WEBVTT 00:00:00.330 --> 00:00:05.070 Hello. In The Crown of Aragon 639 years ago, 00:00:05.629 --> 00:00:12.130 it was February 7th, 1387. My name is Jonathan 00:00:12.130 --> 00:00:15.650 Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the 00:00:15.650 --> 00:00:19.289 University of New Mexico. And this is the Historian's 00:00:19.289 --> 00:00:23.289 Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made. 00:00:23.969 --> 00:00:27.660 Season one is titled Molt Cara Companyona. We're 00:00:27.660 --> 00:00:30.219 looking at a document from each day of the first 00:00:30.219 --> 00:00:34.240 year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and 00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:37.960 Queen Violant de Bar. Before we get started 00:00:37.960 --> 00:00:40.520 on today's document, I'd like you to just take 00:00:40.520 --> 00:00:43.880 a moment to ponder this question. If you were 00:00:43.880 --> 00:00:48.380 to become a medieval king, how many sapphires 00:00:48.380 --> 00:00:52.700 would you go out and purchase? Do you have a 00:00:52.700 --> 00:00:58.329 number of sapphires in mind? Alright. Let's see 00:00:58.329 --> 00:01:03.490 if you are up to the challenge of being a medieval 00:01:03.490 --> 00:01:08.209 king with a shopping list. Let's begin today's 00:01:08.209 --> 00:01:36.599 document. If you guessed five, you were right 00:01:36.599 --> 00:01:43.000 on the money. Joan, in today's document, acknowledges 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:50.140 receipt of five sapphires in different arrangements 00:01:50.140 --> 00:01:53.760 in terms of how they're constructed as pieces 00:01:53.760 --> 00:02:00.079 of jewelry. If you put a gem on a scepter, is 00:02:00.079 --> 00:02:05.700 that a piece of jewelry? I think it is. All right, 00:02:05.700 --> 00:02:09.400 but that's not all. There's a lot of stuff in 00:02:09.400 --> 00:02:15.520 today's document. On February 7th, Joan wrote 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:20.120 a receipt acknowledgement for a rather long list 00:02:20.120 --> 00:02:24.919 of items, and it seems to me like he's feeling 00:02:24.919 --> 00:02:29.580 better. The person who wrote this document, I 00:02:29.580 --> 00:02:33.740 think, had a vigorous constitution. because there's 00:02:33.740 --> 00:02:39.680 a lot of extra in this document. A lot of like 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:43.620 extra description of a lot of the products. And 00:02:43.620 --> 00:02:46.740 I think that this is not something the scribe 00:02:46.740 --> 00:02:50.000 would have just kind of provided for Joan. 00:02:50.199 --> 00:02:54.719 I think that Joan is really happy to have received 00:02:55.080 --> 00:02:59.460 nice care package from Mallorca that has all 00:02:59.460 --> 00:03:04.659 these luxury items and He's into it. I think 00:03:04.659 --> 00:03:08.219 he's into it. It's not some Chancery scribe who's 00:03:08.219 --> 00:03:11.939 like Luxuriating in the descriptions of all these 00:03:11.939 --> 00:03:15.800 different items in this shipment. I think this 00:03:15.800 --> 00:03:20.180 is Joan Okay, let's take a step back for a 00:03:20.180 --> 00:03:24.259 moment and describe a little bit about the sourcing 00:03:24.259 --> 00:03:27.900 information for this document. It starts out 00:03:27.900 --> 00:03:33.419 in kind of a typical way, where Joan is at 00:03:33.419 --> 00:03:38.840 the top of the letter, en Joan per la gracia 00:03:38.840 --> 00:03:44.860 de Deo Rey Dargo. All right, so he then, in the 00:03:44.860 --> 00:03:52.120 second line, identifies Berenguer Lobet as one 00:03:52.120 --> 00:03:58.060 of his Procurators. Berenguer -Lobet sticks around. 00:03:58.699 --> 00:04:02.379 Benjamin Gampel, in his book on the anti -Jewish 00:04:02.379 --> 00:04:08.280 riots of 1391, has a couple instances where he's 00:04:08.280 --> 00:04:11.280 identified Berenguer -Lobet shelling out some 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:15.680 money for different things. And so this particular 00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:22.519 person is somebody who is handing over the payment 00:04:23.180 --> 00:04:29.220 in order to obtain the products that then belong 00:04:29.220 --> 00:04:36.439 to Joan. And in this situation, Berenguer -Lobet 00:04:36.439 --> 00:04:42.379 is identified as the Procurator de las Nostras 00:04:42.379 --> 00:04:47.779 rendes y Drets del Regne de Mallorque. So... 00:04:47.879 --> 00:04:53.879 He's the procurator of our rents and rights of 00:04:53.879 --> 00:04:58.899 the kingdom of Mallorca. So that leads me to 00:04:58.899 --> 00:05:04.600 infer that the package, its contents are about 00:05:04.600 --> 00:05:09.740 to be described, originated from Mallorca. That 00:05:09.740 --> 00:05:16.379 the center of Mediterranean trade that is Mallorca 00:05:16.759 --> 00:05:19.680 is a place where you can gather a bunch of very 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:23.899 valuable items, put them together in a shipment, 00:05:24.399 --> 00:05:29.100 and send them off to a brand new king who is 00:05:29.100 --> 00:05:31.899 not afraid to spend money. It's one of the things 00:05:31.899 --> 00:05:35.620 I like about Joan. He is not afraid to spend 00:05:35.620 --> 00:05:39.860 money. And I'm about to go into a whole big list 00:05:39.860 --> 00:05:44.300 of things that Joan spent his money on in these 00:05:44.300 --> 00:05:47.480 first couple weeks of being king. But I just 00:05:47.480 --> 00:05:51.480 want you to keep in mind that this is not all 00:05:51.480 --> 00:05:54.600 that extraordinary. I mean, I think Joan does 00:05:54.600 --> 00:05:57.779 take it to another level in a lot of ways, but 00:05:57.779 --> 00:06:01.420 spending money on luxuries? That's just part 00:06:01.420 --> 00:06:05.560 of what you do. It's part of the identity of 00:06:05.560 --> 00:06:10.660 being a monarch. It's just another way of legitimizing 00:06:10.660 --> 00:06:14.459 your political authority. And if you're like 00:06:14.459 --> 00:06:18.060 a miser and as king you don't want to spend money 00:06:18.060 --> 00:06:21.439 on luxuries, people might start talking. They 00:06:21.439 --> 00:06:23.779 might start saying, hmm, this person doesn't 00:06:23.779 --> 00:06:27.519 really seem to believe that they're a legitimate 00:06:27.519 --> 00:06:29.699 king because they're not, you know, spending 00:06:29.699 --> 00:06:32.980 like one. And then, of course, you can go in 00:06:32.980 --> 00:06:34.759 the opposite direction and spend way too much, 00:06:34.759 --> 00:06:37.319 which a lot of people accuse Joan of doing, 00:06:37.720 --> 00:06:43.660 both in his time and later historians. So I just 00:06:43.660 --> 00:06:47.829 want to say that Pere the Ceremonious, he was 00:06:47.829 --> 00:06:50.970 a big spender, too. In a document that I became 00:06:50.970 --> 00:06:54.069 aware of, because of the work of the historian 00:06:54.069 --> 00:06:58.829 German Navarro Espinach, Pere the Ceremonious 00:06:58.829 --> 00:07:07.230 bought some gold pillowcases for his bed. Five 00:07:07.230 --> 00:07:13.430 gold pillowcases. I mean, they're like gold thread. 00:07:13.839 --> 00:07:18.240 Thread woven in with gold so it's not like solid 00:07:18.240 --> 00:07:23.120 gold pillows But anyway, I just mentioned that 00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:26.639 just to kind of say that as I'm going through 00:07:26.639 --> 00:07:31.259 this it's gonna sound kind of funny and a little 00:07:31.259 --> 00:07:34.839 bit over -the -top but just remember that that's 00:07:34.839 --> 00:07:37.040 what kings are supposed to do and what I love 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:41.220 about show on is that This part of being a king 00:07:41.220 --> 00:07:46.879 He's totally cool with all the political stuff, 00:07:46.879 --> 00:07:49.420 he's like, no. But when it comes to spending 00:07:49.420 --> 00:07:55.660 money, yeah, he's in his comfort zone. So this 00:07:55.660 --> 00:08:00.980 document, it's about 35 lines, and it's just 00:08:00.980 --> 00:08:04.480 a big list of all the luxuries that were in this 00:08:04.480 --> 00:08:06.879 shipment from Mallorca. I'm pretty sure it's 00:08:06.879 --> 00:08:08.899 from Mallorca. It doesn't say that directly, 00:08:09.519 --> 00:08:12.639 but that's what it seems. Now the part that's 00:08:12.639 --> 00:08:18.980 on the bottom of Folio 15V, that's all cloth. 00:08:19.819 --> 00:08:23.319 Textiles were a really big deal. I mean, they 00:08:23.319 --> 00:08:27.639 are today. People like to engage in fashion, 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:32.539 and people are always on the market for new textiles. 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:35.879 These are textiles not just for clothing, but 00:08:35.879 --> 00:08:42.379 also, I think, for home decor purposes. So it's 00:08:42.379 --> 00:08:45.100 a little bit difficult for me to parse out what 00:08:45.100 --> 00:08:49.480 the different pieces of cloth are used for in 00:08:49.480 --> 00:08:54.240 this list. But the list is quite extensive, and 00:08:54.240 --> 00:08:57.379 it's clear that there's some silk going on here. 00:08:57.899 --> 00:09:03.159 So there's units also that are hard for me to 00:09:03.159 --> 00:09:10.460 understand. Like, for example, on line 11, there's 00:09:15.759 --> 00:09:20.580 So I think there's some kind of division of units 00:09:20.580 --> 00:09:22.860 in here that I'm not quite understanding, but 00:09:22.860 --> 00:09:28.059 lean, prime, I think that's like prime, the prime 00:09:28.059 --> 00:09:34.039 linen. Yes. Then after he's done talking about 00:09:34.039 --> 00:09:38.139 a bunch of different units of expensive cloth, 00:09:38.419 --> 00:09:42.220 prime comes up quite a lot. There's this item 00:09:42.220 --> 00:09:48.019 at the end of this folio I'm pretty sure I understand 00:09:48.019 --> 00:09:55.019 it But it's quite funny There's some fans made 00:09:55.019 --> 00:10:01.860 of peacock feathers Yeah, I mean, you know Peacock 00:10:01.860 --> 00:10:04.159 feathers, they're big. They're good to put on 00:10:04.159 --> 00:10:09.220 a fan. I'll keep you cool so He's got a bunch 00:10:09.220 --> 00:10:14.480 of different linens, some silk. I think there's 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:20.279 some brocaded silk in there. And then, you know, 00:10:21.059 --> 00:10:26.860 some peacock feather fans. And by the way, Joan 00:10:26.860 --> 00:10:30.379 was a firm believer in the power of the peacock. 00:10:31.320 --> 00:10:37.639 He regularly ate peacock. Yeah, like cooked it 00:10:37.639 --> 00:10:41.259 up and ate it. Peacocks were associated with 00:10:41.259 --> 00:10:45.120 divinity, and there's a lot of peacock iconography 00:10:45.120 --> 00:10:50.120 that goes way back into early Christianity. And 00:10:50.120 --> 00:10:52.500 the peacock's association with the divine is 00:10:52.500 --> 00:10:56.360 something that actually occurs quite a lot throughout 00:10:56.360 --> 00:11:00.720 the Middle Ages in all kinds of different contexts. 00:11:01.500 --> 00:11:04.419 And in the Crown of Aragon at this time, there 00:11:04.419 --> 00:11:10.509 was a real belief that if you ate Peacock flesh, 00:11:11.730 --> 00:11:16.269 it would help extend your longevity. So it was 00:11:16.269 --> 00:11:19.830 one of Joan's favorite things to eat. And then 00:11:19.830 --> 00:11:23.870 we turn the page and the list continues. We, 00:11:23.889 --> 00:11:27.230 I think, are finished with the cloth. The first 00:11:27.230 --> 00:11:35.149 line of Folio 16R has something about Obra Morisca. 00:11:35.649 --> 00:11:41.860 So Joan... is excited to receive work, craftsmanship, 00:11:42.240 --> 00:11:47.799 artisanal work that is associated with Muslim 00:11:47.799 --> 00:11:52.279 artisans. I can't quite figure out exactly what 00:11:52.279 --> 00:11:56.940 this is. I don't know that it's a piece of cloth. 00:11:57.120 --> 00:12:00.580 It might be something else. But it does say Obra 00:12:00.580 --> 00:12:04.659 Morisca. And then as we get further down, we 00:12:04.659 --> 00:12:08.960 get to our first sapphire. at the end of line 00:12:08.960 --> 00:12:17.700 three. And basically lines three through seven 00:12:17.700 --> 00:12:21.179 I think are all sapphires. So all the there's 00:12:21.179 --> 00:12:24.720 five different sapphires. They're all described 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:32.279 individually. And he also talks about how they're 00:12:32.279 --> 00:12:35.980 mounted on scepters. It seems the word is scepter. 00:12:38.250 --> 00:12:43.830 got into a little dicey, spicy situation here 00:12:43.830 --> 00:12:50.250 with this word. So if you go to the Dictionario 00:12:50.250 --> 00:12:57.509 Catala Valencia Balear, then you'll see that if 00:12:57.509 --> 00:13:01.629 you type in the word verga, the first definition 00:13:01.629 --> 00:13:09.320 is like a bar. The second definition is a scepter. 00:13:10.679 --> 00:13:15.200 Like, one of the sources in the diccionario is 00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:18.179 from Pere's ordinances. Again, he has a rule 00:13:18.179 --> 00:13:20.580 for what's supposed to be on the scepter, how 00:13:20.580 --> 00:13:23.120 you're supposed to hold your scepter. My gosh, 00:13:23.240 --> 00:13:30.220 that guy. And then, the next definition... Well, 00:13:30.879 --> 00:13:36.060 this is a podcast that is not really... rated 00:13:36.060 --> 00:13:40.799 with a mature -only rating, and so let's just 00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:44.159 say you can use your imagination. And the source 00:13:44.159 --> 00:13:49.299 for that is a 1375 source for that definition 00:13:49.299 --> 00:13:54.100 of the word verga. Joan repeats that word so 00:13:54.100 --> 00:13:59.419 many times in this section. I have a feeling 00:13:59.419 --> 00:14:02.460 he might have been giggling while doing this. 00:14:02.919 --> 00:14:06.740 because it's just a little much. This whole thing 00:14:06.740 --> 00:14:09.740 is just a little much. But anyway, he goes on 00:14:09.740 --> 00:14:12.320 about the sapphires and how they're decorated 00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:18.139 differently. And then, after that, he lists some 00:14:18.139 --> 00:14:22.279 carpets. And there's different carpets of different 00:14:22.279 --> 00:14:28.940 colors. One of them is identified as an Obra 00:14:28.940 --> 00:14:34.190 de Barbaria. and that is five lines from the 00:14:34.190 --> 00:14:42.470 bottom. So some kind of pagan design? This, I'm 00:14:42.470 --> 00:14:48.169 not quite sure how to interpret Obra de Barbaria, 00:14:48.509 --> 00:14:51.330 other than to say that Joan would not have associated 00:14:51.330 --> 00:14:55.529 it with something Muslim. It could still have 00:14:55.529 --> 00:14:59.309 been something from the Islamic world, and Joan 00:14:59.309 --> 00:15:04.690 just didn't. know that, but it to his eyes looks 00:15:04.690 --> 00:15:11.389 like it is a design that has come from a pagan 00:15:11.389 --> 00:15:17.590 source. So we've got a couple more words about 00:15:17.590 --> 00:15:23.370 the different carpets in here. I think there's 00:15:23.370 --> 00:15:31.179 maybe like five carpets. And the last one is 00:15:31.179 --> 00:15:38.519 described as having works of diverses colors. 00:15:39.279 --> 00:15:44.220 So easy to translate that. A carpet of many colors. 00:15:45.620 --> 00:15:50.000 So he's gone on and on. This is a long document 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:56.100 with a lot of unnecessary detail. Like at one 00:15:56.100 --> 00:15:59.210 point he's talking about how one of the sapphires 00:15:59.210 --> 00:16:07.190 is on a scepter that has I think a rose design 00:16:07.190 --> 00:16:10.590 like rose designs on it and then there's like 00:16:10.590 --> 00:16:15.610 a turquoise that's encased in some kind of other 00:16:15.610 --> 00:16:19.070 gold I mean it's just all very drawn out oh I 00:16:19.070 --> 00:16:22.570 there's emeralds in there too he's got two emeralds 00:16:22.570 --> 00:16:28.299 so it's just this long list of luxury items that 00:16:28.299 --> 00:16:33.259 he has received. And I feel like on February 00:16:33.259 --> 00:16:38.960 7th, Joan really started to embrace that whole 00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:45.340 being a king thing. The other aspect to this 00:16:45.340 --> 00:16:51.159 is that if there's any of these items that are 00:16:51.159 --> 00:16:55.139 not for him, like if there's any of these items 00:16:55.470 --> 00:17:01.950 Whether it's the textiles or the jewels. It's 00:17:01.950 --> 00:17:07.150 not clear at all that they're intended for him 00:17:07.150 --> 00:17:10.569 to give to anybody else. It looks like this is 00:17:10.569 --> 00:17:18.430 just like a big bonanza for Joan himself. Although, 00:17:18.650 --> 00:17:21.900 I don't know. There's not exactly evidence to 00:17:21.900 --> 00:17:24.519 suggest that he wasn't gonna be sharing any of 00:17:24.519 --> 00:17:27.220 this, or maybe giving one of these precious jewels 00:17:27.220 --> 00:17:29.819 to Violant, or maybe Violant got her own shipment 00:17:29.819 --> 00:17:34.359 from Mallorca. I don't know. But anyway, this 00:17:34.359 --> 00:17:39.099 has just been one of those moments where we see 00:17:39.099 --> 00:17:43.079 the luxury, the luxury. The Crown of Aragon, 00:17:43.240 --> 00:17:46.920 remember, it's at its apex as a Mediterranean 00:17:47.480 --> 00:17:50.839 power and its shipping is just its merchants 00:17:50.839 --> 00:17:54.539 are everywhere in the Mediterranean. And here 00:17:54.539 --> 00:18:01.980 we see a very material culture set of items. 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:05.880 Material culture set of items. An example of 00:18:05.880 --> 00:18:09.380 the material culture that comes from that that 00:18:09.380 --> 00:18:12.920 Mediterranean wide luxury. That's what I'm trying 00:18:12.920 --> 00:18:19.799 to say. So The category of this letter, this 00:18:19.799 --> 00:18:27.319 document, is Robes i Joies. The clothes and the 00:18:27.319 --> 00:18:32.099 jewels. And that is identified at the very beginning 00:18:32.099 --> 00:18:36.900 of it, line three. And yeah, this one was really 00:18:36.900 --> 00:18:39.119 fun. This is a really fun one to talk about. 00:18:40.119 --> 00:18:44.420 And I am hoping to get into more detail about 00:18:44.420 --> 00:18:51.089 what kinds of clothing Joan and Violant were 00:18:51.089 --> 00:18:54.529 wearing. I think that the fashion history of 00:18:54.529 --> 00:18:57.730 this time is super interesting. There's one moment 00:18:57.730 --> 00:19:01.210 in this document when one of the textiles is 00:19:01.210 --> 00:19:05.890 referred to as French, and I do have a theory 00:19:05.890 --> 00:19:09.329 that a lot of the ways that Violant and Joan 00:19:09.329 --> 00:19:15.299 dressed were recognizably French style. I still 00:19:15.299 --> 00:19:18.259 have to confirm that through more research, but 00:19:18.259 --> 00:19:21.380 that's one of my side projects for the year. 00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:25.420 Alright, well I hope you've enjoyed this taste 00:19:25.420 --> 00:19:30.000 of luxury from a medieval king. Thanks for listening 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:32.539 to this episode of the Historian's Notebook, 00:19:32.799 --> 00:19:37.079 Season 1, Molt Cara Companyona. If you are leaving 00:19:37.079 --> 00:19:39.319 with more questions than you arrived with... 00:19:39.349 --> 00:19:42.650 I have done my job, because remember, the motto 00:19:42.650 --> 00:19:46.130 of the Historian's Notebook is, dissatisfaction 00:19:46.130 --> 00:19:49.829 guaranteed. Visit the website to see an image 00:19:49.829 --> 00:19:52.650 of today's document and additional show notes, 00:19:53.309 --> 00:19:55.950 and listen again tomorrow to hear about the next 00:19:55.950 --> 00:19:59.549 day in the first year of the reign of King Joan 00:19:59.549 --> 00:20:04.109 I of Aragon and Queen Violant de Bar. In the 00:20:04.109 --> 00:20:05.950 meantime, take care.