Hello. In the Crown of Aragon, 639 years ago,
it was March 13th, 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.
Today's document is written by Violant, and
it is to certain authorities in Mallorca. And
it's in Catalan, so I know exactly what's going
on, which is nice after yesterday's toughy Latin
document. So what's going on here is that certain
people are being summoned to Barcelona from Mallorca.
And these individuals are textile workers. So
they're referred to as brodaders, which is sort
of sounds like the English embroiderers. So they
are artisans of textiles, and I think what we're
looking at is the beginning of a project to get
Violant some amazing new clothes for her wardrobe.
Or, I mean, it could be for decorating the palace,
but I like to think that this is about fashion.
but it could be any kind of textile work. It
doesn't really specify. There are two letters
about the Brodaderos of Mallorca. The first
one is in the center of folio 92 R, and the second
one is at the bottom. Now it seems to me that
these two letters are addressed to different
recipients. So the one that's dated on the 13th
in the center of the folio seems to be directed
towards somebody who would be able to enforce
Violant's wishes in Majorca, like some kind
of official. And then the second letter, which
is dated actually for tomorrow, March 14th, that
one is to the brodadeiros themselves. So it's
a little bit weird that the first of these two
letters doesn't have a stated... yeah, it doesn't
seem to have a stated addressee. So maybe because
the second letter is there and it's clear that
it needs to go to whoever is maybe the Veguer
in Mallorca, the royal official, or the bailiff
in Mallorca, or the governor in Mallorca. It's,
yeah, I'm not sure who the person would be that
would enforce this and would be the addressee
for the first letter. What Violant is asking
for is for the Brodaders named in these letters
to leave Mallorca and come to Barcelona in order
to do their amazing work that she has heard about.
These documents reveal quite a lot. They're telling
us that an artisan could just be summoned, like
it doesn't... matter if you've got some reason
why you don't want to journey to Barcelona. If
you are these brodadeiros in Mallorca, you are
going to be going to Barcelona, because at the
end of the second letter, Violant talks about
how there will be punishment, correctio e peña,
if the brodaderos don't come to Barcelona. And
then in the first letter, she talks about how,
if there's any problem or delay, she uses the
word Tarda, any delay with the Brodaders coming
to Barcelona, then she is going to have some
molt desplahens. So she's going to be very displeased.
So... This is not a request or a question. This
is a command. And if you are a subject in the
Crown of Aragon and the monarch wants you to
go to their palace and do your artisanship there
for them, you kind of just have to. And there's
no real freedom to say no. Maybe you could come
up with some excuse. Oh, my family member is
really sick. I can't leave right now. And they
would understand. But I think you're pretty much
at their command for doing your artisan work
for them. And certainly the monarch herself has
that expectation that these amazing textile artisans
are going to be at her disposal and will show
up in Barcelona. They'll be paid well. She does
mention that. And they're going to create for
her some amazing clothwork. I personally like
to imagine this as fabulous dresses. but it could
be, it really could be anything. We don't have
a clue because it's referred to as artes or obras.
All right. Another feature of this set of documents
is that the letter that is sent out to the authorities
of Mallorca to gather up these brodaders and
get them to leave and go to Barcelona. That is
dated on the 13th of March, and then the letter
to the brodaders themselves, that letter is dated
the following day. So I really want to know why.
Why would you need to have these on different
days? It's interesting to me to think about the
logistics of the letter writing and the chancery
operations and mail delivery. So if Violant
was literally writing these letters on different
days, It really is kind of strange, because why
would she wait a day to do the second letter
when it's on the exact same topic? Is it that
she had this thought overnight that, ooh, you
know, I should maybe write to these brodaderos
directly instead of just to my officials in Mallorca?
That's possible, I guess. And that would be revealing
of something else about the thought process that
Violant goes through as she's deciding to summon
artisans to create textile work for her. But
I just don't think that that's the likely explanation.
I - especially because they're right next to
each other in the register like the scribes had
them these two letters both together and they're
copying one right after the other so I think
what's more likely is that they're written on
the same day they're composed on the same day
they're Maybe Violant is just verbally dictating
these to Pere de Basant, the scribe who's in the
probata for both these. So maybe it's the exact
same day that Violant is saying to Pere de Basant,
hey, I've heard about these amazing textile artisans
in Mallorca. Here are their names. Get them here.
And maybe that's all she says. And then Père
de Besant is the one who is creating the composition
of the letter and couching it in all the terms.
That's possible. It's also possible that Violant
is dictating this word for word, so I don't even
know which of those I would place as more likely
at this point. I don't know. But I think... that
there's a decision made, not sure if it's Violant
who decides it, or if it's the Chancery staff
who decide it, but there's a decision made to
label these letters for two different days. And
I think there's like a strategy at work, or not
necessarily strategy, but just like an order
of operations in mind. that they know that the
way that mail delivery works, the letter that
is labeled the 13th of March will be prioritized
in its delivery over the letter that is labeled
the 14th of March. That when these letters get
to Majorca, that the officials, the royal officials
in Mallorca, will get this news with some advanced
notice ahead of when the news gets to the brodaderos
themselves. Looks like there are three brodaderos.
Nicolao Torrent, Johan Sabrega, and Francesc
Clara. So those three brodadaires are going to
find out that they've been summoned to Barcelona,
and because their letter is dated the 14th of
March, they're going to find it out after the
governor already knows. So this is maybe a way
to address a potential problem that might come
up with the summons. Like, maybe if you let the
officials know ahead of time, they themselves
might deliver the letter to the brodaderos and
know what's in it so that if the brodaderos
try to protest, the official will be ready. I
don't know. I mean, that's just kind of like
real speculation there. But I just can't figure
out why these letters would be on different dates.
And it's not some kind of scribal error. Like
it is clear that the number 13 is put there for
the 13th day for the first letter and then the
number 14 is put there as the day for the second
letter it's just there's no there's no way around
that paleographically it's just really easy to
see the four strokes after the x for the second
letter to indicate 14th so It's an interesting
moment to try to imagine how all of this would
play out very practically, which is something
that I really like to imagine and try to guess
about as I'm working with these documents. Hopefully
at some point we'll see these brodaders come
up in the archive again. I would really love
to find the payment record for whatever they
received for their work, because sometimes those
payment records in the Patrimonio Real in the
Treasury record books will specify a little bit
more than just saying artes or obras. But unfortunately,
we don't have the Treasury books from the first
half of or at least the beginning months of Joan
and Violant's reign. So I'm not sure if they
are missing from the archive of the Crown of
Aragon or if they just haven't yet been digitized,
but it does seem like the treasury records did
not survive as thoroughly, comprehensively as
the letters did. The outgoing letters and documents
were almost, they're almost all there. All the
different registers in sequence. But the treasury
books for not just Joan and Violant, but
other monarchs around this time, the treasury
books are not available on PARES. They're not
digitized in as great volume or consistency.
And I think I would have to really reach out
and talk to the archivists. at the archive of
the Crown of Aragon in order to figure out why
that is. My guess though is that they're not
there, that they were transported, that they
were used a lot more maybe, and so they have
been lost. But I'm not sure. Maybe they're there
and they just haven't been digitized as a priority.
All right, well, we talked about a document from
the 14th of March. So I will admit that the idea
occurred to me that I could kind of like have
an easy episode tomorrow and just kind of split
these two into two different episodes. But no,
I'm not going to do that. It's kind of like because
they're the same topic on the same folio. I don't
know. I just feel like I would be Just doing
too much of a shortcut on that wouldn't be...
I wouldn't have fidelity to the mission of this
project. So, we will have another different document
tomorrow. 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 have 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.
I'll also add in there some bibliographic citations
for textiles in the Crown of Aragon in the late
Middle Ages and generally around the Mediterranean
and Western Europe in the late Middle Ages. And
listen again tomorrow to hear about the next
day in the first year of the reign of King Joan
of Aragon and Queen Violant de Bar. In the meantime,
take care.