WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.139 Hello. In the Crown of Aragon 639 years ago, 00:00:05.679 --> 00:00:12.880 it was February 28, 1387. My name is Jonathan 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:16.679 Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the 00:00:16.679 --> 00:00:20.480 University of New Mexico. And this is the Historian's 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:24.739 Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made. 00:00:25.480 --> 00:00:29.809 Season one is titled Molt Cara Companyona. we're 00:00:29.809 --> 00:00:32.710 looking at a document from each day of the first 00:00:32.710 --> 00:00:37.409 year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and 00:00:37.409 --> 00:00:41.530 Queen Violant de Bar. Let's begin today's 00:00:41.530 --> 00:01:09.340 document. I am really excited to talk about today's 00:01:09.340 --> 00:01:15.219 document because this document is one that I 00:01:15.219 --> 00:01:19.359 have been working on, not alone, but with a group 00:01:19.359 --> 00:01:23.500 of people at the University of New Mexico for 00:01:23.500 --> 00:01:28.819 about a month now. So I'm recording this on February 00:01:28.819 --> 00:01:34.000 27th, and we first started working on this document 00:01:34.459 --> 00:01:43.200 on January 29th. So there is a group of medieval 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:48.370 graduate students who are guided by one of the 00:01:48.370 --> 00:01:51.310 professors in the history department at the University 00:01:51.310 --> 00:01:54.790 of New Mexico. That professor is Dr. Timothy 00:01:54.790 --> 00:02:00.849 Graham, and he runs an informal Latin group where 00:02:00.849 --> 00:02:04.090 all the members of the group meet up once a week 00:02:04.090 --> 00:02:10.750 on Zoom, and we work on some kind of Latin transcription 00:02:10.750 --> 00:02:15.009 and translation. each member of the group has 00:02:15.009 --> 00:02:18.629 the chance to choose material that the whole 00:02:18.629 --> 00:02:23.189 group works on, and we take turns. So one person 00:02:23.189 --> 00:02:25.590 will choose one particular document, we'll work 00:02:25.590 --> 00:02:29.289 on transcribing and then translating that document 00:02:29.289 --> 00:02:35.250 together with the ample help of Dr. Graham. and 00:02:35.250 --> 00:02:37.550 then we'll finish with that one and then the 00:02:37.550 --> 00:02:40.030 next person in the group gets to choose a document. 00:02:40.490 --> 00:02:45.330 So I have taken advantage of this amazing resource 00:02:45.330 --> 00:02:49.689 and it's all because of Dr. Graham being super 00:02:49.689 --> 00:02:54.030 generous with his time and his love of helping 00:02:54.030 --> 00:02:58.289 students to figure out medieval Latin that I 00:02:58.289 --> 00:03:03.879 had the chance to, for my turn, have a document 00:03:03.879 --> 00:03:08.159 that would appear in the podcast. So all the 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:12.740 way back in, it must have been November, I identified 00:03:12.740 --> 00:03:16.879 a document that I would have felt really would 00:03:16.879 --> 00:03:21.340 be helpful for practicing the Latin that appears 00:03:21.340 --> 00:03:24.939 in the Archive of the Crown of Aragon from documents 00:03:24.939 --> 00:03:28.060 related to Joan and Violant. And the way I 00:03:28.060 --> 00:03:32.360 made this choice was that I was working from 00:03:32.360 --> 00:03:37.340 an article that was published in 2015 written 00:03:37.340 --> 00:03:42.740 by the prolific Maria Teresa Ferrer y Mallol along 00:03:42.740 --> 00:03:47.460 with the co -author Carles Vela Aulesa. and this 00:03:47.460 --> 00:03:51.039 article focused on one particular person who 00:03:51.039 --> 00:03:55.539 had a pretty decisive role in the development 00:03:55.539 --> 00:04:00.460 of the reign of Joan and Violant. That person 00:04:00.460 --> 00:04:04.419 is an interesting, fascinating figure who goes 00:04:04.419 --> 00:04:09.449 by the name of Lucchino Scarampi. you might be 00:04:09.449 --> 00:04:11.629 thinking to yourself that sounds like an Italian 00:04:11.629 --> 00:04:15.750 name, and it is. Lucchino Scarampi came from 00:04:15.750 --> 00:04:21.209 Asti, which is in the north of Italy, and in 00:04:21.209 --> 00:04:24.529 his early years he and his brother started a 00:04:24.529 --> 00:04:29.189 merchant business in Genoa, but then pretty quickly 00:04:29.189 --> 00:04:33.430 he went from Genoa to the crown of Aragon, and 00:04:33.430 --> 00:04:37.930 he kind of specialized in, I think, doing deals 00:04:37.930 --> 00:04:43.279 that would go across this kind of this tension 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:47.240 between the two realms. So Genoa and the Crown 00:04:47.240 --> 00:04:50.879 of Aragon were absolutely competitors in the 00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:56.500 Mediterranean trade zone, and oftentimes the 00:04:56.500 --> 00:04:59.879 governments of the Crown of Aragon or Genoa would 00:04:59.879 --> 00:05:04.000 do things like banning the Other from doing any 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:07.420 kind of business in territory that they controlled. 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:11.620 And so Scarampi and his brother started to specialize 00:05:11.529 --> 00:05:17.470 in helping to move products across that boundary. 00:05:18.050 --> 00:05:21.709 And at one point, Lucchino Scarampi moves from 00:05:21.709 --> 00:05:25.529 being just kind of a merchant and moneymaker 00:05:25.529 --> 00:05:29.810 and deal maker to becoming something of a diplomat. 00:05:30.250 --> 00:05:34.389 During the last decade of the reign of Pere the 00:05:34.389 --> 00:05:38.430 Ceremonious, Joan's father, Lucchino Scarampi 00:05:38.430 --> 00:05:45.029 was engaged by King Pere to carry out negotiations 00:05:45.029 --> 00:05:48.410 on behalf of the Crown of Aragon for a peace 00:05:48.410 --> 00:05:53.379 treaty between the Crown of Aragon and Genoa. 00:05:53.660 --> 00:05:56.959 So it's a really interesting role that Lucchino Scarampi 00:05:56.959 --> 00:06:00.660 has in that moment because he is from 00:06:00.660 --> 00:06:04.740 Genoa in in a way. I mean Asti is pretty close 00:06:04.740 --> 00:06:07.579 and so this is like within the region controlled 00:06:07.579 --> 00:06:11.300 by Genoa very closely. So he's from Genoa but 00:06:11.300 --> 00:06:14.899 there he is representing the crown of Aragon. 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:17.779 So he had been in the crown of Aragon for at 00:06:17.779 --> 00:06:21.100 least 15 years at that point and had risen up 00:06:20.939 --> 00:06:25.420 up through the ranks, had made contacts, and 00:06:25.420 --> 00:06:29.160 become well acquainted with a lot of the leadership 00:06:29.160 --> 00:06:32.899 in the Crown of Aragon, and with King Pere himself. 00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:36.800 There's documentation that connects Lucchino Scarampi 00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:41.759 to obtaining some products for the king and the 00:06:41.759 --> 00:06:47.759 queen. And so Lucchino Scarampi was a fixture in the royal 00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:54.649 orbit. in the last 10 years of Pere the Ceremonious' 00:06:54.970 --> 00:06:58.529 reign. And so he is the leader of this peace 00:06:58.529 --> 00:07:01.970 negotiation effort on the part of the Crown of 00:07:01.970 --> 00:07:06.850 Aragon in its relations with Genoa. So then, 00:07:07.389 --> 00:07:13.009 when Pere the Ceremonious dies, Lucchino Scarampi is 00:07:13.009 --> 00:07:18.579 well established as an effective diplomat. and 00:07:18.579 --> 00:07:23.339 so Joanne and Violante decide to use him for 00:07:23.339 --> 00:07:28.339 quite a different purpose. They send him to Avignon 00:07:28.339 --> 00:07:33.279 in order to carry out negotiations for the marriage 00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:38.300 of their daughter to, and I think they have the 00:07:38.300 --> 00:07:41.439 person in mind at this time that she actually 00:07:41.439 --> 00:07:45.660 ended up marrying, which is Louis of Anjou, 00:07:45.740 --> 00:07:52.050 who is at this point connected into the royal 00:07:52.050 --> 00:07:56.370 family of Naples, although there's a lot of flux 00:07:56.370 --> 00:08:02.329 around who rules Naples and who is at this moment 00:08:02.329 --> 00:08:06.649 in line to inherit rule of the kingdom of Naples. 00:08:07.149 --> 00:08:12.689 So it looks like Louis of Anjou is The front 00:08:12.689 --> 00:08:15.970 runner there, gosh, he might have already actually 00:08:15.970 --> 00:08:21.930 had it at this time, but in any event, he's the 00:08:21.930 --> 00:08:27.329 number one target for the marriage of their daughter, 00:08:27.550 --> 00:08:30.310 Joan and Violant's daughter. And just as a 00:08:30.310 --> 00:08:35.230 side note, Sibilla had had a daughter with Pere, 00:08:36.049 --> 00:08:40.970 and Sibilla had been trying to get her daughter 00:08:41.230 --> 00:08:47.370 to marry Louis of Anjou but couldn't get that 00:08:47.370 --> 00:08:51.370 settled, couldn't get the deal made before Père 00:08:51.370 --> 00:08:55.250 died. And so now we just have like another example 00:08:55.250 --> 00:09:02.289 of the transfer of Queen Sibilla's whole kind 00:09:02.289 --> 00:09:06.769 of queenship over to Violant because now it's 00:09:06.769 --> 00:09:10.950 Violant's daughter who's going to be entering 00:09:10.950 --> 00:09:16.690 into that marriage negotiation. So, Lucchino Scarampi, 00:09:16.710 --> 00:09:19.149 in these documents that we're looking at today, 00:09:19.690 --> 00:09:24.570 is being outfitted with letters that authorize 00:09:24.570 --> 00:09:29.690 him to convey information to the Pope. And then, 00:09:29.850 --> 00:09:36.409 in the second document on folio 95R, we have 00:09:36.409 --> 00:09:44.220 someone else being addressed for receiving Lucchino Scarampi 00:09:44.220 --> 00:09:47.740 and then we've got a third letter which 00:09:47.740 --> 00:09:52.639 appears third on folio 95 R and continues on 00:09:52.639 --> 00:09:59.539 to folio 95 V to yet another addressee who will 00:09:59.539 --> 00:10:05.299 be receiving Lucchino Scarampi in this matter 00:10:05.299 --> 00:10:09.519 of trying to make a deal for the marriage of 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:14.259 Joan and Violant's oldest daughter to Louis 00:10:14.259 --> 00:10:20.320 of Anjou. This, in the end, is successful, but 00:10:20.320 --> 00:10:23.659 it's not immediately successful. I'm really starting 00:10:23.659 --> 00:10:26.659 to understand these marriage negotiations as 00:10:26.659 --> 00:10:33.980 very complex endeavors where it's even more difficult 00:10:33.980 --> 00:10:37.179 than a peace treaty because in a peace treaty 00:10:37.179 --> 00:10:39.100 you're just trying to say we're going to stop 00:10:39.100 --> 00:10:43.009 fighting each other. And yes, you can tack on 00:10:43.009 --> 00:10:47.590 a bunch of conditions and it can get into a quagmire 00:10:47.590 --> 00:10:50.190 where the peace treaty never happens because 00:10:50.190 --> 00:10:53.429 there's all these conditions tacked on. But the 00:10:53.429 --> 00:10:57.870 marriage negotiation is, I think, a lot more 00:10:57.870 --> 00:11:01.610 flexible in that there's this idea that there's 00:11:01.610 --> 00:11:06.850 going to be some kind of transfer of money. property, 00:11:07.549 --> 00:11:12.889 authority, lineage. There's all kinds of little 00:11:12.889 --> 00:11:17.690 territories that can be added in or subtracted 00:11:17.690 --> 00:11:21.309 into who's going to get what at the end of this 00:11:21.309 --> 00:11:25.909 marriage. I mean at the end of the marriage negotiation. 00:11:26.009 --> 00:11:27.870 I mean also at the end of the marriage itself. 00:11:27.870 --> 00:11:31.230 Like they're thinking about what happens if somebody 00:11:31.230 --> 00:11:35.649 dies and who's going to inherit. So these are 00:11:35.649 --> 00:11:40.830 very intense, intense negotiations because you're 00:11:40.830 --> 00:11:44.210 not only talking about two people getting together 00:11:44.210 --> 00:11:46.549 and having a deal about getting them together, 00:11:46.549 --> 00:11:48.529 but you're also thinking about what could happen 00:11:48.529 --> 00:11:53.909 down the line. Because when you've got a marriage 00:11:53.909 --> 00:11:58.070 in a royal family, you are in a sense opening 00:11:58.070 --> 00:12:03.350 the door to future contestations for the right 00:12:03.350 --> 00:12:07.169 to rule. Everybody's very realistic. They know 00:12:07.169 --> 00:12:13.220 that disease or accident can lead to the untimely 00:12:13.220 --> 00:12:18.440 death of people who are in line for inheriting 00:12:18.440 --> 00:12:21.279 the throne and that then you can wind up in a 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:24.659 situation where there's two people who have kind 00:12:24.659 --> 00:12:29.039 of an equal claim and they each rally their forces 00:12:29.039 --> 00:12:32.240 and it can actually become a pretty terrible 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:35.200 civil war. And this actually does happen in the 00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:38.970 15th century. for the Crown of Aragon, and it's 00:12:38.970 --> 00:12:41.529 one of the reasons that Castile becomes quite 00:12:41.529 --> 00:12:47.590 dominant in the 15th century. All right, wow, 00:12:47.610 --> 00:12:50.549 that really spun out, but it's also important 00:12:50.549 --> 00:12:56.029 to understand that these are very, very important 00:12:56.029 --> 00:13:00.950 and consequential negotiations, and that when 00:13:00.950 --> 00:13:04.509 we talk about Lucchino Scarampi being the lead 00:13:04.509 --> 00:13:07.590 diplomat for a peace deal between the Crown of 00:13:07.590 --> 00:13:10.970 Aragon and Genoa and then and then we talk about 00:13:10.970 --> 00:13:14.870 how a couple years later he is in charge of doing 00:13:14.870 --> 00:13:18.490 marriage negotiations we really should not be 00:13:18.490 --> 00:13:25.570 seeing that as a demotion this is in fact very 00:13:25.570 --> 00:13:30.389 likely a promotion that Lucchino Scarampi in 00:13:30.389 --> 00:13:34.629 being trusted with leadership in this effort 00:13:34.629 --> 00:13:40.669 is being given even more trust and authority 00:13:40.669 --> 00:13:45.070 by Joan and Violant. Now I'm not going to 00:13:45.070 --> 00:13:50.600 say that I'm going to 100 % with certainty make 00:13:50.600 --> 00:13:53.720 that claim, but that's what it starts to look 00:13:53.720 --> 00:13:57.200 like to me as I do more reading about medieval 00:13:57.200 --> 00:14:01.320 marriages in general, and as I keep in mind what 00:14:01.320 --> 00:14:05.779 happens next with Lucchino Scarampi. So let's flash forward 00:14:05.779 --> 00:14:11.179 a little bit. Lucchino Scarampi continues to do more and 00:14:11.179 --> 00:14:16.059 more deal making and merchant adventuring in 00:14:16.059 --> 00:14:20.360 terms of financing different merchant expeditions. 00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:25.879 His wealth grows quite a lot and he is plugged 00:14:25.879 --> 00:14:33.340 into a pipeline of money from Genoa. So, Lucchino Scarampi 00:14:33.340 --> 00:14:37.669 during the reign of Joan and Violant, 00:14:38.309 --> 00:14:41.269 finds himself in a position where he is able 00:14:41.269 --> 00:14:48.450 to supply Joan and Violant with cash. And in 00:14:48.450 --> 00:14:52.389 exchange, Joan and Violant increasingly give 00:14:52.389 --> 00:14:57.710 him future rights over taxes and tax collections 00:14:57.710 --> 00:15:01.610 for different territories around the realm. So 00:15:01.610 --> 00:15:05.110 basically what they say to him is, we're short 00:15:05.110 --> 00:15:08.990 on cash. Hey, Scarampi, will you give us a cash 00:15:08.990 --> 00:15:12.049 infusion? And in exchange, we're going to grant 00:15:12.049 --> 00:15:16.110 you the right to collect the taxes for such and 00:15:16.110 --> 00:15:20.720 such territory around the realm. or they might 00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:25.179 just flat out take out a loan from Scarampi. 00:15:25.879 --> 00:15:29.779 This compounds year after year. I mean there's 00:15:29.779 --> 00:15:32.840 also interest on the loans that compounds. And 00:15:32.840 --> 00:15:38.139 so by the time we get to the end of Joan's lifetime, 00:15:38.279 --> 00:15:42.460 which is then the end of the reign of Joan and 00:15:42.460 --> 00:15:45.059 Violant as king and queen of the Crown of Aragon, 00:15:45.720 --> 00:15:51.940 Lucchino Scarampi is making a ton of money off 00:15:51.940 --> 00:15:56.620 of Joan and Violant. He has lent them an inordinate 00:15:56.620 --> 00:16:01.820 sum of money that then raises serious alarm bells 00:16:01.820 --> 00:16:08.379 for many people in the realm. In the spring of 00:16:08.379 --> 00:16:14.940 1396, Lucchino Scarampi left the crown of Aragon 00:16:14.940 --> 00:16:20.820 and journeyed into the Pyrenees region and western 00:16:20.820 --> 00:16:28.019 France. During that time, there was a rumor that 00:16:28.019 --> 00:16:34.480 Scarampi was working to hire mercenary armies 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:40.519 to invade the crown of Aragon. Why would he do 00:16:40.519 --> 00:16:46.059 that? That is a very, very important and mysterious 00:16:46.059 --> 00:16:51.279 question. As Scarampi is rumored to have been 00:16:51.279 --> 00:16:55.039 doing these things, people in the Crown of Aragon 00:16:55.039 --> 00:16:57.159 and the leadership circles are like, it's just 00:16:57.159 --> 00:17:00.440 a rumor, it's not true. Don't believe that, Scarampi. 00:17:00.480 --> 00:17:03.679 He's like buddy -buddy with Joan and Violant. 00:17:03.700 --> 00:17:06.779 He's not gonna like raise a bunch of mercenaries 00:17:06.779 --> 00:17:11.819 in order to invade. But then it was found out 00:17:11.819 --> 00:17:15.559 that it was not a baseless rumor, that it was 00:17:15.559 --> 00:17:20.319 in fact true. And right as that news arrived 00:17:20.319 --> 00:17:26.359 to the Crown of Aragon in May of 1396, that is 00:17:26.359 --> 00:17:34.420 when Joan dies. And the story that has been generally 00:17:34.420 --> 00:17:38.299 accepted is that Joan went out hunting, one 00:17:38.299 --> 00:17:44.279 of his favorite pastimes, and he died through 00:17:44.279 --> 00:17:48.099 some kind of accident on that hunting trip it's 00:17:48.099 --> 00:17:51.960 really not clear exactly what happened it's very 00:17:51.960 --> 00:17:56.700 possible that he had some kind of seizure or 00:17:56.700 --> 00:18:00.440 like a stroke or something like that and it does 00:18:00.440 --> 00:18:03.740 and no one's saying he fell off his horse that's 00:18:03.740 --> 00:18:07.519 not the story but there's some kind of condition 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:12.589 some kind of affliction that hits him in May 00:18:12.589 --> 00:18:17.809 of 1396 on a hunting trip, and he dies. He dies 00:18:17.809 --> 00:18:22.789 without last rites, which immediately sends you 00:18:22.789 --> 00:18:26.589 to purgatory. Well, maybe we've referred to that 00:18:26.589 --> 00:18:29.250 a little bit in some earlier episodes, and there's 00:18:29.250 --> 00:18:32.230 a lot that goes along with that, but we don't 00:18:32.230 --> 00:18:34.809 have time to get into that too deeply right now. 00:18:35.069 --> 00:18:38.430 We will later in future episodes, the implications 00:18:38.430 --> 00:18:44.789 of Joan ending up in purgatory. Now, at that 00:18:44.789 --> 00:18:51.029 moment, the next in line to the throne is Joan's 00:18:51.029 --> 00:18:55.309 brother Marti, because Joan and Violant at 00:18:55.309 --> 00:18:59.670 that time do not have any surviving male children. 00:19:01.289 --> 00:19:08.329 Marti is in Sicily, so Maria de Luna, Marti's 00:19:08.329 --> 00:19:14.180 wife, she... assumes leadership as Queen in a 00:19:14.180 --> 00:19:16.900 move that's eerily parallel to what we've been 00:19:16.900 --> 00:19:19.359 looking at with Violant showing up to Barcelona 00:19:19.359 --> 00:19:23.900 ahead of Joan. Maria de Luna, in May of 1396, 00:19:24.279 --> 00:19:28.759 shows up to Barcelona, takes control extremely 00:19:28.759 --> 00:19:34.119 rapidly. Extremely rapidly. Like... Oh gosh, 00:19:34.200 --> 00:19:36.859 I don't want to get... Alright, I'm getting conspiratorial. 00:19:37.400 --> 00:19:43.960 Like she knew it was coming. And the rapidity, 00:19:44.319 --> 00:19:49.059 the fastness with which all of Joan's leadership 00:19:49.059 --> 00:19:53.339 figures are rounded up and arrested is quite 00:19:53.339 --> 00:20:00.039 impressive. And immediately, like within 10 days 00:20:00.039 --> 00:20:04.539 of Joan's death, a criminal proceeding is opened 00:20:04.539 --> 00:20:10.539 up by the new queen, Maria de Luna. and an investigation 00:20:10.539 --> 00:20:13.240 and interrogation is set down on paper, and we 00:20:13.240 --> 00:20:16.940 still have that. It's a Proceso. We still have 00:20:16.940 --> 00:20:21.480 that written process. And guess who everybody 00:20:21.480 --> 00:20:25.339 points the finger at as the reason for all of 00:20:25.339 --> 00:20:28.180 the different financial problems and all of the 00:20:28.180 --> 00:20:34.039 misdeeds and all of the scandal? It is Lucchino Scarampi 00:20:34.039 --> 00:20:39.630 he comes out as the number one villain, 00:20:40.069 --> 00:20:44.630 like it was all his criminal mastermind that 00:20:44.630 --> 00:20:48.670 kept sinking the royal family into more and more 00:20:48.670 --> 00:20:53.490 debt, and that he was the one to blame for everything 00:20:53.490 --> 00:20:59.029 that was going wrong in the realm. So, Lucchino Scarampi 00:20:59.029 --> 00:21:03.940 is like criminal number one in that 00:21:03.940 --> 00:21:09.819 moment in May of 1396. We don't know what happens 00:21:09.819 --> 00:21:15.599 with Lucchino Scarampi in the subsequent 12 months, 00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:21.279 but what's quite amazing to see is that by the 00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:25.640 time we get to the summer of 1397, just about 00:21:25.640 --> 00:21:32.950 a year later, Marti is In Barcelona, Martí has 00:21:32.950 --> 00:21:38.309 established his reign. Things are calm and stable. 00:21:40.109 --> 00:21:44.970 And Lucchino Scarampi is again the recipient 00:21:44.970 --> 00:21:52.269 of tax collection privileges by King Martí. So 00:21:52.269 --> 00:21:57.150 Lucchino Scarampi somehow wiggles out of being 00:21:57.150 --> 00:22:01.750 criminal mastermind villain number one in May 00:22:01.750 --> 00:22:06.119 of 1396 to the point where he's just right back 00:22:06.119 --> 00:22:09.079 doing what he's doing, what he's been doing for 00:22:09.079 --> 00:22:13.599 the last 25 to 30 years, which is being a wheeler, 00:22:13.660 --> 00:22:18.220 a dealer, and a fixer, and a source of cash infusion 00:22:18.220 --> 00:22:21.319 for the royal family of the Crown of Aragon. 00:22:22.680 --> 00:22:29.539 Lucchino Scarampi is quite fascinating, and here 00:22:29.539 --> 00:22:34.599 we've got a snapshot of his connection to Joan 00:22:34.599 --> 00:22:38.240 and Violant. I just wish that we had something 00:22:38.240 --> 00:22:41.279 really juicy in these letters that the Latin 00:22:41.279 --> 00:22:44.359 group helped me to translate, to transcribe and 00:22:44.359 --> 00:22:48.099 translate. I can say that they're very formulaic 00:22:48.099 --> 00:22:50.380 and they don't really reveal a ton of secrets 00:22:50.380 --> 00:22:54.849 at all. but there is something interesting about 00:22:54.849 --> 00:22:58.569 the second and third letter in this little series 00:22:58.569 --> 00:23:02.529 and I alluded to it before at the beginning when 00:23:02.529 --> 00:23:04.809 I was talking about how we got one letter to 00:23:04.809 --> 00:23:09.529 the pope authorizing Lucchino Scarampi to inform 00:23:09.529 --> 00:23:13.069 the pope about the business of this marriage 00:23:13.069 --> 00:23:18.000 negotiation and then I didn't mention any names 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:22.839 for the addressee of the second and third letters, 00:23:22.839 --> 00:23:29.299 and that is because there is no specific addressee. 00:23:29.900 --> 00:23:34.299 There's a little note at the bottom of the second 00:23:34.299 --> 00:23:44.500 letter that reads, and then in the bottom of 00:23:44.500 --> 00:23:58.740 the third letter this means it was sent without 00:23:58.740 --> 00:24:05.460 a superscription it was it was sent without a 00:24:05.460 --> 00:24:12.430 line to indicate an addressee So what's being 00:24:12.430 --> 00:24:18.650 done here? My theory is that these are blanket 00:24:18.650 --> 00:24:24.170 letters that Lucchino Scarampi is being given 00:24:24.170 --> 00:24:30.450 letters that could be presented to several different 00:24:30.450 --> 00:24:36.750 people and make it look like they were being 00:24:36.750 --> 00:24:42.670 individually addressed. to that person. Who would 00:24:42.670 --> 00:24:45.950 be these groups of people? I think that we're 00:24:45.950 --> 00:24:53.210 talking about cardinals or other religious leaders, 00:24:53.549 --> 00:24:56.970 ecclesiastical officeholders of high office, 00:24:57.069 --> 00:25:00.450 and I have that guess because of the way that 00:25:00.450 --> 00:25:10.009 these two letters are addressed. addressed towards 00:25:10.009 --> 00:25:13.869 somebody who has some kind of ecclesiastical 00:25:13.869 --> 00:25:18.750 position. The two letters are slightly different, 00:25:18.930 --> 00:25:23.809 number two and number three, and actually Latin 00:25:23.809 --> 00:25:26.230 group has been working on this for a month, but 00:25:26.230 --> 00:25:32.230 we haven't gotten to the end of our work on these 00:25:32.230 --> 00:25:37.130 three letters. And next week is when we're going 00:25:37.130 --> 00:25:41.470 to finish our translation of letter number three, 00:25:41.769 --> 00:25:45.130 and we're going to discuss then in detail the 00:25:45.130 --> 00:25:49.730 subtle differences between letters one, two, 00:25:49.730 --> 00:25:52.589 and three in this little series. And at that 00:25:52.589 --> 00:25:54.569 point I'm going to come back to the web page 00:25:54.569 --> 00:26:00.089 of this document and add in some additional information. 00:26:00.190 --> 00:26:03.630 But right now, from my understanding, my understanding 00:26:03.630 --> 00:26:09.589 is not good enough to identify why two different 00:26:09.589 --> 00:26:16.769 letters were necessary for the generic group 00:26:16.769 --> 00:26:21.750 addressees? Like, why would you need to have 00:26:21.750 --> 00:26:24.869 one set of, say, their cardinals? Why would you 00:26:24.869 --> 00:26:27.009 need to have one set of cardinals get letter 00:26:27.009 --> 00:26:30.269 number two and another set of cardinals get letter 00:26:30.269 --> 00:26:35.579 number three? Why is that necessary? Then at 00:26:35.579 --> 00:26:38.500 the end of letter number three, it seems like 00:26:38.500 --> 00:26:43.759 there's mention in another line right below the 00:26:43.759 --> 00:26:46.880 Fuit Expedita line that there were additional 00:26:46.880 --> 00:26:52.180 letters sent out that were kind of like the same 00:26:52.180 --> 00:26:54.339 kind of thing. Well, is it because you're giving 00:26:54.339 --> 00:26:56.460 them to different people? Well, why do you have 00:26:56.460 --> 00:26:59.700 to have two different versions? These are questions 00:26:59.700 --> 00:27:02.299 that Dr. Graham is going to help me understand, 00:27:02.299 --> 00:27:05.980 but we didn't quite finish these in time for 00:27:05.980 --> 00:27:09.079 today's episode, and that's just how it goes. 00:27:09.700 --> 00:27:13.640 So there's going to be another Scarampi set 00:27:13.640 --> 00:27:16.579 of letters, or maybe just one letter, later on 00:27:16.579 --> 00:27:19.660 in the year. I'm thinking something around August, 00:27:19.900 --> 00:27:23.420 so stay tuned for that, but I think we might 00:27:23.420 --> 00:27:28.200 see Lucchino Scarampi popping up again even before 00:27:28.200 --> 00:27:33.740 that, maybe in a Catalan language letter. We'll 00:27:33.740 --> 00:27:37.599 see what happens. So I just want to extend my 00:27:37.599 --> 00:27:41.200 heartfelt thanks to everybody at the University 00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:45.599 of New Mexico Latin group, and a thank you to 00:27:45.599 --> 00:27:49.589 Dr. Graham for all the help that he is currently 00:27:49.589 --> 00:27:52.210 providing me with understanding the subtleties 00:27:52.210 --> 00:27:56.789 in the Latin in these documents. And I want to 00:27:56.789 --> 00:28:00.170 thank you for listening to this kind of extended 00:28:00.170 --> 00:28:04.390 episode of The Historian's Notebook, Season One, 00:28:04.710 --> 00:28:08.269 Molt Cara Companyona. And if you are leaving with 00:28:08.269 --> 00:28:10.490 more questions than you arrived with about medieval 00:28:10.490 --> 00:28:14.589 marriages or this Genoese loan shark named Lucchino Scarampi 00:28:14.589 --> 00:28:18.480 , well, then I've done my job. to your 00:28:18.480 --> 00:28:22.720 curiosity, I hope. Remember, the motto of the 00:28:22.720 --> 00:28:27.220 Historian's Notebook is dissatisfaction guaranteed. 00:28:27.960 --> 00:28:30.700 Visit the website to see an image of today's 00:28:30.700 --> 00:28:34.880 documents and additional show notes. And listen 00:28:34.880 --> 00:28:38.279 again tomorrow to hear about the next day in 00:28:38.279 --> 00:28:41.839 the first year of the reign of King Joan I of 00:28:41.839 --> 00:28:46.859 Aragon and Queen Violant de Bar. In the meantime, 00:28:47.240 --> 00:28:48.160 Take care.