WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.960 Hello. In the Crown of Aragon, 639 years ago, 00:00:06.500 --> 00:00:13.220 it was March 16th, 1387. My name is Jonathan 00:00:13.220 --> 00:00:16.780 Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the 00:00:16.780 --> 00:00:20.559 University of New Mexico. And this is the Historian's 00:00:20.559 --> 00:00:24.780 Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made. 00:00:25.399 --> 00:00:29.519 Season one is titled, Molt Cara Companyona. We're 00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:32.640 looking at a document from each day of the first 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:36.859 year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and 00:00:36.859 --> 00:00:41.259 Queen Violant de Bar. Let's begin today's document. 00:01:04.620 --> 00:01:09.400 Today we have a rather short document from Violant 00:01:09.400 --> 00:01:13.420 and it's a document that carries out sort of 00:01:13.420 --> 00:01:17.500 an administrative task which is to authorize 00:01:17.500 --> 00:01:23.739 two people in the financial part of the royal 00:01:23.739 --> 00:01:28.000 administration to be able to carry out their 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:31.450 duties. And there's really nothing specific offered 00:01:31.450 --> 00:01:35.010 here in this letter, but I think it's more of 00:01:35.010 --> 00:01:40.489 a general authorization of these two officials, 00:01:41.030 --> 00:01:49.209 Jacme Estiua and Antony Rosar. The letter that 00:01:49.209 --> 00:01:53.689 we're looking at today is in the secret seal 00:01:53.689 --> 00:01:58.680 register and it's a little surprising to see 00:01:58.680 --> 00:02:03.299 it placed in there because it is not exactly 00:02:03.299 --> 00:02:06.459 looking like something all that private at all 00:02:06.459 --> 00:02:09.039 it looks like something that really would belong 00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:14.960 in the commune register or the curia register 00:02:14.960 --> 00:02:19.240 it just doesn't seem to be like you know for 00:02:19.240 --> 00:02:24.490 any reason requiring the secret seal other than 00:02:24.490 --> 00:02:27.990 maybe giving these officials a little bit more 00:02:27.990 --> 00:02:33.870 of a serious official level to their commission 00:02:33.870 --> 00:02:38.930 here the letter basically says we've got these 00:02:38.930 --> 00:02:42.770 two officials that have to do with the financial 00:02:42.770 --> 00:02:46.169 administration of the kingdom. And if you are 00:02:46.169 --> 00:02:49.250 reading this letter, it means you need to give 00:02:49.250 --> 00:02:52.650 them all of the credential, all of the credence 00:02:52.650 --> 00:02:57.629 that is accorded to somebody who has been authorized 00:02:57.629 --> 00:03:02.849 to speak on the Queen's behalf. So it's pretty 00:03:02.849 --> 00:03:06.490 straightforward. And I think this is also an 00:03:06.490 --> 00:03:10.250 opportunity to do an interesting comparison to 00:03:10.250 --> 00:03:15.810 when Violant had given the credentials for Luchino 00:03:15.810 --> 00:03:20.270 Scarampi to go to Avignon to negotiate the marriage 00:03:20.270 --> 00:03:25.990 of her daughter, Yolande of Aragon, because this 00:03:25.990 --> 00:03:31.849 also has a note on the bottom left that indicates 00:03:31.849 --> 00:03:39.460 the letters had no addressee so here again we 00:03:39.460 --> 00:03:45.800 see the phrase sine supra scriptionibus without 00:03:45.800 --> 00:03:51.199 any subscription without any writing on the front 00:03:51.199 --> 00:03:56.860 of the letter So remember that the outgoing letter, 00:03:57.060 --> 00:03:59.800 and this is the copy of it that we have here 00:03:59.800 --> 00:04:03.379 in the Chancery register, the actual outgoing 00:04:03.379 --> 00:04:07.939 letter would be folded and then on the blank 00:04:07.939 --> 00:04:13.060 side that would be visible after the folding, 00:04:13.539 --> 00:04:17.939 that's where the addressees name would be written. 00:04:18.540 --> 00:04:23.220 Now here the phrase at the bottom that ends with 00:04:23.220 --> 00:04:29.639 sine superscriptionibus it begins with eciam alie 00:04:29.639 --> 00:04:35.339 and then the Roman numeral three and then a word 00:04:35.339 --> 00:04:40.399 that is a little perplexing because it looks 00:04:40.399 --> 00:04:45.279 almost exactly like the abbreviation for letra 00:04:45.800 --> 00:04:53.879 L -R -E with a swirly line of a macron. That's 00:04:53.879 --> 00:04:56.879 what you usually see when you see the abbreviation 00:04:56.879 --> 00:05:02.480 for letra or litere. But then prior to that word, 00:05:02.519 --> 00:05:05.959 we've got what looks like an S. And I wonder 00:05:05.959 --> 00:05:09.540 if this is a way of actually creating the plural, 00:05:09.779 --> 00:05:13.939 but it is so weird to try to figure out what 00:05:14.269 --> 00:05:18.509 is happening with this word maybe it's a different 00:05:18.509 --> 00:05:22.910 word than just letter literas for the plural 00:05:22.910 --> 00:05:27.009 of letters but i mean the next word is fuerunt 00:05:27.009 --> 00:05:33.129 which is the plural for uh were were sent out 00:05:33.129 --> 00:05:40.129 so were so fuerunt is uh the the past tense for 00:05:40.129 --> 00:05:45.730 uh S. Oh my gosh, it's so bad. I'm forgetting 00:05:45.730 --> 00:05:50.410 the infinitive Latin for the verb to be. Oh, 00:05:50.769 --> 00:05:54.290 am I just embarrassing myself with all of this 00:05:54.290 --> 00:05:59.089 Latin? Oh my gosh. Well, we're just about giving 00:05:59.089 --> 00:06:02.310 it our best try here on the Historian's Notebook. 00:06:03.550 --> 00:06:08.329 All right, so what we have in the letter itself 00:06:08.600 --> 00:06:11.579 that is basically being sent out just for anybody 00:06:11.579 --> 00:06:16.040 to look at. Why do you need four of them? Why 00:06:16.040 --> 00:06:18.120 do you need four? Or, I'm sorry, why you need 00:06:18.120 --> 00:06:22.620 three? Why, when there's two people mentioned? 00:06:22.879 --> 00:06:27.060 That's an interesting question. I don't quite 00:06:27.060 --> 00:06:30.839 understand why, with only two people referred 00:06:30.839 --> 00:06:36.000 to in the letter itself, why you would need to 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:42.189 have three copies. in case they lose one? I don't 00:06:42.189 --> 00:06:45.610 know. But that is a question that just popped 00:06:45.610 --> 00:06:48.970 into my head as I was recording right now. So 00:06:48.970 --> 00:07:09.410 the people are given titles in this letter. our 00:07:09.410 --> 00:07:14.449 procurator, our general procurator in this realm. 00:07:15.029 --> 00:07:20.569 So that pretty clearly references Aragon. So 00:07:20.569 --> 00:07:26.490 the procurator general for Aragon. And then Anthony 00:07:26.490 --> 00:07:35.829 Rosar is Nostra Tresoreria, our treasurer. So 00:07:36.199 --> 00:07:41.560 These are pretty high up officials, and interestingly 00:07:41.560 --> 00:07:45.579 it seems like there might be more than one treasurer, 00:07:45.980 --> 00:07:49.160 because I think I've seen someone else's name 00:07:49.160 --> 00:07:52.620 listed as treasurer, but maybe they were just 00:07:52.620 --> 00:07:57.300 changing their... their... roles around in the 00:07:57.300 --> 00:07:59.720 early days of the realm, but I'm pretty sure 00:07:59.720 --> 00:08:03.519 you only really get to have one treasurer. Otherwise 00:08:03.519 --> 00:08:07.360 you might get your books confused. And then in 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:09.600 the third, well let's start from the end of the 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:11.980 second line, but really in the third line we 00:08:11.980 --> 00:08:16.579 have the kinds of of business that they're going 00:08:16.579 --> 00:08:21.160 to be involved in. So the end of starting from 00:08:21.160 --> 00:08:36.299 the end of the second line, sobre co emolument 00:08:36.299 --> 00:08:42.179 is actually a cognate so it's any of the financial 00:08:42.179 --> 00:08:48.970 revenues and there's in a little bit of US history, 00:08:49.210 --> 00:08:53.470 there's this emoluments clause in the Constitution 00:08:53.470 --> 00:09:00.490 about the restriction on members of the executive 00:09:00.490 --> 00:09:03.850 branch seeking out emoluments. That's kind of 00:09:03.850 --> 00:09:10.330 like a big word for the late 18th century political 00:09:10.600 --> 00:09:14.500 theorists who came up with the constitution and 00:09:14.500 --> 00:09:17.820 the federalist papers really just fearing that 00:09:17.820 --> 00:09:21.340 the the the politicians not just the executive 00:09:21.340 --> 00:09:23.679 branch ones but the politicians would be motivated 00:09:23.679 --> 00:09:26.639 by emoluments which is basically like a word 00:09:26.639 --> 00:09:32.320 for bribes so here we're not talking about bribes 00:09:32.320 --> 00:09:35.580 in this letter from Violant it's just the revenue 00:09:35.580 --> 00:09:38.279 you can see you could i think really dependably 00:09:38.679 --> 00:09:42.720 Think of this word as meaning the revenues the 00:09:42.720 --> 00:09:49.019 financial streams of our chamber Cumbra now this 00:09:49.019 --> 00:09:54.500 category is one that I'm really hazy on and I 00:09:54.500 --> 00:09:58.740 would need to look more at the work of LIedo Ruiz 00:09:58.740 --> 00:10:03.759 Domingo about this one because she's done an 00:10:03.759 --> 00:10:09.929 excellent job of explaining the economics of 00:10:09.929 --> 00:10:16.590 royal families, and I think in her book, the 00:10:16.590 --> 00:10:21.549 Tresor de la Reina, I think she would be able 00:10:21.549 --> 00:10:25.289 to lay out the difference between the different 00:10:25.289 --> 00:10:29.669 categories within the budget of the royal family. 00:10:30.230 --> 00:10:36.779 And my guess is that this is When we say Nostra 00:10:36.779 --> 00:10:40.179 Cambra, we're talking about funds that are going 00:10:40.179 --> 00:10:45.419 to be going more directly to Violant for her 00:10:45.419 --> 00:10:49.539 own spending. Our chamber. That's kind of what 00:10:49.539 --> 00:10:53.639 it makes me think of. You can also kind of associate 00:10:53.639 --> 00:10:58.259 this with maybe the governmental role of a chamberlain 00:10:58.259 --> 00:11:01.419 or something like that. So that's the best I 00:11:01.419 --> 00:11:04.740 got for a cambra right now. If I find out a little 00:11:04.740 --> 00:11:09.960 bit more I'll add it into the web page for today's 00:11:09.960 --> 00:11:14.659 episode. Then I want to take an opportunity to 00:11:14.919 --> 00:11:21.600 alert everybody to a stock phrase that appears 00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:26.820 in a lot of letters from royalty or political 00:11:26.820 --> 00:11:31.720 elites in the Middle Ages which comes at the 00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:36.059 end of line three and then goes a little bit 00:11:36.059 --> 00:11:47.679 into line four and that is manam. So these three 00:11:47.679 --> 00:11:53.379 words are really used a whole lot and often they're 00:11:53.379 --> 00:11:56.820 separated out. Like there might be a whole clause 00:11:56.820 --> 00:12:00.940 of pregam and then such and such and then volem 00:12:00.940 --> 00:12:03.679 with a few words and then manam. They might be 00:12:03.679 --> 00:12:06.059 in separate sentences. They might be spread out 00:12:06.059 --> 00:12:10.080 throughout a letter, but here they're nicely 00:12:10.080 --> 00:12:15.659 in their group of three, and this is a set of 00:12:15.659 --> 00:12:21.600 words that is conventional for when the monarch 00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:26.179 or other elite person who has the power to command 00:12:26.179 --> 00:12:31.179 is saying that their their authority is expected 00:12:31.179 --> 00:12:35.500 to be acknowledged and their will is expected 00:12:35.500 --> 00:12:41.389 to be done. So And it's a blanket group of three 00:12:41.389 --> 00:12:48.629 verbs that covers all of the varying levels of 00:12:48.629 --> 00:12:53.070 customary address. So if somebody is a little 00:12:53.070 --> 00:12:56.669 bit, you know... feeling like they don't want 00:12:56.669 --> 00:12:59.970 to be just simply commanded that they deserve 00:12:59.970 --> 00:13:03.889 because of their status to have it requested, 00:13:04.889 --> 00:13:08.870 then they get to focus on the pregam, we request. 00:13:09.830 --> 00:13:14.649 If somebody is really wanting to make sure that 00:13:14.649 --> 00:13:19.750 the monarchs are very intentional about what 00:13:19.750 --> 00:13:25.039 they're are wanting the recipient to do then 00:13:25.039 --> 00:13:30.279 they're going to focus on volem, we will this 00:13:30.279 --> 00:13:35.200 thing to happen and then if there's any question 00:13:35.200 --> 00:13:39.100 about whether you get to choose to follow what's 00:13:39.100 --> 00:13:46.240 in the letter then you have manam and that is 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:50.960 we command. So we request, we will, we command. 00:13:51.080 --> 00:13:54.019 These are the three verbs that are often put 00:13:54.019 --> 00:13:57.360 together in a lot of the different vernaculars 00:13:57.360 --> 00:14:04.080 in the Middle Ages and because Latin was connecting 00:14:04.080 --> 00:14:10.639 all of these different realms and then influencing 00:14:10.639 --> 00:14:16.159 the vernaculars, we have consistency. these three 00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:21.139 words over a very wide geographical area with 00:14:21.139 --> 00:14:27.559 vernaculars that can be very difficult to kind 00:14:27.559 --> 00:14:31.259 of trans... oh gosh, what am I trying to say? 00:14:31.460 --> 00:14:33.659 The vernaculars can be very different from each 00:14:33.659 --> 00:14:37.320 other, but these three words you will see them 00:14:37.320 --> 00:14:41.659 all over the place. I'm also getting better at 00:14:41.659 --> 00:14:44.850 the understanding I'm building about some of 00:14:44.850 --> 00:14:49.129 the apparatus around the letter that we see all 00:14:49.129 --> 00:14:53.850 the time so after the year 1387 in roman numerals 00:14:53.850 --> 00:14:56.610 at the very end of the letter we've got a capital 00:14:56.610 --> 00:14:59.929 v and then we've got some kind of abbreviation 00:14:59.929 --> 00:15:03.549 mark above it kind of off to the right a little 00:15:03.549 --> 00:15:10.330 bit and then we have de ponte that oh gosh is 00:15:10.330 --> 00:15:13.799 it a b it could actually at the beginning it 00:15:13.799 --> 00:15:17.200 might be the letter b it could be something like 00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:22.299 but or not de ponte if it's a v it could be vidit 00:15:22.299 --> 00:15:27.000 which is often how the scholars who've done some 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:31.500 transcriptions of these will expand that first 00:15:31.500 --> 00:15:35.399 and if it's a v they'll expand it vidit so saying 00:15:35.399 --> 00:15:40.279 something like it was seen by and then the person 00:15:40.279 --> 00:15:44.360 and then de ponte is a name so there's somebody 00:15:44.360 --> 00:15:47.080 else that's involved and i'm trying to figure 00:15:47.080 --> 00:15:51.320 out what their role is and how they relate to 00:15:51.320 --> 00:15:55.960 the scribe who is taking credit in the probata 00:15:55.960 --> 00:16:01.360 in this case shadow okay in this case we have 00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:06.740 bartolomeo servant which and that is violon's 00:16:06.740 --> 00:16:12.059 primary scribe Bartodomeo Sirvent, and his 00:16:12.059 --> 00:16:15.379 name is the first thing that appears in the probata. 00:16:15.899 --> 00:16:20.059 So who is de Ponte? Sometimes in this space, 00:16:20.100 --> 00:16:24.039 right after the year, we actually have la reina, 00:16:24.659 --> 00:16:28.399 or for Joan we have Rex Iohannes. We also have 00:16:28.399 --> 00:16:32.480 people that have been identified as like the 00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:36.120 vice chancellor. and so we've got names there, 00:16:36.159 --> 00:16:39.600 and sometimes there's nothing. So what is that 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:43.220 function? And I do have a guess. I have a guess 00:16:43.220 --> 00:16:47.759 like when it's when it's Rex Iohannes or La Reyna, 00:16:48.200 --> 00:16:52.700 then it might indicate that they personally signed 00:16:52.700 --> 00:16:57.629 that letter, although What they signed and how 00:16:57.629 --> 00:17:00.870 they signed it is a question that I am very alert 00:17:00.870 --> 00:17:03.809 to because of that one letter From a while ago 00:17:03.809 --> 00:17:06.630 when Joan says he was not able to write his 00:17:06.630 --> 00:17:11.250 signature So I'm still trying to figure out exactly 00:17:11.250 --> 00:17:15.109 what that indicates when we have a name following 00:17:15.109 --> 00:17:19.589 the year in the very last part of the letter 00:17:19.589 --> 00:17:23.700 itself and then In the probata we've got something 00:17:23.700 --> 00:17:26.500 very long and it's a little bit difficult to 00:17:26.500 --> 00:17:31.480 figure out all the abbreviations. There is some 00:17:31.480 --> 00:17:35.920 recognizable stuff to me. And so we start out 00:17:35.920 --> 00:17:40.119 with Bartolomeo Sirvent, then we have the abbreviation 00:17:40.119 --> 00:17:44.900 for Mandavit, commanded by, and then we have 00:17:44.900 --> 00:17:49.509 Domina Regina. And it's interesting because it 00:17:49.509 --> 00:17:53.849 doesn't seem to have the A that's usually after 00:17:53.849 --> 00:17:57.490 Regina. That's the first line. That is all readable 00:17:57.490 --> 00:18:01.710 to me. The second line, I don't know what's being 00:18:01.710 --> 00:18:05.549 abbreviated there. I know, Shadow, it's frustrating. 00:18:05.690 --> 00:18:09.049 We don't know what it is. But it could be some 00:18:09.049 --> 00:18:13.930 sort of like fuerunt. Looks like an F. And then 00:18:13.930 --> 00:18:20.529 we have Per. And then we have regentis, I think, 00:18:20.829 --> 00:18:25.869 or regentere. And then the abbreviation that 00:18:25.869 --> 00:18:30.430 comes next with that capital T is for treasurer. 00:18:30.609 --> 00:18:34.250 Now I can't quite figure out exactly what form 00:18:34.250 --> 00:18:39.309 of the word treasurer is being used here. Treserorem, 00:18:39.450 --> 00:18:43.130 I don't know. It looks like there's the abbreviation 00:18:43.130 --> 00:18:50.349 for the S -E -R. r for sure might be a v in there 00:18:50.349 --> 00:18:55.869 the last word is definitely a used them and then 00:18:55.869 --> 00:18:58.970 the third line begins with something that i really 00:18:58.970 --> 00:19:01.849 don't know an abbreviation there maybe something 00:19:01.849 --> 00:19:07.690 like esser est and then we have a foo it and 00:19:07.690 --> 00:19:12.690 then we've got a ta or a ca and then we've got 00:19:12.690 --> 00:19:16.880 in and then hawk and then we've got something 00:19:16.880 --> 00:19:21.740 that begins with F maybe Fuerent again so all 00:19:21.740 --> 00:19:25.039 of that put together something that has to do 00:19:25.039 --> 00:19:28.980 with well maybe this was also in the treasury 00:19:28.980 --> 00:19:31.740 records is what this might be saying but that's 00:19:31.740 --> 00:19:36.480 the best I got for right now. Thank you for listening 00:19:36.480 --> 00:19:41.220 to this episode of the Historian's Notebook season 00:19:41.220 --> 00:19:46.000 one Molt Cara Companyona. If you are leaving 00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:49.440 with more questions than you arrived with, I 00:19:49.440 --> 00:19:54.599 have done my job because the motto of the Historian's 00:19:54.599 --> 00:19:58.819 Notebook is dissatisfaction guaranteed. You'll 00:19:58.819 --> 00:20:02.059 definitely feel that if you are looking for good 00:20:02.059 --> 00:20:07.259 information about Latin. Maybe less dissatisfaction 00:20:07.259 --> 00:20:12.180 as the year goes on? Hopefully. Visit the website 00:20:12.180 --> 00:20:16.339 to see an image of today's document and additional 00:20:16.339 --> 00:20:20.299 show notes. And listen again tomorrow to hear 00:20:20.299 --> 00:20:23.420 about the next day in the first year of the reign 00:20:23.420 --> 00:20:27.960 of King Joan I of Aragon and Queen Violant 00:20:27.960 --> 00:20:31.339 de Bar. In the meantime, take care.