Hello. In the Crown of Aragon, 639 years ago,
it was January 29th, 1387. My name is Jonathan
Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the
University of New Mexico. And this is the Historian's
Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made.
Season one is titled Molt Cara Companyona. We're
looking at a document from each day of the first
year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and
Queen Violante de Bar. There's so many documents
to choose from. Certain days have like 30 documents,
so as I'm going through this, I'm wondering,
oh my gosh, have I... done something that's actually
making me miss out on so much. And then I think
about, well, I want to really get this cross
section across the entire year. And I can't just
stay in one day or one month for, you know, days
at a time. So what am I going to do? And then
I get to, well, something like what you're about
to experience today. Let's get into today's document.
Alright folks, fasten your historian seatbelts
because there's so much going on on January 29th
and it connects to so many things. We've got
material culture of the registers themselves.
We've got new insights into chancery practices.
We've got weird familial dynamics we've got royal
families introduced into the picture for the
first time we've got so much going on and i haven't
even mentioned it's troubadour party time yes
it is so One of the things that Joan is famous
for in music history is being a major force for
patronage of minstrels, troubadours, music, and
helping to initiate a gigantic cultural diffusion
into Iberia from really all over Western Europe.
There's minstrels and troubadours that come from
Bavaria and end up in the court of Joan and
Violant. But Violant is famous for defying
gendered expectations, and where is she in this
accolade for Joan's cultural contributions?
The way I see it as I've been studying these
two for a few years now is that they were just
they were a team and it's the documents like
those we're going to look at today that just
really brings it home for me how neither of them
could do what they were doing without the other
and the accomplishments that we want to credit
them with. as well as the criticisms. It really
is this team project, and you cannot just study
one of them and not the other and have an accurate
view of what was actually going on. And what
happened on January 29th, it is a perfect example
of this. Okay. I'm going to actually hold the
material culture and chancery procedures until
the end, because I don't want to delay anymore
on really showing you what I mean by this teamwork.
Remember that yesterday we talked about a document
that Violant wrote to the Viscount de Roda. Ramon
de Perellos is his name. So, today's document
doesn't, at first, seem to have anything to do
with Ramón de Pérellos Viscount de Roda. So,
I'm looking at Folio 9V in Register 1751, and
there's a letter that begins, it's from Joan,
begins, Molt Car Cosi, and that means, Most Dear
cousin. So who is Joan's cousin? It's the king
of France. Why? Because the king of France, before
this one, was Violant's uncle. Right? So the
child of your uncle is your cousin. And it's
through Violant. that Joan can address the King
of France as cousin. And then at the bottom of
this, you can see that in Latin, we've got Fuit
missa regi Franciae. This is to be sent to the
King of France. And then below that, is letra
similis fuit missa so that means the same letter
is going to be sent and then the scribe has crossed
out regi francie because obviously that's an
error it's not the same letter is going to be
sent to the same person twice and then below
has written in duci torrene So this letter is
going to the King of France and also someone
known as the Duke of Touraine. That is the younger
brother of the current King of France. His name
was Louis. He later became the Duke of Orléans
and Now, though, before he gets that title, he's
the Duke of Touraine. Touraine is the province
of France named after the city Tour. So now we
know who this letter is going to, and it can
be copied word for word because it's the case
that both Charles VI, King of France, and his
brother would be both cousins to Violant and
thus Joan. So right here we've got the network
connections that Violent has brought in. What
is the letter about? The letter is requesting
that a particular troubadour also known as a
minstrel or minstrer in the letter here, is to
be sent to Joan and Violant. So they're asking
for a troubadour named Colinet and This particular
troubadour, I haven't been able to find any information
about what made him so sought after, but it does
seem like this was the first troubadour that
they sought to have commissioned from France
after inheriting the throne. And I'm getting
that information from an amazing piece of work,
scholarly contribution by Maria del Carmen Gómez
Mutané. The title is La música en la Casa Royal
Catalano Aragonesa from 1336 to 1442. So that
in English is the music in the royal court of
Catalonia and Aragon from 1336 to 1442. and it's
a book that has a ton of transcribed documents
as well as wonderful explanation based on what
we can know from the payment records as well
as letters like these. And it's a wonderful resource
for understanding the different troubadours who
were sought after, the way that they moved through
the networks, created by the elites who corresponded
with each other all the time. These letters are
so frequent and they're writing to each other
on the same day and then the husband and wife
are writing back on the same day. So it's all
just like this constant flow. It almost reminds
me of like a group text. I don't know if that's
pushing it too far, but that's starting to be
the vibe that I'm getting from this. So here
we have Joan writing about this particular troubadour,
and then I looked on the next page. Now, my project
is set up in a way where theoretically, I could
just look at one document a day and then be done.
But part of understanding a particular document
that you see in these registers is glancing around
the different pages to see if there's clues to
understanding your chosen document more fully.
And it also just so happens that I was drawn
to this document from the collection put together
by Trenchs Odeña and Baiges i Jardi. So I knew already
that there was another one on the next page.
And so I turn the page, and lo and behold, who
is Joan writing to just one day after Violant?
Ramon de Perellos, the Viscount de Roda. And what
is Joan saying? He's saying this is this is just
hilarious to me. He's saying I have reached out
to the King of France and the Duke of Touraine
and I'm getting these troubadours. I'm getting
Colinet. So he's like amping it up or possibly
he's hinting that Ramon de Perellos, who also
has a lot of connections among the French elite,
should maybe mention it. You know, hey, if you
happen to be writing a letter over to France,
just say, you know, Joan is really excited
about Colinet. Hey, you going to send him over?
So basically, you have to realize that these
were like when there's a new season of your favorite
show that's coming out on your favorite streaming
service, right? You hear about it, you read about
it ahead of time. It's something you know you
like and you want to find out what happens next.
And so you're excited and you're talking to people
about it. That's how these performers were for
audiences and especially the elites who could
try to use their network connections to get them
over faster or to get them over at all and in
fact there's a troubadour that gets like fought
over like he's in the crown of aragon a couple
years later his name is Everli and he's in the
Crown of Aragon and France someone in france
i can't remember if it's the king of france or
who but it's like you need to send him back.
And Joan's like, no, I'm not sending him back.
He's awesome. We're really loving him and he
is producing amazing entertainment for us. And
so you're just gonna have to wait longer. And
it turns into like a kind of a serious dispute.
Like there's some anger that happens there. So
that's what's going on with these troubadours.
So I found out that the instrument that Colinet
plays is the Chirimia, which is like an oboe.
So it's kind of that high pitched, almost like
a bagpipe kind of sound. And basically, it's
really hard for us to appreciate how fun that
could have been. Lot of times the medieval music
comes through as very somber when I listen to
it But you have to keep in mind that they didn't
have like this larger spectrum of of musical
genres and based on what they did have They could
experiment and it could be heart racing That's
what I like to think anyway that this music was
soul stirring, heart racing, and so this is what's
behind a lot of the enthusiasm that we see in
these letters or the repeated missives to come
on send this troubadour I'm waiting send him
come on or in the case of the Portalberts send
them and then also big question really interested
to find out the answer are there any solo women
troubadours. That would be very interesting to
find in these records. So we've got the network
happening here in microcosm. We've got the connection
that Joan gained from marrying Violant. We've
got the Ramon de Perellos connection between Joan
and Violant one day after the other. And then,
this was not mentioned in the source, the secondary
literature. Right below that letter to Ramon
de Perellos is another treasure. It's a letter
to the Duc de Bar. That's Violant's father.
And how does Joan decide to begin this letter?
Not even a month? has passed since his own father
died. He's writing to his father -in -law. How
does he start the letter? Molt car pare. Most
dear father. I mean, he must have had some kind
of emotional punch as he decided to write that
letter. Maybe he always addressed the Duc de
Bar his molt car pare, but, uh, goodness,
like, In this moment, it must have caused him
to have some thoughts like, oh yeah, this would
be my most dear father at this point because
my biological father is gone. So that was really
interesting. And what is being discussed in this
letter that's sent to the Duke de Bar? It's his
health Here he's referring to it himself. I think
the first for the first time and He's not using
the word arduous like the difficult business
He is instead using The word accident And he
says, there was an accident with my health. And
the word accident is just very loaded in our
time. But I think what we what we really should
translate this as is misfortune. There was a
misfortune. And now I'm convalescing and I have
a much better disposition. And Joan is writing
this on. January 29th. So we've come a long way
in the health journey to the point where now
we're talking about it. So I guess that's a sign
that it's not as serious anymore. But we'll see.
I would say that this document is a very good
indicator that we can say by the time January
29th. arrives, we have Joan out of the woods.
That would be my guess. One last part of today's
episode, which has spanned multiple documents,
but all on January 29th. They were all on January
29th. This other piece is back on the first page
of the two that I've been talking about today,
folio nine V. And you'll notice that at the top
there's a little like four line something and
then a squiggly that covers it. That's what it
looks like when they want to cross something
out. So they started putting in a letter and
it looks like it ends like mid sentence. And
on the left, there's a little marginal note.
And it's really hard to figure out because it's
abbreviated too, and it's hard to read. But it's
something like non hunc in alios, which would
sort of translate to this is not here, it's in
another. So in this, we've got a wonderful moment
that reveals just a little glimpse of how it
was not an easy straightforward process all the
time to figure out which register you were supposed
to be putting which letter into. Because this
scribe who started out this one, we don't know
who it is. because they just stopped and you
know it's not like they put the probata in for
my bad for wasting paper but basically somebody
started to record in a letter to some religious
person a priest i think or maybe an archbishop
because it starts with reverend father i don't
think it's the pope I didn't even look at it
too closely but basically the whole point is
the Chancery staff could get confused about where
to put different documents and in this situation
somebody caught it and said whoa that's not supposed
to go in there I think when you've got the secret
seal at the end you're not going to be able to
put that in the officialum or the gratiarum or
the commune. You're going to have to put that
in one of the secret seal registers. So it's
possible that this letter was intended to go
into one of the others and and then maybe the
scribe looked ahead to the to the end of it.
and saw oh no this is going in i'm writing this
in the secret seal register and it's supposed
to go in one of the others because they're always
in the dating clause talking about what level
of seal the letter is going to be sent as all
right well a lot going on there and i will link
to the citations that I mentioned in today's
episode, especially the book that is sadly out
of print. by Maria del Carmen Gomez Muntane, which
was published in 1977. But if you can get your
hands on it and you're interested in music and
the history of music and this time and place,
it's just a fabulous resource. And there's one
table in there, which I think is a really fun
one, where it shows some of the particular troubadours
and minstrels that were there in the court of
Joan and Violant for like long durations and
it's like a bar graph kind of that shows which
years they were there and there's about like
15 of them I think so that I took a picture of
I'm going to post that onto the web page for
this episode. So I hope you found this as fun
as I did. I honestly could have kept going about
these documents for another 30 minutes, but,
you know, we have a motto here at the Historian's
Notebook. Dissatisfaction guaranteed. That's
not just for you. Like, I want to keep talking
about these for like another 90 minutes, so I
also have to. make good on the motto here. Thank
you for listening to this installment of the
Historian's Notebook, Season 1, Molt Cara Companyona.
And visit the website to take a look at these
folios that I discussed today and the citations
and show notes. Listen again tomorrow to hear
about the next day in the first year of the reign
of King Joan I of Aragon and Queen Violant de
Bar. In the meantime, take care!