WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.320 Hello. In The Crown of Aragon, 639 years ago, 00:00:05.799 --> 00:00:12.720 it was March 4th, 1397. My name is Jonathan Seyfried. 00:00:13.140 --> 00:00:16.780 I'm a PhD candidate in history at the University 00:00:16.780 --> 00:00:21.440 of New Mexico. And this is The Historian's Notebook, 00:00:21.820 --> 00:00:26.120 a podcast about how history gets made. Season 00:00:26.120 --> 00:00:30.289 one is titled Molt Cara Companyona. We're looking 00:00:30.289 --> 00:00:33.570 at a document from each day of the first year 00:00:33.570 --> 00:00:38.369 of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and Queen 00:00:38.369 --> 00:00:42.789 Violant de Bar. Let's begin today's document. 00:01:06.700 --> 00:01:11.120 Before we get into the sourcing and content of 00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:15.340 the document itself, I just want to point out 00:01:15.340 --> 00:01:18.079 that there's something interesting about the 00:01:18.079 --> 00:01:22.359 materiality of today's document. Well, it appears 00:01:22.359 --> 00:01:31.400 on folio 1V of register 2053, meaning that it's 00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:35.519 on the back of the very first piece of paper. 00:01:36.120 --> 00:01:40.959 containing letters in this register. So what 00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:44.420 I'm going to do for today's web page is I'm going 00:01:44.420 --> 00:01:49.260 to upload everything that has been scanned and 00:01:49.260 --> 00:01:55.260 made available on Pares for the first pages of 00:01:55.260 --> 00:02:00.560 register 2053. And what you'll be able to see 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:06.079 is the cover page that the archivists at the 00:02:06.079 --> 00:02:08.960 Archive of the Crown of Aragon have written up 00:02:08.960 --> 00:02:13.340 for this register and then after that you're 00:02:13.340 --> 00:02:17.039 going to see the initial pages like the cover 00:02:17.039 --> 00:02:22.479 page there's a blank page and then we get to 00:02:22.479 --> 00:02:28.219 the first page of recorded letters and that would 00:02:28.219 --> 00:02:34.629 be folio 1r which is actually Number, oh gosh, 00:02:35.430 --> 00:02:39.750 hold on a sec. Let's see. Folio 1R is actually 00:02:39.750 --> 00:02:48.050 the fourth image in the series on PARES for 00:02:48.050 --> 00:02:53.250 this register. And the third image is a blank 00:02:53.250 --> 00:02:58.150 page. It's the verso of what we see as the title. 00:02:58.889 --> 00:03:03.789 The title page is kind of cool. It has sort of 00:03:03.789 --> 00:03:10.530 larger thicker letters written in the late 14th 00:03:10.530 --> 00:03:17.009 century probably at the beginning of when the 00:03:17.009 --> 00:03:23.870 Secret seal Letters were being gathered. So what's 00:03:23.870 --> 00:03:26.810 interesting is that you know, we've been looking 00:03:26.810 --> 00:03:30.479 at a lot of letters from Violant in the register 00:03:30.479 --> 00:03:34.719 called Varia, and it seems like at the end of 00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:40.960 February of 1387 is when the chancery is kind 00:03:40.960 --> 00:03:45.520 of really established its different categories 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:52.219 of registers for Violant, and so the very first 00:03:52.219 --> 00:03:58.120 letters that appear in This register, which is 00:03:58.120 --> 00:04:03.379 titled Curia sigelli secretum regina yolantis. 00:04:04.060 --> 00:04:13.500 So the secret seal of the court of Queen Violant. 00:04:14.560 --> 00:04:21.720 The first letter in there is dated February 27th. 00:04:21.720 --> 00:04:26.529 And then the second letter is actually hard to 00:04:26.529 --> 00:04:29.230 find a date, to be honest. I'm looking at it 00:04:29.230 --> 00:04:35.329 right now on Folio 1R, and there's this thing 00:04:35.329 --> 00:04:38.550 in the middle that I can't...yeah, there's really 00:04:38.550 --> 00:04:41.790 no date on that. Not quite sure what's going 00:04:41.790 --> 00:04:44.370 on there. And then at the very bottom of 1R, 00:04:44.670 --> 00:04:49.189 there's two lines. Can't quite figure out why 00:04:49.189 --> 00:04:51.889 they wanted to squeeze two lines. They do that 00:04:51.889 --> 00:04:54.790 sometimes. I've seen that a couple times. Well, 00:04:54.790 --> 00:04:58.790 there's two lines of the letter that ends on 00:04:58.790 --> 00:05:04.310 the first half of folio one V, which is dated 00:05:04.310 --> 00:05:08.389 the 25th of February. And then there's the letter 00:05:08.389 --> 00:05:14.129 that's our focus for today for March 4. And then 00:05:14.129 --> 00:05:17.009 on the page following, which I'm not going to 00:05:17.009 --> 00:05:22.550 be posting onto the website, there's the fifth 00:05:22.550 --> 00:05:25.310 of March, actually, I think we are going to be 00:05:25.310 --> 00:05:30.670 looking at that one tomorrow. And then the 20th 00:05:30.670 --> 00:05:35.850 of March on the same page. So that's kind of 00:05:35.850 --> 00:05:40.269 crazy that we jump from the 5th to the 20th. 00:05:40.310 --> 00:05:44.939 It's a little weird. Well. You know kind of par 00:05:44.939 --> 00:05:47.839 for the course as you've noticed by this point 00:05:47.839 --> 00:05:50.459 There's a lot of jumping around of the dates 00:05:50.459 --> 00:05:54.199 just for kicks. I'm gonna look at the next page 00:05:54.199 --> 00:06:01.860 following which we have actually dated Looks 00:06:01.860 --> 00:06:06.120 like oh gosh, what is it even? Dated well another 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:08.560 one for the 20th at the bottom, and then there's 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:16.439 one at the top of This I guess would be folio2v, 00:06:17.519 --> 00:06:22.240 and it doesn't seem to be dated. Goodness gracious. 00:06:23.259 --> 00:06:27.819 Well, we'll just have to figure that out. Or 00:06:27.819 --> 00:06:33.740 maybe not. So the very beginning of the register, 00:06:33.839 --> 00:06:38.230 let's go back to that for a second, and just 00:06:38.230 --> 00:06:41.769 want to point out that in addition to the very 00:06:41.769 --> 00:06:46.350 large letters that are the title of the folio, 00:06:46.649 --> 00:06:52.209 there's a message at the top which includes the 00:06:52.209 --> 00:06:58.329 name Bartolomeo Sirvent. So I think that Bartolomeo 00:06:58.329 --> 00:07:03.829 Sirvent was pretty much like the head of the 00:07:03.829 --> 00:07:08.110 scribes who contributed to this. particular register, 00:07:09.050 --> 00:07:13.430 and he was one of the most frequent scribes for 00:07:13.430 --> 00:07:16.569 Violant in this period, and actually stretching 00:07:16.569 --> 00:07:22.810 years into her reign. And we see that it was 00:07:22.810 --> 00:07:27.529 begun, the register was begun on the 17th of 00:07:27.529 --> 00:07:33.170 February of 1387, and that's pretty much all 00:07:33.170 --> 00:07:39.360 that that says. Alright. There's a couple other 00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:42.339 things on this page. There's the date range. 00:07:43.079 --> 00:07:47.600 That is not written in the handwriting of the 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:51.819 late 14th century, so the stuff that is on the 00:07:51.819 --> 00:07:56.160 page sort of in its center below the title. And 00:07:56.160 --> 00:08:03.420 even the title might not be. Actually from. The. 00:08:03.899 --> 00:08:07.319 14th century that I'm yeah I think it's actually 00:08:07.319 --> 00:08:11.000 much later now that I'm looking at it because 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:15.139 if you compare the handwriting at the top where 00:08:15.139 --> 00:08:19.240 we have the statement from Bartolomeo Sirvent 00:08:19.240 --> 00:08:23.459 to the handwriting that appears in the center 00:08:23.459 --> 00:08:28.100 of the page that is clearly not 14th century 00:08:28.100 --> 00:08:33.860 gothic secretarial hand the the thick print large 00:08:33.860 --> 00:08:38.659 letter print, I think was added closer to the 00:08:38.659 --> 00:08:41.759 time of the message in the center that I'm going 00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:46.159 to explain in just a sec. So yeah, I think really 00:08:46.159 --> 00:08:53.000 when this register was set into storage at the 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:58.659 end of its, so 1390 is the end of its range, 00:08:59.399 --> 00:09:02.019 I think that there was nothing written on the 00:09:02.019 --> 00:09:05.320 front of this page other than the three lines 00:09:05.320 --> 00:09:09.759 at the very top and then it was much later something 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:15.659 like at least the 18th century when and I'm guessing 00:09:15.659 --> 00:09:19.720 more like the 19th century when this other writing 00:09:19.720 --> 00:09:27.360 was added onto this page. Now the three categories 00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:36.710 that are listed on the center. They each have 00:09:36.710 --> 00:09:41.450 numbers after them. Six, six, and I believe that's 00:09:41.450 --> 00:09:47.850 a 93? Not sure. These are categories of storage, 00:09:48.350 --> 00:09:55.210 and I believe that Calaix is a box, and so this 00:09:55.210 --> 00:10:00.169 is indicating that it's on shelf six, Its order 00:10:00.169 --> 00:10:04.070 number is 6 and then I and then I think it means 00:10:04.070 --> 00:10:09.409 box 93. So these were stored not vertically like 00:10:09.409 --> 00:10:14.009 what we are used to seeing in bound volumes on 00:10:14.009 --> 00:10:18.889 a library or archive shelf. I think I'm correct 00:10:18.889 --> 00:10:21.629 in in my understanding and memory of what I read 00:10:21.629 --> 00:10:24.049 about the archive of the Crown of Aragon that 00:10:24.049 --> 00:10:28.649 they were in boxes. And that helps to explain 00:10:28.649 --> 00:10:34.350 some of the insect and worm damage that these 00:10:34.350 --> 00:10:38.730 worms were not traveling horizontally through 00:10:38.730 --> 00:10:42.990 multiple registers. They were traveling vertically, 00:10:43.210 --> 00:10:49.409 like maybe from the top down. And so that doesn't 00:10:49.409 --> 00:10:52.250 quite explain how the patterns might not match 00:10:52.250 --> 00:10:56.029 up, but I'm... But yeah, I think it would be 00:10:56.029 --> 00:10:59.809 really interesting in the future once all of 00:10:59.809 --> 00:11:04.269 these images can be uploaded into some kind of 00:11:04.269 --> 00:11:11.350 powerful image processing program that the holes 00:11:11.350 --> 00:11:14.970 can be matched up so that it can be determined 00:11:14.970 --> 00:11:20.110 what registers were stored on top of what other 00:11:20.110 --> 00:11:23.809 registers for the centuries that they might have 00:11:23.809 --> 00:11:28.220 been. in there undisturbed. So eventually the 00:11:28.220 --> 00:11:31.120 Archive of the Crown of Aragon numbered the registers 00:11:31.120 --> 00:11:34.980 differently, and they came up with a scheme that 00:11:34.980 --> 00:11:39.659 put them in rough chronological order, so that 00:11:39.659 --> 00:11:43.679 when we look at registers from the reign of Pere 00:11:43.679 --> 00:11:46.879 the Ceremonious, we're looking at registers that 00:11:46.879 --> 00:11:49.879 generally are going to start with something like 00:11:49.879 --> 00:11:55.899 a one, so like the one thousands. and then when 00:11:55.899 --> 00:11:59.720 we are looking at registers from starting with 00:11:59.720 --> 00:12:03.100 Joan's reign we're looking at registers that 00:12:03.100 --> 00:12:07.879 are in the late teens something like you know 00:12:07.879 --> 00:12:15.399 the 19s 1900s series and then for Violante several 00:12:15.399 --> 00:12:20.850 of her registers are are in the 2000, so like 00:12:20.850 --> 00:12:24.629 this one is 2053. There's another one that a 00:12:24.629 --> 00:12:30.149 lot of scholars have worked with 2037. So that 00:12:30.149 --> 00:12:35.330 gives you a little bit of a window into the materiality 00:12:35.330 --> 00:12:38.929 of these registers and these documents that we 00:12:38.929 --> 00:12:41.590 look at, and then also a little bit into the 00:12:41.590 --> 00:12:43.490 history of the archive of the Crown of Aragon, 00:12:43.509 --> 00:12:46.490 which I think is really fascinating. All right, 00:12:46.490 --> 00:12:50.100 now let's get to the document. This is written 00:12:50.100 --> 00:12:53.700 by Violant. The scribe is Bartolomeo Sirvent. 00:12:54.200 --> 00:12:58.080 We have a nice clear addressee line below the 00:12:58.080 --> 00:13:02.960 text block of the letter. Visconti de Roda. So 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:07.799 this is Ramon de Perellos. And that is somebody 00:13:07.799 --> 00:13:11.320 that's come up in the podcast before. He's one 00:13:11.320 --> 00:13:16.879 of the most experienced and skilled diplomats. 00:13:16.980 --> 00:13:22.509 It's possible. that he is one of the most trusted 00:13:22.509 --> 00:13:25.769 counselors for Violant. She might have known 00:13:25.769 --> 00:13:29.649 him back in France when she first found out that 00:13:29.649 --> 00:13:34.269 she was going to be marrying Joan and moving 00:13:34.269 --> 00:13:40.009 to the Crown of Aragon. So here we have a letter 00:13:40.009 --> 00:13:43.649 which it's really hard to judge how urgent this 00:13:43.649 --> 00:13:46.049 is because there's language in it that seems 00:13:46.049 --> 00:13:51.710 extremely urgent but is it is it really like 00:13:51.710 --> 00:13:56.710 emergency level urgent or is it just you know 00:13:56.710 --> 00:14:00.350 clarifying you know because what the letter says 00:14:00.350 --> 00:14:13.549 is that to return to Barcelona, and the problem 00:14:13.549 --> 00:14:17.169 is that there's been other communication sent 00:14:17.169 --> 00:14:21.149 to him that might have been giving him some other 00:14:21.149 --> 00:14:24.370 instructions. So, okay, where is it? It's on 00:14:24.370 --> 00:14:28.730 line one, two, three, four, five, six. On line 00:14:28.730 --> 00:14:39.860 six. There's been other correspondence that has 00:14:39.860 --> 00:14:43.460 been sent to Ramon de Perellos with other instructions 00:14:43.460 --> 00:14:46.700 and now Violant is saying you have to ignore 00:14:46.700 --> 00:14:51.840 all those and there's you know other and all 00:14:51.840 --> 00:14:54.840 the other things you're doing in Avignon and 00:14:54.840 --> 00:14:58.159 the line about Avignon is the next line below 00:14:58.159 --> 00:15:01.820 and and so you have to come back you have to 00:15:01.820 --> 00:15:08.639 come to Barcelona and then actually, like, without 00:15:08.639 --> 00:15:17.639 delay. So, sans tardare, no delay. And he's supposed 00:15:17.639 --> 00:15:21.779 to come back, it seems, with the ambassadors. 00:15:22.919 --> 00:15:27.779 And then all of this is is then couched in this 00:15:27.779 --> 00:15:32.740 in this introduction. in which she says, okay, 00:15:32.779 --> 00:15:34.659 I've received your letters. This is line one. 00:15:34.679 --> 00:15:38.120 I've received your letters. And then she says 00:15:38.120 --> 00:15:44.399 she's received ambassadors from the King of France. 00:15:45.919 --> 00:15:52.500 And so what has changed? This is something that 00:15:52.500 --> 00:15:56.580 is quite mysterious to me. So she's received 00:15:56.580 --> 00:15:59.279 information from the King of France. And then 00:15:59.279 --> 00:16:04.200 that is implicitly the reason that she wants 00:16:04.200 --> 00:16:07.899 Ramón de Pérellos to come back right away from 00:16:07.899 --> 00:16:10.940 Avignon. And what's really weird about this is 00:16:10.940 --> 00:16:14.279 just a few days earlier she dispatched Luchino 00:16:14.279 --> 00:16:20.580 Scarampi to Avignon. So is this on some kind 00:16:20.580 --> 00:16:23.379 of similar topic? Like is this about the marriage 00:16:23.379 --> 00:16:29.210 negotiations and and Scarampi is replacing Ramón 00:16:29.210 --> 00:16:34.110 de Perellos? It doesn't really seem like it, but 00:16:34.110 --> 00:16:37.570 it is kind of weird how close in time these are, 00:16:37.909 --> 00:16:42.690 and I guess Violant in the letter is saying 00:16:42.690 --> 00:16:45.509 that it has to do with what she's heard from 00:16:45.509 --> 00:16:50.710 the King of France, and I guess that is not related 00:16:50.710 --> 00:16:55.350 to what she has... instructed Scarampi to do 00:16:55.350 --> 00:16:58.129 about the marriage negotiations. So maybe there's 00:16:58.129 --> 00:17:00.549 like another track that's running here, like 00:17:00.549 --> 00:17:03.230 there's some other issue that they're trying 00:17:03.230 --> 00:17:06.730 to get resolved, that Joan and Violant are 00:17:06.730 --> 00:17:08.890 trying to get resolved and the King of France 00:17:08.890 --> 00:17:12.670 is working with them on it. Or maybe the number 00:17:12.670 --> 00:17:16.589 one mission in Avignon right now are these marriage 00:17:16.589 --> 00:17:20.369 negotiations and it is connected. there's just 00:17:20.369 --> 00:17:22.670 no way to know because they keep these letters 00:17:22.670 --> 00:17:27.329 just so general. But there is urgency. The question 00:17:27.329 --> 00:17:31.710 is what's the level of urgency? And I do have 00:17:31.710 --> 00:17:35.569 to say that I have never seen quite this level 00:17:35.569 --> 00:17:39.569 of like get your butt back here right away. It 00:17:39.569 --> 00:17:42.750 seems like there might be even like some kind 00:17:42.750 --> 00:17:47.069 of note of of panic in here, but I'm just not 00:17:47.069 --> 00:17:50.589 sure. It could it could simply be written that 00:17:50.589 --> 00:17:55.390 way because Violant knows that other instructions 00:17:55.390 --> 00:18:00.890 have been sent by herself or by Joan to Ramon 00:18:00.890 --> 00:18:03.309 de Perellos, and he might be confused if he doesn't 00:18:03.309 --> 00:18:08.809 have this like ultra clear, very repetitive message 00:18:08.809 --> 00:18:12.789 about don't delay, ignore all the other instructions, 00:18:13.089 --> 00:18:17.049 get back to Barcelona. Hopefully we are going 00:18:17.049 --> 00:18:21.240 to figure out why, and what this is all about, 00:18:21.240 --> 00:18:25.440 and if there really was a kind of emergency level 00:18:25.440 --> 00:18:32.200 of urgency to this summons. All right, one last 00:18:32.200 --> 00:18:35.160 thing to mention. My process with Gemini and 00:18:35.160 --> 00:18:41.119 Claude is going strong, and so I'll add the reports 00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:45.779 from those AI chatbots into the AI usage statement 00:18:45.779 --> 00:18:49.579 on the webpage for this episode. It's interesting 00:18:49.579 --> 00:18:54.559 to kind of see how it's working and try to track 00:18:54.559 --> 00:18:58.880 what is useful about it. I think that this did 00:18:58.880 --> 00:19:02.099 go a lot faster with their assistance and that 00:19:02.099 --> 00:19:06.039 it's kind of a scaffold for me as I'm getting 00:19:06.039 --> 00:19:10.099 a better grasp of some of the tone and some of 00:19:10.099 --> 00:19:15.000 the vocab of medieval Catalan and medieval Latin. 00:19:15.460 --> 00:19:19.339 I will say that I went to my old Catalan medieval 00:19:19.339 --> 00:19:24.200 Catalan glossary in order to get a definition 00:19:24.200 --> 00:19:28.599 for the word les shots in the fourth line toward 00:19:28.599 --> 00:19:33.099 the end. L -e -x -a -t -s in the English letter 00:19:33.099 --> 00:19:35.799 pronunciation, because that looked... I was wondering 00:19:35.799 --> 00:19:39.420 is that about laws? It's not. It just means to 00:19:39.420 --> 00:19:42.640 leave in medieval Catalan, but that's not in 00:19:42.640 --> 00:19:46.190 modern Catalan. Can't... I'm not quite sure what 00:19:46.190 --> 00:19:52.769 the equivalent is in modern Catalan. Okay, so... 00:19:52.769 --> 00:19:54.529 Oh, well that phrase you might just be curious 00:19:54.529 --> 00:19:57.589 to know. Lexats des tot. Okay, I'm leaving 00:19:57.589 --> 00:20:03.150 everything. All right, cool. So still using some 00:20:03.150 --> 00:20:09.910 non -AI resources as I am getting stronger at 00:20:09.910 --> 00:20:16.759 the reading of the script. and also the translation. 00:20:18.220 --> 00:20:21.799 Thanks for listening to this episode of the Historian's 00:20:21.799 --> 00:20:25.900 Notebook, season one, Molt Cara Companyona. If 00:20:25.900 --> 00:20:28.000 you are leaving with more questions than you 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:31.059 arrived with, I have done my job. Because remember, 00:20:31.460 --> 00:20:35.859 the motto of the Historian's Notebook is dissatisfaction 00:20:35.859 --> 00:20:39.269 guaranteed. Visit the website to see an image 00:20:39.269 --> 00:20:42.509 of today's document and additional show notes, 00:20:43.069 --> 00:20:46.170 and listen again tomorrow to hear about the next 00:20:46.170 --> 00:20:49.670 day in the first year of the reign of King Joan 00:20:49.670 --> 00:20:54.509 I of Aragon and Queen Violant de Bar. In the 00:20:54.509 --> 00:20:56.009 meantime, take care.