WEBVTT 00:00:00.010 --> 00:00:05.769 Hello. In the Crown of Aragon, 639 years ago, 00:00:06.370 --> 00:00:13.650 it was February 26, 1387. My name is Jonathan 00:00:13.650 --> 00:00:17.469 Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the 00:00:17.469 --> 00:00:21.670 University of New Mexico. And this is the Historian's 00:00:21.670 --> 00:00:26.030 Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made. 00:00:26.239 --> 00:00:31.039 Season one is titled Molt Cara Companyona. We're 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:33.899 looking at a document from each day of the first 00:00:33.899 --> 00:00:38.460 year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and 00:00:38.460 --> 00:00:42.500 Queen Violant de Bar. Let's begin today's 00:00:42.500 --> 00:01:09.969 document. Today's document is from Violant, 00:01:10.810 --> 00:01:15.489 and it is once again in that Varia register, 00:01:16.530 --> 00:01:20.170 and this is addressed to somebody who in the 00:01:20.170 --> 00:01:25.129 first line is identified only as Mossen Berenguer. 00:01:26.060 --> 00:01:29.879 There's a lot of berenguers out there. So luckily 00:01:29.879 --> 00:01:35.120 we have a little line underneath the main text 00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:43.939 dirigiter berengerio dolms milite and that last 00:01:43.939 --> 00:01:50.359 word milite makes all the difference. It means 00:01:51.019 --> 00:01:55.420 Well, in direct translation from Latin, it means 00:01:55.420 --> 00:01:58.819 soldier, but the way it was used at this time, 00:01:59.099 --> 00:02:06.159 it means knight. So Violant is writing to a 00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:09.860 certain Berenguer. I think the last name is D 00:02:09.860 --> 00:02:15.419 -O -L -M -S. And this person is a knight. This 00:02:15.419 --> 00:02:21.629 person is... possibly like a knight for hire, 00:02:22.250 --> 00:02:25.090 although I'm not sure. I wasn't able to find 00:02:25.090 --> 00:02:29.789 anything about Berenguer Dolms to understand 00:02:29.789 --> 00:02:34.169 why he has been called upon to perform the service 00:02:34.169 --> 00:02:37.789 that he's being called upon to do in this letter. 00:02:38.520 --> 00:02:43.919 And so it's a bit of a mystery there why it is 00:02:43.919 --> 00:02:48.919 that we have this letter going out to a militi, 00:02:48.919 --> 00:02:55.120 a knight, but the purpose of having someone with 00:02:55.120 --> 00:03:00.479 some military training or some kind of armament 00:03:00.479 --> 00:03:05.259 becomes clear when we get into the letter itself. 00:03:05.849 --> 00:03:10.789 It turns out that there is another person named 00:03:10.789 --> 00:03:18.330 Jacme Quinta, and that person is a tax collector, 00:03:19.030 --> 00:03:23.289 or some kind of fee collector. The word that's 00:03:23.289 --> 00:03:26.449 used for the funds that are being collected, 00:03:27.050 --> 00:03:32.180 that word is demandes. So, demandes is a word 00:03:32.180 --> 00:03:35.840 that just means something like a request or a 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:39.319 requirement. It's got a lot of different colloquial 00:03:39.319 --> 00:03:43.039 uses. So I was a little bit concerned that I 00:03:43.039 --> 00:03:46.060 might not be interpreting it correctly. Actually, 00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:50.439 let me clarify. I was concerned that Claude was 00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:53.539 not interpreting it correctly. I switched over 00:03:53.539 --> 00:03:58.650 to Claude from ChatGPT to see how Claude version 00:03:58.650 --> 00:04:05.150 opus 4 .6 would do with a translation from medieval 00:04:05.150 --> 00:04:09.990 Catalan, and Claude did really, really well. 00:04:10.509 --> 00:04:14.310 In fact, Claude was able to catch something that 00:04:14.310 --> 00:04:18.949 was stumping me. There was an abbreviation, it's 00:04:18.949 --> 00:04:23.149 in the fourth line, kind of in the middle, DRS. 00:04:23.579 --> 00:04:26.759 and with a macron above it and I just could not 00:04:26.759 --> 00:04:30.639 figure out what was being abbreviated there, 00:04:31.139 --> 00:04:34.360 and Claude figured out that it was diners. It 00:04:34.360 --> 00:04:38.360 was the unit of money. It hasn't come up all 00:04:38.360 --> 00:04:42.100 that much. Usually we're seeing florins as the 00:04:42.100 --> 00:04:45.660 unit of money, or maybe sous, and so to have 00:04:45.660 --> 00:04:49.000 diners in the document, it's not super rare, 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:52.259 but it's just something that I wasn't used to, 00:04:52.300 --> 00:05:03.879 and Claude found that, and then he also It also 00:05:03.879 --> 00:05:09.160 found something that I really should have gotten 00:05:09.160 --> 00:05:13.680 when I was transcribing this, but I didn't. So 00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:22.170 in the fifth line down... In the middle again, 00:05:22.310 --> 00:05:27.430 right before dia, is the word cascune, and I 00:05:27.430 --> 00:05:31.490 had looked at the second C and thought it was 00:05:31.490 --> 00:05:35.769 a T. You might be wondering what happened to 00:05:35.769 --> 00:05:40.829 Gemini as my go -to for doing transcription. 00:05:41.250 --> 00:05:44.910 Well, I did upload this letter into Gemini, and 00:05:44.910 --> 00:05:47.850 for some reason it just flubbed it horribly. 00:05:48.350 --> 00:05:52.160 Like I can't quite figure out why Gemini worked 00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:55.480 so well on some occasions, and then on other 00:05:55.480 --> 00:06:01.600 occasions it just is a disaster. So it was mistaking 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:04.860 a lot of the abbreviations, so it was getting 00:06:04.860 --> 00:06:09.879 a lot of the P words wrong, and I just gave up 00:06:09.879 --> 00:06:12.399 and I said, you know what, it's gonna take longer 00:06:12.399 --> 00:06:17.240 for me to go through and correct the Gemini errors 00:06:17.240 --> 00:06:19.680 than it would be for me to just go ahead and 00:06:19.680 --> 00:06:22.860 transcribe this letter myself. So we'll give 00:06:22.860 --> 00:06:26.379 Gemini another chance tomorrow and see what happens. 00:06:27.100 --> 00:06:30.680 But yeah, Gemini is kind of this uneven experience. 00:06:30.759 --> 00:06:34.339 That's what I can say about that. And I haven't 00:06:34.339 --> 00:06:38.939 tried getting Claude to do a transcription from 00:06:38.939 --> 00:06:43.870 the image. We might try that at some point. Anyway, 00:06:44.370 --> 00:06:48.310 Claude came up with the conclusion that demandes 00:06:48.310 --> 00:06:53.209 was being used here as a term for the collection 00:06:53.209 --> 00:06:59.649 of funds, whether it's a fee or a tax. And I 00:06:59.649 --> 00:07:02.250 just wanted some confirmation about that. And 00:07:02.250 --> 00:07:05.970 Claude did a really good job of finding some 00:07:05.970 --> 00:07:10.189 scholarly literature that indeed confirms that 00:07:10.189 --> 00:07:16.550 demandes was used. as a term for fund collection 00:07:16.550 --> 00:07:20.009 that a demandes would be a word meaning you're 00:07:20.009 --> 00:07:24.129 going out and you're doing collections. So what's 00:07:24.129 --> 00:07:29.370 happening in this letter is that jacme quinta 00:07:29.370 --> 00:07:35.180 is the tax collector, and he's gonna need a little 00:07:35.180 --> 00:07:39.920 bit of muscle as he goes around Catalonia and 00:07:39.920 --> 00:07:45.759 demands that certain people pay what the crown 00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:53.790 feels is owed to it. Berenguer Dolms is like 00:07:53.790 --> 00:07:58.750 the enforcer. And so you can really imagine the 00:07:58.750 --> 00:08:01.829 two of them walking around, well, probably at 00:08:01.829 --> 00:08:05.509 horses, riding around Catalonia, going to wherever 00:08:05.509 --> 00:08:08.209 they're supposed to go. It doesn't say which 00:08:08.209 --> 00:08:12.870 parts of Catalonia, and collecting the money. 00:08:13.529 --> 00:08:18.430 So that's the scenario here, very clearly. And 00:08:18.430 --> 00:08:23.129 then... On the second to last line, we have somebody 00:08:23.129 --> 00:08:26.750 reappear, who we've already talked about way 00:08:26.750 --> 00:08:31.730 back in episode 37. On January 30th, we had a 00:08:31.730 --> 00:08:36.870 document that mentioned Voilant's treasurer, Alatzar 00:08:36.870 --> 00:08:41.700 Golluf. Alatzar Goluff, I think? I didn't realize 00:08:41.700 --> 00:08:46.899 at the time, back on January 30th, that he is 00:08:46.899 --> 00:08:51.799 definitely Jewish. He later appeared in some 00:08:51.799 --> 00:08:55.320 documents that I was looking at after that episode 00:08:55.320 --> 00:08:58.860 had been recorded, and I noticed that he was 00:08:58.860 --> 00:09:04.399 referred to by faith group. So it would say something 00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:09.440 like Jehu alatsar Goluff in order to mean the 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:14.639 Jew alatzar Golluff, who is the treasurer. And 00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:21.440 here we have him appearing again. So he is very 00:09:21.440 --> 00:09:25.659 high up in the administration. And we have this 00:09:25.659 --> 00:09:29.279 moment where we can pause and say, look at the 00:09:29.279 --> 00:09:33.830 interfaith encounter. that's happening here as 00:09:33.830 --> 00:09:40.029 Alatzar Golluff has this role. So Benjamin Gampel 00:09:40.029 --> 00:09:44.009 is my go -to source when thinking about Jews 00:09:44.009 --> 00:09:48.539 in the Crown of Aragon specifically during the 00:09:48.539 --> 00:09:52.600 reign of Joan and Violant. There's a tremendous 00:09:52.600 --> 00:09:57.820 amount of scholarly literature about interfaith 00:09:57.820 --> 00:10:01.899 encounter in the Crown of Aragon over the long 00:10:01.899 --> 00:10:07.070 term. So one of the most prominent scholars of 00:10:07.070 --> 00:10:10.850 that field is Brian Catlos, and I'll put a couple 00:10:10.850 --> 00:10:16.029 of his books into the bibliography for this episode, 00:10:16.330 --> 00:10:20.779 but there's been just a tremendous amount of 00:10:20.779 --> 00:10:25.759 scholarship done even from the early 20th century 00:10:25.759 --> 00:10:31.120 especially with Yitzhak Baer who did a really 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:37.100 tremendous work of scholarship on Jews in Iberia 00:10:37.100 --> 00:10:43.000 and so there's a very very well -established 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:47.299 set of research strategies and sources all about 00:10:47.299 --> 00:10:52.220 the interfaith encounter that took place in iberia 00:10:52.220 --> 00:10:58.000 especially during these centuries where the peninsula 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:04.700 shifted from muslim rule to christian rule and 00:11:04.700 --> 00:11:09.139 we can see that as the centuries progress the 00:11:09.139 --> 00:11:13.340 restrictions placed on jews become more severe 00:11:13.340 --> 00:11:20.360 but it is uneven. So in certain places, certain 00:11:20.360 --> 00:11:26.240 cities, in certain professions, Jews are celebrated 00:11:26.240 --> 00:11:32.620 and promoted. And even with individual people, 00:11:33.080 --> 00:11:37.500 the story is very uneven. I think in particular 00:11:37.500 --> 00:11:43.899 about Joan, who in his youth was very rabid 00:11:43.899 --> 00:11:47.799 when it came to the conspiracy theory of Jews 00:11:47.799 --> 00:11:52.279 stealing communion wafers. It really got him 00:11:52.279 --> 00:11:58.200 riled up and he behaved very brutally to particular 00:11:58.200 --> 00:12:04.450 Jews that had gotten caught up in that. conspiracy 00:12:04.450 --> 00:12:07.929 -mongering and had been arrested and accused 00:12:07.929 --> 00:12:12.509 of stealing communion wafers, and he authorized 00:12:12.509 --> 00:12:18.029 some torture of them. And so again, really important 00:12:18.029 --> 00:12:22.649 to realize that when we are following along the 00:12:22.649 --> 00:12:25.629 interesting story of Joan and Violant, we're 00:12:25.629 --> 00:12:28.549 not telling a story of heroes. We're telling 00:12:28.549 --> 00:12:32.919 a story of interesting people who did in many 00:12:32.919 --> 00:12:37.059 cases, reprehensible things, but also did other 00:12:37.059 --> 00:12:41.899 things that we can look at according to our modern 00:12:41.899 --> 00:12:44.940 lens, looking back and say, okay, well, that 00:12:44.940 --> 00:12:50.240 was an interesting resistance that, you know, 00:12:50.360 --> 00:12:56.379 maybe we are having a kind of revision of in 00:12:56.379 --> 00:12:59.860 terms of their gender dynamic. That's my big 00:12:59.860 --> 00:13:04.659 investigation. it's not in any way to excuse 00:13:04.659 --> 00:13:09.440 the cruelty that they have exhibited in other 00:13:09.440 --> 00:13:14.419 situations. Now let's talk about the Jews who 00:13:14.419 --> 00:13:18.200 were high up in the administration, especially 00:13:18.200 --> 00:13:24.059 in the treasury. They were treated in many cases 00:13:24.059 --> 00:13:30.120 quite well and they were advocated for during 00:13:30.120 --> 00:13:33.679 times of crisis. I'm thinking about the anti 00:13:33.679 --> 00:13:37.759 -Jewish riots of 1391 in particular, which Benjamin 00:13:37.759 --> 00:13:40.700 Gampel's book really focuses on. And in that 00:13:40.700 --> 00:13:46.179 book, we have a lot of examples of Joan and Violant 00:13:46.179 --> 00:13:51.539 really taking care to protect particular Jews 00:13:51.539 --> 00:13:55.120 that they know that are high up working for them, 00:13:55.340 --> 00:14:00.759 even an they express a lot of callousness toward 00:14:00.759 --> 00:14:04.960 communities of Jews that are under attack in 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:08.700 the cities around the Crown of Aragon. So this 00:14:08.700 --> 00:14:13.000 is a very complicated picture and it's very difficult 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:17.240 to paint with a broad brushstroke about questions 00:14:17.240 --> 00:14:23.379 of morality. in regard to the interfaith encounter 00:14:23.379 --> 00:14:28.419 in these moments of violence and conflict. But 00:14:28.419 --> 00:14:32.899 documents like this, like today's document, provide 00:14:32.899 --> 00:14:37.519 evidence of the close working relationship that 00:14:37.519 --> 00:14:43.980 was just a constant feature of the royal family 00:14:43.980 --> 00:14:47.909 of the Crown of Aragon with members of the Jewish 00:14:47.909 --> 00:14:53.750 faith. So, again, a lot comes out from this document 00:14:53.750 --> 00:14:57.529 when we get some specifics, unlike yesterday's 00:14:57.529 --> 00:15:01.909 document, which was just horribly general. Alright, 00:15:02.110 --> 00:15:06.129 thanks for listening to this episode of the Historian's 00:15:06.129 --> 00:15:10.830 Notebook, Season 1, Molt Cara Companyona. If you 00:15:10.830 --> 00:15:13.230 are leaving with more questions than you arrived 00:15:13.230 --> 00:15:17.029 with, I've done my job. Remember, the motto of 00:15:17.029 --> 00:15:21.190 the Historian's Notebook is dissatisfaction guaranteed. 00:15:22.009 --> 00:15:24.330 Visit the website to see an image of today's 00:15:24.330 --> 00:15:28.210 document and additional show notes. And listen 00:15:28.210 --> 00:15:31.590 again tomorrow to hear about the next day in 00:15:31.590 --> 00:15:35.289 the first year of the reign of King Joan I of 00:15:35.289 --> 00:15:40.049 Aragon and Queen Violant de Bar. In the meantime, 00:15:40.710 --> 00:15:41.269 take care.