1986//ENTITIES Russian Cyrillic//EN" uri="ent/iso-cyr1.ent"/>
+  <public publicId="ISO 8879:1986//ENTITIES Non-Russian Cyrillic//EN" uri="ent/iso-cyr2.ent"/>
+</catalog>
diff --git a/gnu/packages/docbook.scm b/gnu/packages/docbook.scm
index a9c92459c2..b52131b24b 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/docbook.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/docbook.scm
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ (define-module (gnu packages docbook)
   #:use-module (gnu packages web-browsers)
   #:use-module (gnu packages xml)
   #:use-module (guix gexp)
+  #:use-module (guix utils)
   #:use-module ((guix licenses) #:prefix license:)
   #:use-module (guix packages)
   #:use-module (guix download)
@@ -152,7 +153,40 @@ (define-public docbook-xml-4.1.2
                                   "/docbkx412.zip"))
               (sha256
                (base32
-                "0wkp5rvnqj0ghxia0558mnn4c7s3n501j99q2isp3sp0ci069w1h"))))))
+                "0wkp5rvnqj0ghxia0558mnn4c7s3n501j99q2isp3sp0ci069w1h"))))
+    (arguments
+     (substitute-keyword-arguments (package-arguments docbook-xml)
+       ((#:phases phases)
+        #~(modify-phases #$phases
+            (add-after 'unpack 'copy-catalog-file
+              ;; docbook-xml-4.1.2 is unique in the fact that it doesn't come
+              ;; with a catalog.xml file, requiring it to be generated by hand
+              ;; from the docbook.cat SGML catalog. We could automatically
+              ;; generate it here at the cost of enlarging the package
+              ;; definition with a rudimentary (PEG) parser for the SGML
+              ;; catalog but this is overkill since this file is unlikely to
+              ;; change, therefore we ship a pre-generated catalog.xml.
+              (lambda _
+                (copy-file
+                 #$(local-file
+                    (search-auxiliary-file
+                     "xml/docbook-xml/catalog-4.1.2.xml"))
+                 "catalog.xml")))
+            (add-after 'patch-catalog-xml 'add-rewrite-entries
+              (lambda* (#:key inputs #:allow-other-keys)
+                (let ((xmlcatalog (search-input-file inputs "/bin/xmlcatalog"))
+                      (dtd-path (string-append #$output "/xml/dtd/docbook")))
+                  (for-each
+                   (lambda (type)
+                     (invoke xmlcatalog "--noout"
+                             "--add" type
+                             "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/"
+                             (string-append "file://" dtd-path "/")
+                             "catalog.xml"))
+                   (list "rewriteSystem" "rewriteURI")))))))))
+    (native-inputs
+     (modify-inputs (package-native-inputs docbook-xml)
+       (prepend libxml2)))))
 
 ;;; There's an issue in docbook-xsl 1.79.2 that causes manpages to be
 ;;; generated incorrectly and embed raw nroff syntax such as '.PP' when there