WEBVTT 00:00:00.110 --> 00:00:05.230 Hello. In The Crown of Aragon 639 years ago, 00:00:05.790 --> 00:00:12.070 it was March 25th, 1387. My name is Jonathan 00:00:12.070 --> 00:00:15.869 Seyfried. I'm a PhD candidate in history at the 00:00:15.869 --> 00:00:20.089 University of New Mexico. And this is the Historian's 00:00:20.089 --> 00:00:24.550 Notebook, a podcast about how history gets made. 00:00:25.089 --> 00:00:29.129 Season 1 is titled Molt Cara Companyona. We're 00:00:29.129 --> 00:00:31.969 looking at a document from each day of the first 00:00:31.969 --> 00:00:36.509 year of the reign of King Joan I of Aragon and 00:00:36.509 --> 00:00:40.189 Queen Violant de Bar. Let's begin today's 00:00:40.189 --> 00:01:08.200 document. So today we have another document where 00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:12.060 there's not much going on inside the document 00:01:12.060 --> 00:01:17.019 itself, but some of its features make it interesting 00:01:17.019 --> 00:01:19.950 to talk about. It's a really short document. 00:01:20.489 --> 00:01:24.609 It begins with two lines on the bottom of folio 00:01:24.609 --> 00:01:29.810 30R of register 1751, the same register we were 00:01:29.810 --> 00:01:33.530 looking at yesterday, the secret seal register 00:01:33.530 --> 00:01:37.549 for Joan. And we're only about 30 folios in, 00:01:37.569 --> 00:01:41.349 so this is really, you know, the start of this 00:01:41.349 --> 00:01:45.120 register still. Okay, well there's I got distracted 00:01:45.120 --> 00:01:49.040 there's two lines that start at the bottom of 00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:54.219 folio 30 are and then There are on the next folio 00:01:54.219 --> 00:01:57.500 the continuation of the letter it only goes for 00:01:57.500 --> 00:02:01.859 six more lines So we're super short here, and 00:02:01.859 --> 00:02:06.319 it's a brief letter that simply establishes credentials 00:02:06.319 --> 00:02:13.919 for a representative of Joann named Jaime Pallares 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:19.659 or Pallates and Jaime Pallates is going to journey 00:02:19.659 --> 00:02:25.400 to the city of Barbastro. That is a city that 00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:30.939 I had never heard of before today and it turns 00:02:30.939 --> 00:02:36.180 out that it's a town that is halfway between 00:02:36.180 --> 00:02:42.000 Huesca and LIeida. So it's in the region that's 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:46.580 around Zaragoza. It's in Aragon, so really like 00:02:46.580 --> 00:02:54.740 the heartland of the realm of Aragon. And that's 00:02:54.740 --> 00:02:58.939 the reason why this letter is written not in 00:02:58.939 --> 00:03:05.150 Catalan, but it's written in Aragonese. and I 00:03:05.150 --> 00:03:09.870 have had very little experience with being able 00:03:09.870 --> 00:03:13.750 to recognize the difference between Catalan and 00:03:13.750 --> 00:03:17.469 Aragonese. I mean, Aragonese has a lot of features 00:03:17.469 --> 00:03:21.629 that make it way more like Castilian, so I should 00:03:21.629 --> 00:03:24.349 be at the point where certain things start to 00:03:24.349 --> 00:03:28.939 jump out at me, but they don't. So all right, 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:32.599 it's a learning process. I think one of the major 00:03:32.599 --> 00:03:36.460 tip offs that this is aragonese is actually at 00:03:36.460 --> 00:03:41.939 the end of the document. So the dating clause 00:03:41.939 --> 00:03:47.819 ends on the last line of the letter. And in this 00:03:47.819 --> 00:03:52.629 situation, the scribe. Pére de Beniure, who has 00:03:52.629 --> 00:03:55.310 in previous letters decided that he wants to 00:03:55.310 --> 00:04:00.370 spell out the number seven, has here instead 00:04:00.370 --> 00:04:04.030 decided that he's going to write it in Roman 00:04:04.030 --> 00:04:08.189 numeral. So we've got every part of the number 00:04:08.189 --> 00:04:12.729 of the year, 1387, in Roman numerals. And then 00:04:12.729 --> 00:04:26.879 we've got... So that word, it doesn't jump out 00:04:26.879 --> 00:04:32.220 as similar to the Castilian Pequeno right away. 00:04:33.139 --> 00:04:41.769 It has the letters P -E -G -N -Y -O And when 00:04:41.769 --> 00:04:44.689 you first look at that, it doesn't seem to have 00:04:44.689 --> 00:04:49.110 any resemblance to the Castilian word for small 00:04:49.110 --> 00:04:54.110 Pequeno. It does, though. It's very related. 00:04:54.589 --> 00:04:58.569 It is basically the same word, but just kind 00:04:58.569 --> 00:05:02.750 of spelled a different way. So it's just the 00:05:02.750 --> 00:05:09.949 small ring. And in Catalan, it would be petit. 00:05:10.199 --> 00:05:14.620 anell like we saw in yesterday's document but 00:05:14.620 --> 00:05:18.600 here oh maybe that was yeah i think that was 00:05:18.600 --> 00:05:22.060 yesterday's document oh goodness yeah okay well 00:05:22.060 --> 00:05:25.879 in yesterday's document or one of the ones very 00:05:25.879 --> 00:05:31.060 recently we saw petit anell is the catalan version 00:05:31.060 --> 00:05:34.860 of what we in english would say small ring and 00:05:34.860 --> 00:05:41.720 here we've got the word for ring is spelled a 00:05:41.720 --> 00:05:48.680 -n -i -e -l -l -o and so that difference should 00:05:48.680 --> 00:05:54.300 alert me operative word should alert me that 00:05:54.300 --> 00:05:58.680 i'm not looking at a document in wholly Catalan 00:05:58.680 --> 00:06:02.399 or maybe in any part Catalan.There's all kinds 00:06:02.399 --> 00:06:06.819 of other clues in here, but I'm just not as well 00:06:06.819 --> 00:06:10.620 -practiced with my Catalan to immediately have 00:06:10.620 --> 00:06:15.180 some of the other words jump out at me. And so 00:06:15.180 --> 00:06:19.259 that's really where the number one tip -off is 00:06:19.259 --> 00:06:23.759 that this is in Aragonese. But the use of the 00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:28.980 Z... is a feature of Aragonese. So if we look 00:06:28.980 --> 00:06:34.199 at line four on Folio 30V at the end, we've got 00:06:34.199 --> 00:06:38.660 Deziamos with a Z. And you're not going to see 00:06:38.660 --> 00:06:42.819 the letter Z like that in any Catalan document, 00:06:42.819 --> 00:06:47.360 I think. That would be rendered with a C, with 00:06:47.360 --> 00:06:52.600 a cedilla, or maybe even just spelled with a C 00:06:52.600 --> 00:06:59.410 without the cedilla. So this is an Aragonese letter, 00:07:00.529 --> 00:07:07.370 and it is written in Aragonese. Why? Well, Shadow 00:07:07.370 --> 00:07:09.529 wanted to answer that question. It's written 00:07:09.529 --> 00:07:13.110 in Aragonese because this is a town that is deep 00:07:13.110 --> 00:07:15.449 in Aragon, and that's the language they have. 00:07:15.769 --> 00:07:19.889 So it's really interesting that when Joan is 00:07:19.889 --> 00:07:27.069 writing to the King of France, He uses Catalan, 00:07:28.009 --> 00:07:31.430 and when he's writing to the king of Castile, 00:07:32.089 --> 00:07:36.449 he uses Castilian, and I know Shadow, and then 00:07:36.449 --> 00:07:43.009 when he's writing to the town leaders, the honorats 00:07:43.009 --> 00:07:46.449 and prohomans, honoribus is who this is addressed 00:07:46.449 --> 00:07:49.889 to, when he's... Okay, we're hearing you. We 00:07:49.889 --> 00:07:54.670 hear you. Shadow, let me finish. All right, when 00:07:54.670 --> 00:07:57.810 he's writing to them, the town leaders of what 00:07:57.810 --> 00:08:01.170 I think was a pretty small town, he's writing 00:08:01.170 --> 00:08:04.310 in Aragonese. So how did they make these decisions? 00:08:04.329 --> 00:08:08.050 It could just be that the scribes in the chancery 00:08:08.050 --> 00:08:10.810 had facility with these languages and didn't 00:08:10.810 --> 00:08:13.610 really feel comfortable writing in French. They 00:08:13.610 --> 00:08:16.449 felt comfortable writing in Latin, like when 00:08:16.449 --> 00:08:23.240 writing to the pope in Avignon. But not French 00:08:23.240 --> 00:08:26.879 apparently So that's interesting I will I would 00:08:26.879 --> 00:08:29.839 love to see if somewhere in these registers if 00:08:29.839 --> 00:08:33.480 there is a letter in French But my guess is no 00:08:33.480 --> 00:08:38.559 there were definitely letters in some letters 00:08:38.779 --> 00:08:41.919 that were read by them in Arabic I don't think 00:08:41.919 --> 00:08:45.539 they wrote in Arabic but they had the ability 00:08:45.539 --> 00:08:47.980 at least a couple people in that chancery had 00:08:47.980 --> 00:08:51.980 the ability to read Arabic and so that's something 00:08:51.980 --> 00:08:54.799 that became really important in relations with 00:08:54.799 --> 00:09:01.259 Granada for example okay so this was a multilingual 00:09:01.259 --> 00:09:08.419 context multilingualism was required. It was 00:09:08.419 --> 00:09:12.039 the baseline. It wasn't like an add -on, oh yay, 00:09:12.159 --> 00:09:15.379 we get to kind of have some folks that can write 00:09:15.379 --> 00:09:18.559 in these different languages. Bonus! No! It was 00:09:18.559 --> 00:09:22.340 like not a bonus, it was a requirement. And there 00:09:22.340 --> 00:09:25.740 are many letters in Aragonese in the archive 00:09:25.740 --> 00:09:29.440 of the Crown of Aragon, and this is one of them. 00:09:30.620 --> 00:09:33.899 And all this one really says is, you know, I 00:09:33.899 --> 00:09:38.740 think the crux of it is in line three of folio 00:09:38.740 --> 00:09:42.679 30 v that you just have to give full credence 00:09:42.679 --> 00:09:48.860 to the things that this representative Jaime 00:09:48.860 --> 00:09:53.340 Pallares or Pallates is going to ask you to get 00:09:53.340 --> 00:09:56.759 done when he shows up with this letter in hand 00:09:56.759 --> 00:10:01.340 and then I do like to track this when they the 00:10:01.340 --> 00:10:05.460 different phrases they use for saying that the 00:10:05.460 --> 00:10:09.879 recipient of the letter should hear the words 00:10:09.879 --> 00:10:15.039 spoken by the representative as if the king or 00:10:15.039 --> 00:10:18.960 queen had said them themselves. In this case, 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:34.049 we have the phrase dezeamos so as if i personally 00:10:34.049 --> 00:10:43.370 had wanted you to do it sort of that's a loose 00:10:43.370 --> 00:10:45.750 translation but that's basically what it says 00:10:45.750 --> 00:10:54.169 personal is the word used personally so now the 00:10:54.169 --> 00:10:57.429 word persona is interesting because we've seen 00:10:57.429 --> 00:11:03.429 it In other cases, Nostra Person as our body, 00:11:03.669 --> 00:11:07.730 like our us personally, in the context of some 00:11:07.730 --> 00:11:10.870 kind of injury that that might have been done. 00:11:11.210 --> 00:11:14.129 And then if there's a loss that's happening to 00:11:14.129 --> 00:11:19.629 the realm, it is something that is to our corona, 00:11:20.309 --> 00:11:25.929 right? So King's Two Bodies, again, coming up. 00:11:26.850 --> 00:11:29.549 All right. Well, I think, you know, because this 00:11:29.549 --> 00:11:31.690 is pretty short and doesn't have any specifics. 00:11:31.850 --> 00:11:35.009 It's all just talking about Obra or things being 00:11:35.009 --> 00:11:39.649 said. We have pretty much reached the end of 00:11:39.649 --> 00:11:43.470 this letter. Oh, I guess I can just say one more 00:11:43.470 --> 00:11:59.169 thing that in the Addressee line we have so it's 00:11:59.169 --> 00:12:04.330 really a catch -all for everybody who is a leader 00:12:04.330 --> 00:12:11.269 of this city the the the huratis the you know 00:12:11.269 --> 00:12:14.570 legal leaders the magistrates maybe would be 00:12:14.570 --> 00:12:18.690 a good way to translate that and then prohomans 00:12:18.690 --> 00:12:24.110 the council town councillors pro homens honoribus 00:12:24.110 --> 00:12:28.750 the honorable with honor so all right that is 00:12:28.750 --> 00:12:32.330 a little bit more about the way that town leaders 00:12:32.330 --> 00:12:35.629 are referred to just for future reference we 00:12:35.629 --> 00:12:39.450 could maybe compare it later on if we have oh 00:12:39.450 --> 00:12:41.409 let's talk about actually the beginning of the 00:12:41.409 --> 00:12:46.649 letter really quick honoribus boy no it's hombres 00:12:46.649 --> 00:12:53.019 hombres buenos good men yeah All right, so all 00:12:53.019 --> 00:12:58.580 these terms for when the king is referring to 00:12:58.580 --> 00:13:02.419 the leaders of a town, and so we can maybe kind 00:13:02.419 --> 00:13:06.019 of track that a little bit and be able to make 00:13:06.019 --> 00:13:09.320 some conclusions about what the king might think 00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:14.320 of particular leaders of the towns in how he 00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:17.620 addresses them. But I don't know, it could just 00:13:17.620 --> 00:13:22.409 be a Aragonese custom. use in the use of the 00:13:22.409 --> 00:13:25.769 Aragonese language. So, all right, we're kind 00:13:25.769 --> 00:13:29.250 of limited in how much we can infer. I'm just, 00:13:29.509 --> 00:13:32.009 because there wasn't much to this letter, I'm 00:13:32.009 --> 00:13:35.509 just kind of doing a little riffing here, a little 00:13:35.509 --> 00:13:39.990 bit more than usual, maybe. Thanks for listening 00:13:39.990 --> 00:13:43.730 to this episode of the Historian's Notebook, 00:13:44.169 --> 00:13:48.389 season one, Molt Cara Companyona. If you are 00:13:48.389 --> 00:13:50.909 leaving with more questions than you arrived 00:13:50.909 --> 00:13:56.990 with, like, what the heck was going on in Barbastro 00:13:56.990 --> 00:14:02.230 this time? Well, then I've done my job. Remember, 00:14:02.690 --> 00:14:10.070 the historian's notebook motto is dissatisfaction 00:14:10.070 --> 00:14:14.649 guaranteed. Visit the website to see an image 00:14:14.649 --> 00:14:17.600 of today's document. and additional show notes. 00:14:18.460 --> 00:14:22.019 And listen again tomorrow to hear about the next 00:14:22.019 --> 00:14:25.600 day in the first year of the reign of King Joan 00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:30.340 I of Aragon and Queen Violant de Bar. In the 00:14:30.340 --> 00:14:32.000 meantime, take care.