WEBVTT 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:05.200 Hello. In the Crown of Aragon 639 years ago, 00:00:05.719 --> 00:00:11.960 it was March 19th, 1387. My name is Jonathan 00:00:11.960 --> 00:00:15.580 Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the 00:00:15.580 --> 00:00:19.339 University of New Mexico. And this is the Historian's 00:00:19.339 --> 00:00:23.920 Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made. 00:00:24.539 --> 00:00:28.690 Season one is titled Molt Cara Companyona. We're 00:00:28.690 --> 00:00:31.850 looking at a document from each day of the first 00:00:31.850 --> 00:00:36.590 year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and 00:00:36.590 --> 00:00:40.289 Queen Violant de Bar. Let's begin today's 00:00:40.289 --> 00:01:08.079 document. Today's document comes from the register 00:01:08.079 --> 00:01:12.659 Curiae Sigelli Secreti from Violant. So it's 00:01:12.659 --> 00:01:17.760 the secret seal documents from her court. The 00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:21.700 folio number is 3R and yesterday we were looking 00:01:21.700 --> 00:01:26.200 at a document from Violant in the Varia register 00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:30.459 and it was about some... financial crimes and 00:01:30.459 --> 00:01:34.280 the bailiff was being sent after somebody in 00:01:34.280 --> 00:01:40.400 the town of San Marti de Saroca. And today we've 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:43.640 got another financial document, but this one 00:01:43.640 --> 00:01:49.579 is more about tax collection and Violant is writing 00:01:49.579 --> 00:01:55.019 to the governor of Valencia, Mossen Aznar, and 00:01:55.019 --> 00:01:59.879 we have seen a document from Violant to Aznar 00:01:59.879 --> 00:02:05.859 before. It was in episode 53 on February 13th, 00:02:05.859 --> 00:02:09.080 and the content of that was not about tax collection. 00:02:09.539 --> 00:02:14.400 The content of that document was an apprehension 00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:20.400 of a let's see, a Berenguer Vilagarut, somebody 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:25.080 who was a leader in one of the sides in this 00:02:25.080 --> 00:02:29.879 feud that was going on between families or clans 00:02:29.879 --> 00:02:33.960 in Valencia. And so it's really interesting how 00:02:33.960 --> 00:02:38.860 the day before this letter, Violant is sending 00:02:38.860 --> 00:02:43.819 out a note to somebody to apprehend some sort 00:02:43.819 --> 00:02:49.520 of criminal, and then today we have a letter 00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:54.419 that is not about that, but had been a previous 00:02:54.419 --> 00:02:58.599 topic for this particular correspondent. The 00:02:58.599 --> 00:03:03.319 topic of the letter today gives us a little window 00:03:03.319 --> 00:03:08.580 into the administration of tax collection, and 00:03:08.580 --> 00:03:14.009 also into the way that the royal family governed 00:03:14.009 --> 00:03:17.150 the Muslim and Jewish neighborhoods differently 00:03:17.150 --> 00:03:22.490 than the way they governed other places under 00:03:22.490 --> 00:03:26.710 their purview. This is a pretty long letter for 00:03:26.710 --> 00:03:34.539 a sort of simple action. The queen has decided 00:03:34.539 --> 00:03:38.419 to send her treasurer or someone who's in the 00:03:38.419 --> 00:03:40.460 treasury office. It's someone that we have heard 00:03:40.460 --> 00:03:46.199 of before Anthony Rosar. Anthony Rosar is being 00:03:46.199 --> 00:03:49.639 sent to Valencia and he's probably bringing this 00:03:49.639 --> 00:03:57.060 letter with him in line six the line begins Rosar 00:03:57.060 --> 00:03:59.800 because Antony's first name is on the previous 00:03:59.800 --> 00:04:05.240 line. Antony Rosar de la Nostra Tresesora aquí 00:04:05.240 --> 00:04:11.180 ara present. So I kind of read this over in my 00:04:11.180 --> 00:04:13.719 initial just kind of looking through this letter. 00:04:13.759 --> 00:04:17.430 In fact today I was like oh maybe maybe I don't 00:04:17.430 --> 00:04:21.209 really need the AI for this letter because I 00:04:21.209 --> 00:04:24.170 could understand every word the paleography was 00:04:24.170 --> 00:04:28.290 really good and I was like well let's just kind 00:04:28.290 --> 00:04:32.730 of do it because who knows what the chat bot 00:04:32.730 --> 00:04:37.569 might come up with that I didn't really notice 00:04:37.569 --> 00:04:41.709 and that turned out to be true because I myself 00:04:41.709 --> 00:04:45.300 would not have really been attentive to this 00:04:45.300 --> 00:04:51.339 phrase, a qui aura present, and Claude identified 00:04:51.339 --> 00:04:54.540 it as something important in the letter, which 00:04:54.540 --> 00:04:58.779 is that Violant is saying that as this letter 00:04:58.779 --> 00:05:04.480 was made, Antoni Rosar was there, present, but 00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:08.620 he is going to be traveling from Barcelona, where 00:05:08.620 --> 00:05:11.860 the letter was made, to Valencia. And once he 00:05:11.860 --> 00:05:15.879 gets there, the governor is expected to work 00:05:15.879 --> 00:05:23.740 with him in order to write up all of the records 00:05:23.740 --> 00:05:29.019 for the tax collection Los Emoluments in line 00:05:29.019 --> 00:05:34.170 four. So it's interesting because You would think 00:05:34.170 --> 00:05:36.930 that it wouldn't be necessary to send somebody 00:05:36.930 --> 00:05:40.350 from the Royal Palace all the way to Valencia 00:05:40.350 --> 00:05:42.370 that they could just collect the money and send 00:05:42.370 --> 00:05:45.949 it on their own, but maybe this is how it normally 00:05:45.949 --> 00:05:52.550 was? Or maybe, if you're of a more sinister frame 00:05:52.550 --> 00:05:57.490 of mind, maybe there's not a lot of trust. for 00:05:57.490 --> 00:06:01.350 this particular governor and so Violant has 00:06:01.350 --> 00:06:05.790 decided that she needs to send somebody to oversee 00:06:05.790 --> 00:06:09.689 the tax collection and all of the record keeping 00:06:09.689 --> 00:06:15.829 along with the governor of Valencia. So there's 00:06:15.829 --> 00:06:21.009 no real evidence of that over the possibility 00:06:21.009 --> 00:06:24.920 that this was just normal procedure but Hey, 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:27.639 it's a possibility if you want to make it a little 00:06:27.639 --> 00:06:31.699 bit more exciting. The other piece of this letter 00:06:31.699 --> 00:06:38.360 in its content that I found super interesting 00:06:38.360 --> 00:06:42.660 is that in the fourth to last line we have the 00:06:42.660 --> 00:06:48.860 phrase Jeheus e moros and the last full sentence 00:06:48.860 --> 00:06:52.819 of the letter is basically amounting to You're 00:06:52.819 --> 00:06:55.860 gonna work with Anthony Rosar on all this tax 00:06:55.860 --> 00:06:59.360 collection, but in the word empero, however, 00:07:00.600 --> 00:07:04.899 you are not going to be doing this for the Jewish 00:07:04.899 --> 00:07:08.879 and Muslim communities in Valencia. That is going 00:07:08.879 --> 00:07:14.839 to be handled by another process. And I think 00:07:14.839 --> 00:07:17.839 the process there, based on some of the stuff 00:07:17.839 --> 00:07:22.629 that I've read, is that the Jews and Muslims 00:07:22.629 --> 00:07:27.250 they self -report they have leaders of their 00:07:27.250 --> 00:07:31.069 own communities that are in charge of doing all 00:07:31.069 --> 00:07:35.350 of the governance and keeping in contact with 00:07:35.350 --> 00:07:39.050 the royal family and they've got more of a direct 00:07:39.050 --> 00:07:44.069 line and I think that that says a lot about the 00:07:44.069 --> 00:07:48.129 interfaith encounter that we have in the Crown 00:07:48.129 --> 00:07:53.490 of Aragon and it's probably a reflection, here's 00:07:53.490 --> 00:07:58.750 my guess, it's probably a reflection of how when 00:07:58.750 --> 00:08:05.290 you put officials in between the leaders of these 00:08:05.290 --> 00:08:10.529 religious minority communities and the person 00:08:10.529 --> 00:08:13.689 in the royal family who's benefiting from the 00:08:13.689 --> 00:08:17.670 revenue collected then you're more likely to 00:08:17.670 --> 00:08:23.810 have some corruption and that the person who's 00:08:23.810 --> 00:08:29.889 the intermediary is more likely to mistreat the 00:08:29.889 --> 00:08:34.269 minority community, maybe extorting more from 00:08:34.269 --> 00:08:38.370 them and keeping a little bit for themselves, 00:08:38.710 --> 00:08:44.259 or just behaving more cruelly with less understanding 00:08:44.259 --> 00:08:47.700 in situations where somebody is maybe they're 00:08:47.700 --> 00:08:51.240 having a difficult year and they can't make their 00:08:51.240 --> 00:08:54.860 usual amount that they're supposed to pay, and 00:08:54.860 --> 00:08:59.379 so in that situation the monarch themself is 00:08:59.379 --> 00:09:02.960 going to be more understanding than maybe an 00:09:02.960 --> 00:09:07.529 intermediary. So that's my guess as to why the 00:09:07.529 --> 00:09:11.509 rules are different for the Jewish and Muslim 00:09:11.509 --> 00:09:19.470 communities in Valencia. The probata for this 00:09:19.470 --> 00:09:23.370 document is something very unusual. We're having 00:09:23.370 --> 00:09:27.210 a very unusual probata couple of episodes here. 00:09:28.190 --> 00:09:32.429 The first line, this was originally I think a 00:09:32.429 --> 00:09:37.250 three -line probata. And the first line has been 00:09:37.250 --> 00:09:41.730 erased. Not completely. There's little pieces 00:09:41.730 --> 00:09:45.529 that you can see that mostly are on the edges, 00:09:45.629 --> 00:09:48.110 the right and left edge of what was there on 00:09:48.110 --> 00:09:52.970 the first line. But it's interesting that someone 00:09:52.970 --> 00:09:57.309 felt the need to do an erasure there. The part 00:09:57.309 --> 00:10:03.100 that's left has Bartolomeo Sirvent. And that's, 00:10:03.100 --> 00:10:07.840 of course, one of Violant's most frequent scribes. 00:10:08.100 --> 00:10:10.960 And then at the end of the second line, we've 00:10:10.960 --> 00:10:15.019 got a usual Mondavit abbreviation, commanded. 00:10:15.139 --> 00:10:18.299 And then the third line, we have some interesting 00:10:18.299 --> 00:10:25.360 stuff. We've got a Regina or Rege abbreviation, 00:10:25.360 --> 00:10:31.970 and then something like Fuit or Fuerit. Something 00:10:31.970 --> 00:10:34.870 with an F and means something like made and then 00:10:34.870 --> 00:10:38.470 we've got a probata P but it's followed by a 00:10:38.470 --> 00:10:42.129 little P and that would be an abbreviation for 00:10:42.129 --> 00:10:47.889 something like prop tear or I don't know something 00:10:47.889 --> 00:10:50.690 that has a word with just like two P's in it 00:10:50.690 --> 00:10:54.350 and then after that we have what looks to me 00:10:54.350 --> 00:10:58.509 like the abbreviation for treasurer and then 00:10:58.509 --> 00:11:06.600 another So something about this probata wasn't 00:11:06.600 --> 00:11:09.919 correct in some way, as it was originally written. 00:11:10.399 --> 00:11:15.059 I cannot tell what was there before the erasure. 00:11:15.700 --> 00:11:19.500 Something that I think started with Domina, because 00:11:19.500 --> 00:11:23.080 that's clearly a D right at the beginning before 00:11:23.080 --> 00:11:25.960 the erasure. I don't really have enough at the 00:11:25.960 --> 00:11:30.700 end to make a good guess. As I'm trying to figure 00:11:30.700 --> 00:11:33.840 out more about what these probata statements 00:11:33.840 --> 00:11:37.179 mean, I might be able to make an inference about 00:11:37.179 --> 00:11:42.360 what was there, but I can say at this time that 00:11:42.360 --> 00:11:46.340 we definitely have something related to money 00:11:46.340 --> 00:11:53.090 causing different rules. When the chancery is 00:11:53.090 --> 00:11:56.730 in cooperation with the Treasury, we're seeing 00:11:56.730 --> 00:11:59.750 some kind of different authorization process. 00:12:00.309 --> 00:12:04.889 And we've seen it in some of the documents earlier 00:12:04.889 --> 00:12:07.970 in the last couple documents that we've talked 00:12:07.970 --> 00:12:11.830 about, and we're also seeing it here. And I can't 00:12:11.830 --> 00:12:17.049 quite tell why the rules are all that different. 00:12:17.700 --> 00:12:20.659 but it is something that I hope to figure out 00:12:20.659 --> 00:12:26.620 as the year goes on. Okay, I think that pretty 00:12:26.620 --> 00:12:29.919 much does it for this particular letter. There's 00:12:29.919 --> 00:12:33.159 a lot in there, but it just basically says you 00:12:33.159 --> 00:12:36.820 gotta cooperate with our treasurer, and if you 00:12:36.820 --> 00:12:39.259 do, we'll be happy. And it's the stuff that you 00:12:39.259 --> 00:12:42.080 gotta do, and it's the way you gotta do it is 00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:46.899 gonna make sense, and so everything should be 00:12:46.860 --> 00:12:49.639 Going according to plan once our treasure gets 00:12:49.639 --> 00:12:53.659 here there and and then we should hear Back that 00:12:53.659 --> 00:12:56.220 you did what you were supposed to do That's what 00:12:56.220 --> 00:12:58.100 the whole thing amounts to in a lot of words 00:12:58.100 --> 00:13:01.320 It makes me kind of wonder is this so long because 00:13:01.320 --> 00:13:05.000 viola is just really suspicious of this governor 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:09.460 of Valencia Mohsen Aznar That is something I'm 00:13:09.460 --> 00:13:12.600 going to keep in mind as I'm looking at other 00:13:12.600 --> 00:13:16.980 correspondence from Violant about Valencia. 00:13:18.019 --> 00:13:21.299 Thanks for listening to this episode of the Historian's 00:13:21.299 --> 00:13:25.919 Notebook, Season 1, Molt Cara Companyona. If you 00:13:25.919 --> 00:13:28.340 are leaving with more questions than you arrived 00:13:28.340 --> 00:13:32.860 with, I've done my job. Remember, the motto of 00:13:32.860 --> 00:13:36.299 the Historian's Notebook is dissatisfaction. 00:13:36.509 --> 00:13:40.370 guaranteed. Visit the website to see an image 00:13:40.370 --> 00:13:43.090 of today's document and additional show notes, 00:13:43.669 --> 00:13:46.590 and listen again tomorrow to hear about the next 00:13:46.590 --> 00:13:50.230 day in the first year of the reign of King Joan 00:13:50.230 --> 00:13:55.090 I of Aragon and Queen Violant de Bar. In the 00:13:55.090 --> 00:13:56.850 meantime, take care!