Season 1, Episode 112

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Joan notifies a judge in Zaragoza that a case involving members of the Jewish aljama has been transferred to him.

Today’s Document

• Subject: a court case involving members of the Jewish aljama in Zaragoza
• Date: April 15, 1387
• Day of the Week: Monday
• Language: Latin
• Archival Reference Number: ACA,Cancillería,cartas_reales,Juan_I,caja_1,nº52
• Link to Fondo Histórico de Aragón
• Place: Barcelona
• Sender: Joan
• Recipient: Jaime Solleva, a judge in Zaragoza

Historical Thinking Notes

• Sourcing: someone convinced Joan or his advisors to arrange for a change in jurisdiction, but their motivation for doing so might not be available from the content of this document; Joan had a set of aljamas in his portfolio and it seems that Violant had a different set of aljamas for direct governance; as king, Joan had the authority to shift court cases from one jurisdiction to another in the Crown of Aragon

• Contextualization: stemming from the legacy of Muslim rule, the involvement of the king reflects the long-term Iberian context of the Jews and Muslim communities coming under the direct rule of the Christian sovereign and not within the jurisdictions of the municipal or provincial governments; the aljama of Zaragoza was a particularly thriving Jewish community at this time¹

• Corroboration: a later document, dated April 24th and located in one of Joan’s Commune Registers, refers to this case and is addressed to Judge Casseda, might indicate that someone involved in this case changed their mind about changing the jurisdiction from Judge Casseda to Judge Solleva (scroll down to see images of this later document); the fact that this document looks very undamaged might indicate that it was never sent out; documents from archives in Zaragoza might provide an additional perspective that unlocks a more certain interpretation of this document; for another document on the aljama of Zaragoza see Episode 129; to compare this document to others that pertain to the involvement of the monarchs with Jewish aljamas, browse through the documents with the tag Jewish History

• Close-Reading: the difficulty of the Latin grammar in this document made close reading difficult, especially when trying to figure out the nature of the crimes in this case; it does seem clear that no specific reason is offered for the change in jurisdiction

What is this document doing?

• This document manipulates the court system within the context of interfaith relations.
• The document reinforces the authority of the monarch in the legal system.

Questions

• Who had wanted the change in jurisdiction for this case and why?
• What were the details of this case? What crime had been committed?
• Was this an unusual situation or did the king frequently move cases from one judge to another?
• Why was the Jewish aljama of Zaragoza in Joan’s portfolio and not Violant’s?

Documents about the case from April 24th

AI Usage

I used Gemini for an initial transcription, which I then had Claude reconcile with its own initial transcription. Claude then produced a translation into English with footnotes. Both Gemini and Claude struggled to get accurate transcriptions and so the Latin-to-English translation is not very useful for this document.

Bibliography

• Baer, Yitzhak. A History of the Jews in Christian Spain. Jewish Publication Society of America, 1961.
• Boucoyannis, Deborah. Kings as Judges: Power, Justice, and the Origins of Parliaments. Cambridge University Press, 2021.

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