Hello. In the Crown of Aragon, 639 years ago,
it was March 11th, 1387. My name is Jonathan
Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the
University of New Mexico, and this is the Historian's
Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made.
Season 1 is titled Molt Cara Companyona. We're
looking at a document from each day of the first
year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and
Queen Violant de Bar. Let's begin today's
document. Here we go, now Violant has her turn
to castigate governor Sancho Martinez, the governor
of Aragon. And in Violant's letter, which she
writes the next day, I don't know why they don't
write them the same day, maybe there was like
a little bit of a delay where it's like... She
doesn't get to see what Joan wrote? I don't
know. Why is it? Why don't they write them on
the same day? It's really interesting. This has
come up again and again, where they're one day
apart, where Violant writes. I mean, it makes
it great for the purposes of my podcast, because
then I don't have to, like, pick one. But it
is just kind of mysterious to me why they're
not writing on the same day, when obviously they
are talking about this topic with each other.
on that day. Oh my gosh. Okay, so this is from
March 11th, and it starts off kind of the same
way. So it's pretty clear to me that Violant
saw how Joan decided to open up the topic.
And so Violant is going to use the same few
words at the opening. Governador, molt som marvellade.
Okay, so anyway, it starts out by again saying,
we are astonished. We have marvels about this.
And then we get into the juice. So here's a translation
that is really largely done as a result of my
AI process. So just as a quick refresh on that,
I first have Gemini do a transcription, and then
I have Claude independently do a transcription,
and then I paste Gemini's transcription into
Claude's, and then have Claude do a reconciliation.
I do a couple of little corrections, and depending
on where Claude is getting stuck, and then I
have Claude do a translation after a final reconciliation
of the transcription seems to be generating actually
really, really good results. Not the kind that
I can just say, oh, let's go publish it now as
a transcription. No, I would want to make adjustments,
control for things like word choice, tone, some
of the syntax doesn't come out quite right, but
for the purposes of the initial run -through
of the documents, this is great. This is amazing.
This is cutting down the amount of time that
it takes me to get a sense of what the document
is saying. It's not the kind of thing that I
can run with in terms of just taking what Claude
outputs and putting it into some kind of argument,
but it's pretty good. And, okay, there's... guess
a critique, which is that it it prejudices my
reading so that when I'm trying to decide how
to translate these things I've already got this
version in my head that can influence How I'm
gonna think of it, but folks, you know for for
my purposes It's not an issue in my mind. That
is, you know, if I was really gonna put forward
my own expertise as a translator of medieval
Catalan or, goodness gracious, medieval Latin,
then yeah, that is a valid critique. But my purpose
here is to share with you how far I've gotten
in my journey working on this for a couple years.
so that you can have the sense of what the real
experts are capable of doing, right? So my whole
purpose with the Historian's Notebook is to open
up this middle stage between beginner and expert,
and to try to help explain what that journey
is, what is the difference between the beginning
level and the expert level. And the introduction
of the large language model technology is allowing
me to explain that more effectively and in less
time so that I have more time to do other things
like maybe spend a bit more of my time learning
about the music of the late middle ages so that
when I get to more documents about the troubadours
I can have a more informed perspective. That
kind of thing. Goodness, I was about to just
read the translation, but I actually think that
it was good for me to digress a little bit. Here
we are. It's episode number 77 and I haven't
really talked about my process for a few episodes
and I like to always come back and repeat that
and put the tag introductory on the webpage so
that people can check in about what it is this
project is all about and for a moment take take
a step back and look at the bigger picture of
what the tagline of the podcast is all about,
how history gets made. Well, I'm using these
large language models as a crutch, as kind of
a scaffold, as I get better at translating and
understanding medieval Catalan, but just think
about all of the experts out there, and there
are Well, I don't know if we're really talking
about a number in the hundreds here, but there
are dozens of people that have really practiced
this for over a decade and are really good at
these translations and understanding the paleography.
So go read their books. Go seek out what they
have generated in their scholarship, because
that really is the authority. And I hope that
someday someone will listen to this podcast,
get inspired, and feel really passionate about
really taking advantage of the opportunity of
the abundance of the Archive of the Crown of
Aragon. and looking at these documents, really
developing the expert level understanding of
the language and the paleography, and maybe run
with this further than I have. That would be
just a beautiful outcome. And if this is sounding
exciting to you and you're like, yeah, that's
me, goodness, let me know. I would love to hear
that. You know, I've got a little contact me
section on the website. So go there and let me
know that you're having that interest. And this
is a moment where I think it's easy to get interested
because we've got this governor getting back
to the document today. We've got this governor
who is just like not following instructions from
the king. and the Queen. And so yesterday, we
heard Joan just lay into him and be like, we
are going to make an example out of you that
will serve as a terror to other people. Violant
does not quite let out the threats all that much,
but we get a little bit more of the legal case
that they have against this governor. All right.
Listen to this. I'm gonna read out the translation.
This is mostly supplied by Claude and I'll just
kind of give it a little a little polishing here
and there Okay, here we go Governor we are greatly
astonished and not without reason moved that
in such great disservice prejudice and damage
to ourselves. You have delayed and continue to
delay delivering to our possession the castle
and towns of Borja and Magallón to Sir Francesc
Ca Gerriga. That's one of the officials. high
up in Joan and Violant's administration in the
treasury, whom we have sent to receive them in
our name, and to whom they pertain by certain
reasons and titles, and also you have withheld
from the said Sir de Canales certain quantities
of money that you have received. And likewise,
by the said means of those revenues, emoluments,
and rights of the castle and towns, all this
you retain from our hands. You're withholding
it from our hands by, listen to this, by diverse
contrived and specious reasons and you have no
foundation whatsoever in justice nor in reason
and therefore following what you owe and the
property of your oh propriety of your office
this amounts to contempt of the commands of the
lord king and ourself which we made to you regarding
this matter and which you have should have promptly
should have promptly obeyed and if you wisely
consider that since we are your queen and lady
you ought not in your affairs or in mine to engage
in such acts but rather to go by the straight
path and show yourself therein a good official
and an affectionate servant of the Lord King
and ourself. Therefore, we reprehend you strongly.
You are not worthy of reprehension, but also
of harsh and severe correction. We pray, wish,
and command you that all delays set aside, you
deliver immediately in reality and indeed to
the said Sir Francesc Ca Garriga in our name,
the said castle, and the towns above mentioned,
and to the said de Canales, all the goods that
you shall have received and that is owed to us
from the revenues and rights of the same, and
this do not alter nor delay for any reason, for
we certify to you that you would incur too great
a burden toward us, and you would Learn this
when you experience it. So that's kind of the
threat and and the translation there's a little
wonky but But the it's a little idiomatic gran
carrech. It's so hard to translate. So anyway Then
it's the the dating, you know given in Barcelona.
Oh my gosh This is just so out of control so
basically Here's the thing, it's not like some
loyalty to Bernat de Fortia or Sibilla de Fortia
that seems to be at play here. It seems like
this governor, Sanxo Martinez, is just like
enriching himself. Like maybe he, well according
to Violant of course, he just went in there
and like grabbed a bunch of stuff and like took
over or something like that. I don't even know
because like if you're delaying in the confiscation...
Is that the same as, like, taking it for yourself?
I don't really think so. It's kind of hard to
make out exactly what's happening, like what
Sancho Martinez is doing, and how he's enriching
himself. But he is up to some mischief, that's
for sure. And you know what? This is Violant's
point of view, right? Like, maybe from Sanxo
Martinez's point of view, he's like, wait a second.
just because you are the new king and queen doesn't
mean you can just take all the property from
Bernat de Fortia and Sibilla de Fortia. Maybe
Sanxo Martinez actually is on the right side
of the law on this one. Hey, you know, it really
could be, because it's very clear that Joan
and Violant are vindictive. Like the tone in
Joan's letter from yesterday and then also like
the day, like I think it's the day before Père
dies, like it's like really early on. One of
the first things that Joan does is takes all
of Sibilla de Fortia's property and turns it
over to Violant. Like it's one of the first
things. So these two, they have it in for Sibilla
de Fortia and Bernat de Fortia. So I could definitely
see a possibility that Sanxo Martinez is actually
on the right side of the law, but he is not on
the right side of the chain of command, that's
for sure. Being on the right side of the chain.
He's not following the chain of command with
his new monarchs. Well, I hope for Sanxo Martinez's
sake that he goes and does what Joan and Violant
want him to do, because the De Fortias, they do
not have any power at all anymore. Oh, and what
I wanted to say is that when they did have power,
they really stuck it to Joan and Violant.
Like, Sibilla De Fortia was always stirring it
up, getting at Violant with all these like weird
accusations of her ladies -in -waiting being
like improper and having weird affairs and stuff.
So, you know, I'm just saying that this was like
a two -way street, so if you're starting to feel
some sympathy for Sibilla de Fortia and Bernat
de Fortia, just know that they had... they were
stirring things up and they were trying to...
push down and disrupt and undermine Joan and
Violant for that whole duration of the time
since Pere started his relationship with Sibilla.
Well, and you can, oh gosh, you can be sympathetic
to that and say, well yeah, she didn't have a
lot of power, she was of such lower status socially,
but still, like, it was... I think really excessive
the way that I read the history, and it seems
like others, such as Nuria Silleras -Fernandez,
who wrote a really good article about Sibilla
de Fortia, seems to kind of come down on the
side of like, yeah, this was like Sibilla starting
this stuff, and that if Sibilla hadn't been so
mean to Violant, then this whole kind of feud
between them would not have developed. But again,
you know, this is open to interpretation, and
I can totally see someone who wants to revisit
this coming to a different conclusion, maybe
putting the blame for it more on Violant. Just
not sure, though, because Violant... when she
was up against Sibilla de Fortia before Pere
died, like, Violant didn't have as much power
as Sibilla de Fortia did. So, alright, I could
go back and forth on that for a little while,
but let's just leave it there for today. Gosh,
I want to know what happened to Sanxo Martinez.
Gosh, I hope I find out. Thanks for listening
to this episode of the Historian's Notebook,
Season 1, Molt Cara Companyona. If you are leaving
with more questions than you arrived with, I've
done my job. Remember, the motto of the Historian's
Notebook is dissatisfaction guaranteed. Visit
the website to see an image of today's document
and additional show notes. That's where I'll
put Sancho Martinez's fate, if I find out about
it, and listen again tomorrow to hear about the
next day in the first year of the reign of King
Joan I of Aragon and Queen Violant de Bar. In
the meantime, take care!