WEBVTT 00:00:00.110 --> 00:00:05.370 Hello. In The Crown of Aragon, 639 years ago, 00:00:05.870 --> 00:00:12.289 it was February 6th, 1387. My name is Jonathan 00:00:12.289 --> 00:00:15.810 Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the 00:00:15.810 --> 00:00:19.469 University of New Mexico. And this is the Historian's 00:00:19.469 --> 00:00:23.850 Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made. 00:00:24.530 --> 00:00:28.379 Season one is titled Molt Cara Companyona. we're 00:00:28.379 --> 00:00:30.839 looking at a document from each day of the first 00:00:30.839 --> 00:00:35.179 year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and 00:00:35.179 --> 00:00:39.359 Queen Violant de Bar. Let's begin today's document. 00:01:03.850 --> 00:01:10.310 I just love some of the material and chancery 00:01:10.310 --> 00:01:14.209 practice dynamics of this particular letter, 00:01:14.730 --> 00:01:21.310 because we are in a register called Varia, which 00:01:21.310 --> 00:01:27.609 importantly is not Diversorum. It's Varia. Is 00:01:27.609 --> 00:01:32.109 it various things? Diverse things? No, not diverse 00:01:32.109 --> 00:01:36.400 things. So yesterday's document was from the 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:40.900 page before this one, and it was Violant writing 00:01:40.900 --> 00:01:47.959 about Joan's illness. So, personal stuff. And 00:01:47.959 --> 00:01:53.319 then you turn the page, and you look at folio 00:01:53.319 --> 00:02:00.180 80R, and you've got a letter in Latin, and... 00:02:00.299 --> 00:02:02.959 Well, first of all, I just want to say I'm feeling 00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:05.579 really good about my Latin today, because I think 00:02:05.579 --> 00:02:07.939 I got all this. I mean, I didn't do it on my 00:02:07.939 --> 00:02:12.120 own, of course. But with the assistance of the 00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:15.659 AI chatbot and going over some of its interpretations, 00:02:15.900 --> 00:02:19.000 I think I really understand this letter. But 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:21.520 this letter, you know, maybe you're thinking, 00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:25.099 ooh, it'll be about something personal again, 00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:30.349 or some very intense... kind of religious topic. 00:02:31.770 --> 00:02:38.469 No. It's about a broken -down mill in sort of 00:02:38.469 --> 00:02:45.990 a smaller town, and so it really is like this 00:02:45.990 --> 00:02:50.189 whiplash feeling of when you're turning the pages, 00:02:50.250 --> 00:02:53.289 especially in a register like this one called 00:02:53.289 --> 00:02:58.169 Varia, you're just not really prepared for the 00:02:58.169 --> 00:03:02.990 kinds of transitions from one letter to the next, 00:03:02.990 --> 00:03:06.430 and it is the next day. So the letter about Joan's 00:03:06.430 --> 00:03:09.270 illness was from the 5th of February, and then 00:03:09.270 --> 00:03:12.569 today we've got this letter about the broken 00:03:12.569 --> 00:03:18.830 down mill in the 6th of February. So I just want 00:03:18.830 --> 00:03:22.530 to point out a couple things about Chancery Practice 00:03:22.530 --> 00:03:26.659 with this letter here. First of all, I want you 00:03:26.659 --> 00:03:29.840 to notice, if you're able to look at this on 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:33.759 the webpage, that the letter starts out with 00:03:33.759 --> 00:03:40.479 Yolans, etc. So there's not even like any kind 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:45.340 of concern about listing out all of the realms 00:03:45.340 --> 00:03:51.139 that Violant is in charge of, and it's just like, 00:03:51.259 --> 00:03:55.229 you know, we don't have to be fancy here. This 00:03:55.229 --> 00:04:01.069 is a small town. And I pretty quickly took a 00:04:01.069 --> 00:04:03.889 little doing, but I pretty quickly found out 00:04:03.889 --> 00:04:09.110 that the name of this town in Catalan is Torroella 00:04:09.110 --> 00:04:14.610 de Montgrí. And you can see that in the second 00:04:14.610 --> 00:04:21.430 line. So in Latin, the toponym is Turriellem de 00:04:21.430 --> 00:04:29.750 Montegrino. I think it's the correct thing. It's 00:04:29.750 --> 00:04:38.790 an N -O at the end. So there's the real kind 00:04:38.790 --> 00:04:44.769 of leveling down of the seriousness or the formalities. 00:04:45.129 --> 00:04:47.889 It's not like it's a jokey letter. It's a businessy 00:04:47.889 --> 00:04:53.540 letter, but it's just the amount of ornateness 00:04:53.540 --> 00:04:58.920 that you sometimes see in these is just not present. 00:04:59.300 --> 00:05:01.180 And you can just look further down the page. 00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:04.680 So the next letter, which is actually from an 00:05:04.680 --> 00:05:10.420 earlier date, from January 28th, starts Yolan's 00:05:10.420 --> 00:05:16.279 Dei Gracia Regina Aragon. Or there's a macron, 00:05:16.439 --> 00:05:19.699 there's maybe Aragonem. Oh, what's the case? 00:05:19.819 --> 00:05:27.279 Oh, goodness. I don't know. So, you can see that 00:05:27.279 --> 00:05:35.259 based on factors, I don't exactly know the factors 00:05:35.259 --> 00:05:39.300 that determine this for sure, but things like 00:05:39.300 --> 00:05:44.259 who the recipient is, or the seriousness of the 00:05:44.259 --> 00:05:50.060 matter, you'll have a different level of ornateness. 00:05:50.410 --> 00:05:58.129 in the sender's title. In our document today, 00:05:59.110 --> 00:06:04.709 it seems like this is an issue that does not 00:06:04.709 --> 00:06:09.529 really call up a lot of anxiety. And I'll explain 00:06:09.529 --> 00:06:11.449 that when I get into the content of the letter 00:06:11.449 --> 00:06:13.930 a little bit more. But I want to point out a 00:06:13.930 --> 00:06:17.949 couple other things about chancery practice here. 00:06:19.380 --> 00:06:23.860 After the initial beginning of the letter that 00:06:23.860 --> 00:06:27.339 states the sender, Yolans, etc., in this case, 00:06:28.379 --> 00:06:33.600 the first word to appear is Fideli, and it's 00:06:33.600 --> 00:06:37.699 spelled with two Fs because it's starting out 00:06:37.699 --> 00:06:42.480 the letter. And I hope you've been enjoying the 00:06:42.480 --> 00:06:47.060 spelling of February with two Fs. since we started 00:06:47.060 --> 00:06:50.199 the month of February. We're six days into that 00:06:50.199 --> 00:06:54.439 now. And yeah, you can pretty much count on February 00:06:54.439 --> 00:06:57.459 being spelled with two Fs in every single letter 00:06:57.459 --> 00:07:00.500 that we look at this month. And I would like 00:07:00.500 --> 00:07:02.759 to bring that back. I think that would be wonderful. 00:07:02.779 --> 00:07:07.000 I would love to keep spelling February with two 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:11.579 Fs because that's just FFun. See what I did there? 00:07:12.300 --> 00:07:16.839 Fun with two Fs. Alright, so I just wanted to 00:07:16.839 --> 00:07:21.160 point out that when you have a proper noun or 00:07:21.160 --> 00:07:23.279 like the beginning of a sentence, the beginning 00:07:23.279 --> 00:07:29.579 of the letter, and it's an F word, it's very 00:07:29.579 --> 00:07:34.199 common to see the two Fs. The other thing I want 00:07:34.199 --> 00:07:37.360 to talk about here is at the end of the letter 00:07:37.360 --> 00:07:43.199 with the dating. So we have datem barchinonem, 00:07:43.639 --> 00:07:51.019 and then spelled out sexta die februari so you 00:07:51.019 --> 00:07:57.000 see this sometimes where the scribe will just 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:03.920 prefer to spell out the number that is the day 00:08:03.920 --> 00:08:07.980 and other times they'll opt for the roman numerals 00:08:07.980 --> 00:08:12.519 and there's really no set pattern here that I 00:08:12.519 --> 00:08:16.660 have discovered. Other than when a scribe likes 00:08:16.660 --> 00:08:21.860 to spell out the day, they'll also tend to enjoy 00:08:21.860 --> 00:08:28.620 spelling out the number of the last number that 00:08:28.620 --> 00:08:33.179 appears in the year. So right below sexta, you'll 00:08:33.179 --> 00:08:37.960 see septimo. There's a macron abbreviation line. 00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:44.519 which stands for the M in Septimo, and that is 00:08:44.519 --> 00:08:49.899 for the number seven, which is the last number 00:08:49.899 --> 00:08:58.320 in the year 1387. The previous letters in that 00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:04.720 last line of today's document is the Roman numeral 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:11.139 for 1380. So you have 1380 in Roman numerals, 00:09:11.700 --> 00:09:17.379 and then septimo for the seven for 1387. And 00:09:17.379 --> 00:09:21.659 what's kind of nice about this is that you can 00:09:21.659 --> 00:09:25.519 really get a reinforcement of your of your understanding 00:09:25.519 --> 00:09:28.519 of Roman numerals for a moment here, because 00:09:28.519 --> 00:09:32.720 a document like this really helps you understand 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:38.889 that the M is for mile for thousand. The three 00:09:38.889 --> 00:09:46.370 C's are for 100 each for the 300 that gets added 00:09:46.370 --> 00:09:52.450 on to the 1000 to get you to 1300. The L is for 00:09:52.450 --> 00:09:58.789 50. And then the three X's are for the 30 that 00:09:58.789 --> 00:10:03.169 you add to 50 in order to get to 80. So when 00:10:03.169 --> 00:10:08.220 I see a date like this, it really helps me to 00:10:08.220 --> 00:10:13.039 reinforce my memory of Roman numerals, which 00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:16.559 for some reason I just don't really remember 00:10:16.559 --> 00:10:21.179 that easily. All right, so let's talk about what's 00:10:21.179 --> 00:10:25.879 inside this letter. Turns out that there's a 00:10:25.879 --> 00:10:31.820 broken down mill, and Violent is writing to the 00:10:31.820 --> 00:10:37.559 bailiff and procurator in this town, Toroella 00:10:37.559 --> 00:10:41.940 de Montgri. That person's name is Bernardo Torroni. 00:10:42.860 --> 00:10:47.240 And it's really, this letter's so nice for understanding 00:10:47.240 --> 00:10:54.700 how the conventional chancery letters are formatted, 00:10:54.720 --> 00:10:57.159 because at the end of the second line, you've 00:10:57.159 --> 00:11:02.620 got the salutem, and salutem et gratiam. that's 00:11:02.620 --> 00:11:05.899 the phrase that usually concludes the information 00:11:05.899 --> 00:11:09.840 about the addressee and so you've got all this 00:11:09.840 --> 00:11:13.820 information about the title of the person and 00:11:13.820 --> 00:11:18.799 where they are and then in the two words before 00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:21.779 salutem you've got the person's first name and 00:11:21.779 --> 00:11:29.799 last name so if i had to teach a class on reading 00:11:30.200 --> 00:11:36.919 the medieval Latin and medieval Catalan, I guess, 00:11:37.580 --> 00:11:40.779 too, of the Archive of the Crown of Aragon, I 00:11:40.779 --> 00:11:44.240 would use this as an example because it's nice 00:11:44.240 --> 00:11:49.500 and clear, easy to read in terms of, you know, 00:11:49.620 --> 00:11:54.600 the quality of the scribe's penmanship, and also 00:11:54.600 --> 00:11:57.240 the issue at hand is a pretty straightforward 00:11:57.240 --> 00:12:02.289 one. There was a mill in this town. It broke. 00:12:03.169 --> 00:12:06.990 And because it's broken, or destroyed, maybe? 00:12:07.490 --> 00:12:11.809 It's hard to figure out the exact valence of 00:12:11.809 --> 00:12:18.750 dioructionem. It's not generating revenue like 00:12:18.750 --> 00:12:23.230 it used to. And this is in Violant's portfolio. 00:12:25.059 --> 00:12:28.980 probably used to be in Sibilla's portfolio. And 00:12:28.980 --> 00:12:34.440 so Violant is now saying to these folks, hey, 00:12:35.259 --> 00:12:40.620 if you repair your mill, I will actually pay 00:12:40.620 --> 00:12:44.580 you back for the cost of those repairs. And then 00:12:44.580 --> 00:12:48.919 it's a win -win because you get to have your 00:12:48.919 --> 00:12:54.240 mill operating again and make money off of the 00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:58.779 product of the milling, and I then get to take 00:12:58.779 --> 00:13:05.860 my cut from the tax revenue. So a sound investment 00:13:05.860 --> 00:13:10.860 decision is being carried out here, and it seems 00:13:10.860 --> 00:13:14.500 like it should move forward without any problems. 00:13:15.940 --> 00:13:22.480 Talk about a reasonable, peaceful slice of, you 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:27.299 know... what it's like to rule a kingdom. So 00:13:27.299 --> 00:13:33.419 I got curious about this place. Torroella de Montgris. 00:13:33.480 --> 00:13:37.759 Went to Google Maps, did a little googling around, 00:13:38.259 --> 00:13:46.240 and I just was swept away by the tourist information 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:52.720 about this region. the region around Torroella de 00:13:52.720 --> 00:13:58.139 Montgri looks really gorgeous. It's kind of 00:13:58.139 --> 00:14:01.899 close to the coast. The town itself is not on 00:14:01.899 --> 00:14:03.960 the coast, but there's then another town that's 00:14:03.960 --> 00:14:07.399 kind of in the same touristy region that has 00:14:07.399 --> 00:14:11.419 this whole aquatic museum, a museum of the Mediterranean 00:14:11.419 --> 00:14:15.940 Sea, and some of the hiking and so on around 00:14:15.940 --> 00:14:19.299 there looks just really wonderful. The castle 00:14:21.019 --> 00:14:26.080 The Montgris Castle looks very sturdy. It looks 00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:28.220 like kind of the shape of like a sand castle. 00:14:28.639 --> 00:14:31.100 There's not a lot of ornamentation on it, but 00:14:31.100 --> 00:14:35.559 it's a big kind of hunk of a castle still around. 00:14:35.639 --> 00:14:39.779 You can go climb up it. And then in the town 00:14:39.779 --> 00:14:44.460 of Torroella de Montgris itself, there's a plaza 00:14:44.460 --> 00:14:50.929 with a chapel. church of or chapel of Saint Anthony 00:14:50.929 --> 00:14:55.389 and it's got like a clock tower on it and it's 00:14:55.389 --> 00:14:57.509 been renovated it doesn't look exactly like it 00:14:57.509 --> 00:15:03.169 did in 1387 but you can kind of get a sense for 00:15:03.169 --> 00:15:09.289 the look and feel of this town in the 14th century 00:15:09.289 --> 00:15:12.669 if you go and just go to google street view and 00:15:12.669 --> 00:15:17.190 just kind of look around the towns the little 00:15:17.190 --> 00:15:21.450 the old town center and then I got curious well 00:15:21.450 --> 00:15:26.649 is there anything left of this mill and what's 00:15:26.649 --> 00:15:33.830 funny is that there's a hotel and it's renovated 00:15:33.830 --> 00:15:38.230 out of a mill that in the hotel's website which 00:15:38.230 --> 00:15:41.870 I'll link to on the web page for this this episode 00:15:41.870 --> 00:15:47.279 they say that it's a mill from the 15th century 00:15:47.279 --> 00:15:54.539 that they then renovated into a hotel. And it's 00:15:54.539 --> 00:15:56.460 really, it's neat. There's a whole website about 00:15:56.460 --> 00:16:00.320 the renovation process, some interesting photos. 00:16:01.480 --> 00:16:05.159 Could the mill from the 15th century be kind 00:16:05.159 --> 00:16:09.659 of a rebuild of the one that we're talking about 00:16:09.659 --> 00:16:13.299 here? Is it possible that they didn't get the 00:16:13.299 --> 00:16:18.519 rebuild going until sometime after 1400? Or is 00:16:18.519 --> 00:16:22.860 the dating on the website for this hotel not 00:16:22.860 --> 00:16:29.100 as exact? And the hotel that you can stay in 00:16:29.100 --> 00:16:34.860 today is actually the structure that was financed 00:16:34.860 --> 00:16:41.320 by Violante in 1387. Don't know. Don't know the 00:16:41.320 --> 00:16:44.460 details on that. But just the idea that you could 00:16:44.460 --> 00:16:49.460 go stay in that hotel that was built out of the 00:16:49.460 --> 00:16:52.539 structure that is at least dating to the 15th 00:16:52.539 --> 00:16:56.360 century and was a mill. Not sure if it's the 00:16:56.360 --> 00:16:58.379 same mill. Could be a completely different location, 00:16:58.399 --> 00:17:00.440 but I don't know. I mean, it's just... I don't 00:17:00.440 --> 00:17:03.659 know. I just got... I got a little bit wistful 00:17:03.659 --> 00:17:08.119 about the idea of traveling through Catalonia. 00:17:09.019 --> 00:17:12.519 visiting some of these places. Funny enough, 00:17:12.579 --> 00:17:17.259 one of the early episodes there was a place that 00:17:17.259 --> 00:17:21.380 Joan stayed as he kind of got sick as he was 00:17:21.380 --> 00:17:24.720 journeying from Girona to Barcelona in early 00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:27.799 January and that got turned into a hotel also. 00:17:28.440 --> 00:17:31.960 So I hope that, you know, maybe I can collect 00:17:31.960 --> 00:17:34.180 over the course of this year a bunch of places 00:17:34.180 --> 00:17:38.059 that are mentioned in these letters. that have 00:17:38.059 --> 00:17:40.299 been turned into hotels and then just go and 00:17:40.299 --> 00:17:44.680 stay in them for a while, kind of journey through, 00:17:45.539 --> 00:17:48.599 tracing the steps. That would be a really nice 00:17:48.599 --> 00:17:55.519 vacation. Alright, so I got a little bit into 00:17:55.519 --> 00:18:00.019 travel bug mode there, but I hope you have enjoyed 00:18:00.019 --> 00:18:04.859 this latest installment of The Historian's Notebook, 00:18:05.059 --> 00:18:10.650 Season 1. If you are leaving with more questions 00:18:10.650 --> 00:18:13.789 than you arrived with, then I've done my job. 00:18:14.190 --> 00:18:16.529 Maybe you're wondering how much money does this 00:18:16.529 --> 00:18:19.769 mill generate? What is it like to be a miller 00:18:19.769 --> 00:18:23.049 in Catalonia in the 14th century? This letter 00:18:23.049 --> 00:18:26.990 says nothing about that. Other than maybe someone 00:18:26.990 --> 00:18:29.109 high up might give you some money if your mill 00:18:29.109 --> 00:18:31.970 got damaged and you would be able to repair it 00:18:31.970 --> 00:18:36.359 and look at that. That's kind of nice. But so 00:18:36.359 --> 00:18:40.279 many questions. So many questions. How did Violant 00:18:40.279 --> 00:18:43.000 find out about this? Is it something that Sibilla 00:18:43.000 --> 00:18:48.319 had been aware of? Was the destruction from like 00:18:48.319 --> 00:18:53.599 some kind of storm? Or was there some something 00:18:53.599 --> 00:18:56.759 violent or was it just kind of run down? We do 00:18:56.759 --> 00:19:02.180 not know. All these questions. Well, remember 00:19:02.180 --> 00:19:05.549 if you're feeling dissatisfied... that you don't 00:19:05.549 --> 00:19:09.009 have answers to those questions, that fits right 00:19:09.009 --> 00:19:14.589 with our motto, dissatisfaction guaranteed. Visit 00:19:14.589 --> 00:19:18.509 the website to see an image of today's document 00:19:18.509 --> 00:19:21.250 and additional show notes, all those links that 00:19:21.250 --> 00:19:24.569 I mentioned, and listen again tomorrow to hear 00:19:24.569 --> 00:19:27.609 about the next day in the first year of the reign 00:19:27.609 --> 00:19:31.750 of King Joan I of Aragon and Queen Violant 00:19:31.750 --> 00:19:35.250 de Bar. In the meantime, Take care.