WEBVTT 00:00:00.270 --> 00:00:08.630 Hello! Today is January 1st, 2026. In our time, 00:00:09.210 --> 00:00:13.650 today is New Year's Day. Happy New Year! In the 00:00:13.650 --> 00:00:20.649 Crown of Aragon, 639 years ago, it was also January 00:00:20.649 --> 00:00:24.309 1st, but it had been the New Year for a few days 00:00:24.309 --> 00:00:31.039 already. So it was January 1st, 1387. My name 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:34.320 is Jonathan Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in 00:00:34.320 --> 00:00:37.219 history at the University of New Mexico, and 00:00:37.219 --> 00:00:40.960 this is the Historian's Notebook, a podcast about 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:45.820 how history gets made. Season one is titled Molt Cara 00:00:45.820 --> 00:00:48.780 Companyona. We're looking at a document from 00:00:48.780 --> 00:00:51.960 each day of the first year of the reign of King 00:00:51.960 --> 00:00:56.320 Joan of Aragon and Queen Violant de Bar. Let's 00:00:56.320 --> 00:01:23.459 begin today's document. I'm super excited about 00:01:23.459 --> 00:01:26.819 today's document for a bunch of different reasons. 00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:33.040 So, one reason is that I know what it means. 00:01:34.099 --> 00:01:38.739 It's in Catalan, I'm in my comfort zone. I pretty 00:01:38.739 --> 00:01:41.540 much am able to read every word of today's document. 00:01:42.040 --> 00:01:47.239 It's a letter from Joan to his brother, Marti. 00:01:48.219 --> 00:01:53.170 This letter... I became aware of through an article 00:01:53.170 --> 00:01:57.730 by Claire Ponsich and then she directed me to a 00:01:57.730 --> 00:02:01.150 resource that I already had used before but it's 00:02:01.150 --> 00:02:04.909 a gigantic compendium of transcribed letters 00:02:04.909 --> 00:02:09.090 out of the archive for the Crown of Aragon and 00:02:09.340 --> 00:02:13.900 Like Daniel Girona y Llagostera, there was another 00:02:13.900 --> 00:02:17.939 figure of the Catalan renaissance that contributed 00:02:17.939 --> 00:02:24.280 a gigantic amount of work to bringing in the 00:02:24.280 --> 00:02:26.659 letters of the Archive of the Crown of Aragon 00:02:26.659 --> 00:02:33.360 to a broader audience because he transcribed 00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:36.500 a whole bunch of them. This person's name is 00:02:36.500 --> 00:02:42.379 Antonio Rubio y Lluch. and his collection of transcribed 00:02:42.379 --> 00:02:47.680 documents that he published in 1908 focused on 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:52.099 culture. Antonio Rubio y Lluch was really interested 00:02:52.099 --> 00:02:59.759 in the beginning of what became known as Catalan 00:02:59.759 --> 00:03:08.620 humanism. And Catalan humanism is a concept that 00:03:08.620 --> 00:03:12.639 relates, of course, to the broader concept of 00:03:12.639 --> 00:03:16.360 humanism in general. And let me just explain 00:03:16.360 --> 00:03:19.280 that pretty quickly. I can't go too deeply into 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:26.620 it, but humanism is the shift in cultural outlook 00:03:26.620 --> 00:03:33.150 from a religious -centered approach to an approach 00:03:33.150 --> 00:03:37.330 that's centered on the human experience that 00:03:37.330 --> 00:03:42.870 puts the consciousness of the human being at 00:03:42.870 --> 00:03:47.830 the center and seeks to investigate the human 00:03:47.830 --> 00:03:56.110 condition as its own thing apart from the theological 00:03:56.110 --> 00:04:01.150 questions of what God has created. This is actually 00:04:01.150 --> 00:04:05.610 a really gigantic shift, and most scholars put 00:04:05.610 --> 00:04:10.650 the beginning of humanism in Italy as part of 00:04:10.650 --> 00:04:15.789 what is commonly known as the Renaissance. And 00:04:15.789 --> 00:04:20.949 the idea of Catalan humanism complicates that 00:04:20.949 --> 00:04:24.870 by noticing how figures that were alive during 00:04:24.870 --> 00:04:27.850 Joan's reign, and in fact one of them knew Joan 00:04:27.850 --> 00:04:32.050 really well. His name is Bernat Metge. Bernat 00:04:32.050 --> 00:04:37.769 Metge is seen as the primary exemplar of a humanist 00:04:37.769 --> 00:04:43.810 approach to literature and philosophy in the 00:04:43.810 --> 00:04:48.040 Crown of Aragon. in the late 14th century. So 00:04:48.040 --> 00:04:51.620 part of the Catalan renaissance in the 19th century 00:04:51.620 --> 00:04:54.079 and leading into the beginning of the 20th century 00:04:54.079 --> 00:04:56.819 was a bunch of scholars making this argument 00:04:56.819 --> 00:05:00.439 that what was going on culturally in the Crown 00:05:00.439 --> 00:05:04.980 of Aragon in the late 14th century was humanism 00:05:04.980 --> 00:05:08.240 as much as what was happening in the Renaissance 00:05:08.240 --> 00:05:13.100 in Italy was humanism. And guess what? Joan 00:05:13.100 --> 00:05:18.279 and Violant, they spent a ton of money promoting 00:05:18.279 --> 00:05:22.259 troubadours and poets and philosophers. And there 00:05:22.259 --> 00:05:25.439 was a real, oh, and musicians, well, troubadours, 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:29.300 musicians too, but there was a real efflorescence 00:05:29.300 --> 00:05:32.980 of culture. During their reign and this is one 00:05:32.980 --> 00:05:35.519 of the things that that really got me interested 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:39.699 in Joan and Violant even more after I had 00:05:39.699 --> 00:05:43.759 really gotten into them based on the portrayal 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:47.279 that I read about in Michael A. Ryan's book A 00:05:47.279 --> 00:05:51.420 Kingdom of Stargazers all about the astrology 00:05:51.420 --> 00:05:54.139 that was being practiced not just by Joan, 00:05:54.300 --> 00:05:59.990 but also by pair and Marti. Okay, that's some 00:05:59.990 --> 00:06:04.370 big background there, but Antonio Rubio y Lluch 00:06:04.370 --> 00:06:08.230 was one of the people that really got this going, 00:06:08.550 --> 00:06:12.810 this idea of Catalan humanism, and also he documented 00:06:12.810 --> 00:06:16.569 all of this material from the Archive of the 00:06:16.569 --> 00:06:20.350 Crown of Aragon, like today's document. He doesn't 00:06:20.350 --> 00:06:24.589 offer a full transcription of the document. He 00:06:24.589 --> 00:06:27.850 summarizes it and pulls out notable parts. And 00:06:27.850 --> 00:06:30.449 I just want to say that looking at the document 00:06:30.449 --> 00:06:35.449 itself is a real bonus because you get to see 00:06:35.449 --> 00:06:40.329 certain things like it kind of like softens your 00:06:40.329 --> 00:06:45.670 response to what's going on in this letter because 00:06:45.670 --> 00:06:49.750 Joan is writing to Marti, who is in Barcelona. 00:06:49.990 --> 00:06:55.629 Marti is there at their father's bedside. Sibilla 00:06:55.629 --> 00:07:01.970 has fled. Marti will eventually leave and pursue 00:07:01.970 --> 00:07:06.199 Sibilla. but at this moment that Joan is writing 00:07:06.199 --> 00:07:11.000 to him, he thinks that Marti is still there in 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:16.259 the castle with their dying father. I think Marti 00:07:16.259 --> 00:07:18.699 really is still there and does receive this letter, 00:07:18.699 --> 00:07:21.740 but it's not exactly clear what happens to the 00:07:21.740 --> 00:07:25.660 requests that Joan makes. The requests that 00:07:25.660 --> 00:07:29.040 Joan makes in this letter it's one of the reasons 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:32.199 why I was so excited to talk about it because 00:07:32.199 --> 00:07:38.139 it's quite funny. Joanne makes a list of precious 00:07:38.139 --> 00:07:43.040 objects that are in their father's possession 00:07:43.040 --> 00:07:48.019 and says to Marti, can you please secure these 00:07:48.019 --> 00:07:55.139 items for me? So when I first saw this mentioned 00:07:55.139 --> 00:07:59.240 in the collection by Antonio Rubio y Lluch. I was 00:07:59.240 --> 00:08:02.620 like, Oh my gosh, they are total vultures. And 00:08:02.620 --> 00:08:05.600 it seemed a little bit heartless. But you know, 00:08:05.660 --> 00:08:08.860 there was a lot of strife between the father 00:08:08.860 --> 00:08:11.819 and son. And so I guess it kind of fit in with 00:08:11.819 --> 00:08:15.449 that. But then I went into the letter and It 00:08:15.449 --> 00:08:19.629 is the case, to be fair, that Joan begins the 00:08:19.629 --> 00:08:24.129 letter with a lot of kind words about his father's 00:08:24.129 --> 00:08:29.129 illness. It's displeasing to him that his father's 00:08:29.129 --> 00:08:32.950 illness seems very grave. He hopes that his father 00:08:32.950 --> 00:08:35.970 recovers. That's how the whole thing begins. 00:08:36.330 --> 00:08:38.850 And maybe that's just niceties and he doesn't 00:08:38.850 --> 00:08:41.529 really mean it, but it's important to realize 00:08:41.529 --> 00:08:47.399 that he really does say those things, and he 00:08:47.399 --> 00:08:52.840 prefaces his request for a bunch of objects by 00:08:52.840 --> 00:08:57.019 saying, I really do hope that our father doesn't 00:08:57.019 --> 00:09:01.000 die. Let's talk about the objects themselves. 00:09:01.740 --> 00:09:05.039 So there's quite a list here, and the list itself 00:09:05.039 --> 00:09:09.440 is super interesting. So... The first things 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:12.399 that appear in the list of objects that Joan 00:09:12.399 --> 00:09:16.360 wants Marti to secure as their father is dying 00:09:16.360 --> 00:09:22.779 are two books. They're both books that are copies 00:09:22.779 --> 00:09:29.639 of Roman histories. So one is by Livy and the 00:09:29.639 --> 00:09:35.120 other is by Valerius Maximus. And so these are 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:39.559 books that have anecdotes about what happened 00:09:39.559 --> 00:09:44.440 in the history of the Roman Empire. So Joan 00:09:44.440 --> 00:09:49.059 is really interested in those. And he also lists 00:09:49.059 --> 00:09:54.379 a bezoar stone. Bezoar stones were thought to 00:09:54.379 --> 00:10:00.860 have magical properties. The bezoar stone is 00:10:00.860 --> 00:10:04.399 actually something that gets barfed up from an 00:10:04.399 --> 00:10:08.899 animal. Yeah, so the animal is digesting a bunch 00:10:08.899 --> 00:10:11.080 of stuff. It's like maybe like the equivalent 00:10:11.080 --> 00:10:13.600 of a kidney stone or something, but you barf 00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:17.460 it up. And so they were thought to have these 00:10:17.460 --> 00:10:19.500 magical properties, I guess because of the way 00:10:19.500 --> 00:10:24.440 they look. I'm not quite sure the background 00:10:24.440 --> 00:10:28.159 on the Bezoar stone, but anyway, apparently King 00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:32.799 Pere has a bezoar stone and Joan says to Marti, 00:10:32.799 --> 00:10:35.840 go get that and make sure no one else takes it. 00:10:36.500 --> 00:10:42.019 Something else that he wants are the astrolabes 00:10:42.019 --> 00:10:46.299 and the quadrants, some of the navigation instruments. 00:10:46.830 --> 00:10:49.570 he's interested in, which I think is kind of 00:10:49.570 --> 00:10:53.370 cool. And on the web page for this episode, I 00:10:53.370 --> 00:10:59.429 found two pictures of museum objects that are 00:10:59.429 --> 00:11:02.110 similar to probably what Joan was thinking 00:11:02.110 --> 00:11:06.149 of because they're an astrolabe and a quadrant 00:11:06.149 --> 00:11:10.509 of Iberian origin around this time. So you can 00:11:10.509 --> 00:11:14.409 take a look at that. The last two items are pretty 00:11:14.409 --> 00:11:20.169 funny. So I was saying objects, but also Joan 00:11:20.169 --> 00:11:22.990 is interested in animals. Joan was really into 00:11:22.990 --> 00:11:25.590 hunting, and that's a complicated thing because 00:11:25.590 --> 00:11:29.649 hunting is not the same as we think of hunting 00:11:29.649 --> 00:11:34.330 in our modern time. So the two other items in 00:11:34.330 --> 00:11:39.350 Joan's list are related to hunting. One is a 00:11:39.350 --> 00:11:45.179 dog named Cordero. And doesn't really he doesn't 00:11:45.179 --> 00:11:47.460 say anything else like does he have a connection 00:11:47.460 --> 00:11:50.879 to this dog or maybe I mean certain hunting dogs 00:11:50.879 --> 00:11:53.600 were super famous like people, elites, would like 00:11:53.600 --> 00:11:55.000 write to each other being like I've got this 00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:58.120 great hunting dog so awesome his name is da da 00:11:58.120 --> 00:12:01.639 da and and other people like oh well see if you 00:12:01.639 --> 00:12:04.840 can mate that dog and I want the offspring and 00:12:04.840 --> 00:12:08.649 I'll trade you my you know so basically there 00:12:08.649 --> 00:12:11.690 was a whole thing about hunting dogs and they 00:12:11.690 --> 00:12:15.330 were famous among elites they wrote to each other 00:12:15.330 --> 00:12:17.990 about their cool hunting dogs and so maybe that's 00:12:17.990 --> 00:12:20.889 how Joan heard about this dog or maybe Joan 00:12:20.889 --> 00:12:26.450 actually like knew this dog from before he and 00:12:26.450 --> 00:12:29.509 Pere stopped talking to each other so it's really 00:12:30.220 --> 00:12:33.279 I don't know, I think an intriguing set of questions 00:12:33.279 --> 00:12:36.860 about Joan's desire for this one particular 00:12:36.860 --> 00:12:41.200 dog. And then the other, it's a group of animals, 00:12:41.539 --> 00:12:44.940 a bunch of falcons. So falconry was a really 00:12:44.940 --> 00:12:49.779 big deal in this time among the elite class. 00:12:50.440 --> 00:12:56.139 falconry was a much -enjoyed sport and there 00:12:56.139 --> 00:12:59.879 were falconers on staff and it was like a whole 00:12:59.879 --> 00:13:04.240 production. But the falcons that Joan identifies 00:13:04.240 --> 00:13:10.019 in this letter are those belonging to Bernat 00:13:10.019 --> 00:13:16.100 de Fortia. That is Sibilla's brother. So basically 00:13:16.100 --> 00:13:21.830 Joan is saying go get Sibilla's brother's falcons 00:13:21.830 --> 00:13:26.450 and make sure that I have them when I arrive 00:13:26.450 --> 00:13:30.870 to Barcelona. So that's the content of the letter 00:13:30.870 --> 00:13:38.090 and this document is doing so much. This document 00:13:38.090 --> 00:13:42.230 is transmitting information about what was most 00:13:42.230 --> 00:13:46.590 valuable to Joan. It's not like a bunch of jewels. 00:13:46.850 --> 00:13:50.690 It's not like a stash of money. It's these cultural 00:13:50.690 --> 00:13:56.129 items that are at the top of his concern. It's 00:13:56.129 --> 00:13:58.330 communicating. This document is communicating 00:13:58.330 --> 00:14:02.679 things about the family dynamic. This document 00:14:02.679 --> 00:14:07.480 is really cementing this level of trust between 00:14:07.480 --> 00:14:11.379 Joan and Marti. Like Joan knows that he can 00:14:11.379 --> 00:14:15.960 ask Marti to grab a bunch of items and Marti 00:14:15.960 --> 00:14:19.159 will not judge him for it and say, oh, you're 00:14:19.159 --> 00:14:21.120 a bad son. You should really just be consumed 00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:24.259 with grief over your father's death. No, they 00:14:24.259 --> 00:14:29.320 are on the same page. when it comes to the emotional 00:14:29.320 --> 00:14:34.879 dynamic here as their father is dying after all 00:14:34.879 --> 00:14:40.039 of the strife and estrangement and Joan trusts 00:14:40.039 --> 00:14:44.740 Marti to carry this out that says so much it's 00:14:44.740 --> 00:14:51.159 a very emotionally full letter And another aspect 00:14:51.159 --> 00:14:53.440 of that, if you kind of get into some close reading 00:14:53.440 --> 00:14:57.580 of it, is that he, Joan, is calling his brother 00:14:57.580 --> 00:15:02.740 Molt car frere. Molt car frere, most dear brother. 00:15:03.179 --> 00:15:05.919 Well, that's an echo of the title of this season 00:15:05.919 --> 00:15:10.259 of the podcast, in which I've lifted out a phrase 00:15:10.259 --> 00:15:14.759 that Joan uses for Violant, Molt Cara Companyona. 00:15:15.279 --> 00:15:18.399 So it actually... made me stop a little bit when 00:15:18.399 --> 00:15:22.159 I looked at this letter in its archival format 00:15:22.159 --> 00:15:26.539 and made me think, oh, maybe Molt cara companyona 00:15:26.539 --> 00:15:29.879 was not exactly like the best name for the season, 00:15:29.879 --> 00:15:33.779 because maybe it doesn't have this added emotional 00:15:33.779 --> 00:15:37.340 power that I thought it did. But then again, 00:15:37.720 --> 00:15:41.419 maybe it does. Maybe the fact that he's using 00:15:41.419 --> 00:15:47.799 a similar formula for his brother is speaking 00:15:47.799 --> 00:15:52.240 to something that actually makes that emotional 00:15:52.240 --> 00:15:57.000 impact of Molt cara companyona all the more justifiable 00:15:57.000 --> 00:16:01.820 in my interpretation. So I feel pretty good still, 00:16:01.820 --> 00:16:04.860 but when I saw that and I saw it repeated Molt car 00:16:04.860 --> 00:16:06.539 frere a bunch of times in this letter, I was 00:16:06.539 --> 00:16:09.620 like, oh my gosh, that's also what he does with 00:16:09.620 --> 00:16:15.240 Violant. But maybe it's a sign of the intense 00:16:15.240 --> 00:16:19.159 affection. and maybe it's formulaic. I'm going 00:16:19.159 --> 00:16:22.460 to have to look at more documents in order to 00:16:22.460 --> 00:16:27.960 corroborate that. So this document is super fun. 00:16:28.019 --> 00:16:31.179 It's a real joy to talk about. It just gets into 00:16:31.179 --> 00:16:34.779 all these different topics that connect to what 00:16:34.779 --> 00:16:39.919 interests me so much about Joan and Violant. 00:16:41.240 --> 00:16:44.879 All right, that brings us to the close of this 00:16:44.879 --> 00:16:47.519 episode. I didn't go through all these questions 00:16:47.519 --> 00:16:51.100 that I have about this document. I'll just kind 00:16:51.100 --> 00:16:53.299 of leave those up on the web page for you to 00:16:53.299 --> 00:16:55.980 take a look. And if you haven't made it over 00:16:55.980 --> 00:16:59.039 to the website yet, yeah, see if you can get 00:16:59.039 --> 00:17:02.639 over there, jonathanseyfried.net, because I 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:05.779 really am trying to put a lot of interesting 00:17:05.779 --> 00:17:09.390 stuff. up on the web page for each episode. Stuff 00:17:09.390 --> 00:17:12.789 that really just won't fit in the show notes 00:17:12.789 --> 00:17:16.809 format in the podcast apps. So give it a try. 00:17:17.210 --> 00:17:20.509 And also I'm tracking the way that I'm using 00:17:20.509 --> 00:17:25.170 AI. I do want to just really quickly say that 00:17:25.170 --> 00:17:29.829 AI is not ethically unproblematic. There are 00:17:29.829 --> 00:17:34.140 ethical problems with using AI. but in certain 00:17:34.140 --> 00:17:39.319 instances, it's been a super helpful thing. And 00:17:39.319 --> 00:17:43.519 for me in this research, but I'm using it very 00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:48.259 carefully and cautiously. All right, better wrap 00:17:48.259 --> 00:17:51.819 up the episode there. Thanks for listening to 00:17:51.819 --> 00:17:54.799 this episode of the Historian's Notebook, season 00:17:54.799 --> 00:17:58.500 one, Molt Cara Companyona. If you are leaving 00:17:58.500 --> 00:18:01.640 with more questions than you arrived with, I 00:18:01.640 --> 00:18:05.519 have done my job. The motto of the Historian's 00:18:05.519 --> 00:18:10.279 Notebook is, dissatisfaction guaranteed. In the 00:18:10.279 --> 00:18:13.279 sense that you never have all your questions 00:18:13.279 --> 00:18:15.640 answered. But hopefully you're enjoying it a 00:18:15.640 --> 00:18:19.589 little bit. Alright, visit the website, like 00:18:19.589 --> 00:18:23.430 I said before, to see an image of today's document 00:18:23.430 --> 00:18:27.970 and to see some of the bibliographical references 00:18:27.970 --> 00:18:31.369 that I mentioned in today's episode. And listen 00:18:31.369 --> 00:18:34.450 again tomorrow to hear about the next day in 00:18:34.450 --> 00:18:37.809 the first year of the reign of King Joan I of 00:18:37.809 --> 00:18:41.529 Aragon and Queen Violant de Bar. In the meantime, 00:18:42.089 --> 00:18:42.490 take care.