diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 39beeaf3..9816859a 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ armv7-debian-container_prep:
 # Core build environment.
 .build-env:
   variables:
-    MESON_BUILD_TYPE: "-Dbuildtype=debug -Doptimization=0 -Db_sanitize=address,undefined"
+    MESON_BUILD_TYPE: "-Dbuildtype=debug -Doptimization=0 -Db_sanitize=address,undefined -Ddocbook_validation=true"
     # See https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wayland/wayland/-/merge_requests/154
     ASAN_OPTIONS: "detect_odr_violation=0"
   before_script:
diff --git a/doc/publican/meson.build b/doc/publican/meson.build
index 1aa31d3c..a572b0eb 100644
--- a/doc/publican/meson.build
+++ b/doc/publican/meson.build
@@ -94,11 +94,16 @@ foreach src : files([
 	)
 endforeach
 
+skip_validation = '--skip-validation'
+if get_option('docbook_validation')
+	skip_validation = []
+endif
+
 custom_target(
 	'Wayland-docbook-html',
 	command: [
 		xmlto,
-		'--skip-validation',
+		skip_validation,
 		'--stringparam', 'chunker.output.encoding=UTF-8',
 		'--stringparam', 'chunk.section.depth=0',
 		'--stringparam', 'toc.section.depth=1',
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index b8e2ec60..02c2346a 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -14,6 +14,10 @@ option('documentation',
   description: 'Build the documentation (requires Doxygen, dot, xmlto, xsltproc)',
   type: 'boolean',
   value: true)
+option('docbook_validation',
+  type: 'boolean',
+  value: false,
+  description: 'Validate the intermediate DocBook XML during the documentation build')
 option('dtd_validation',
   description: 'Validate the protocol DTD (requires libxml2)',
   type: 'boolean',