Season 1, Episode 133

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Joan orders the officials of Roussillon and Cerdagne to restore the flow of revenue to Violant’s chief notary Bartolomeo Sirvent from properties in his name.

Today’s Document

• Subject: restoring the income to Bartolomeo Sirvent from provincial properties
• Date: May 6, 1387
• Day of the Week: Monday
• Language: Latin
• Archival Reference Number: ACA CR R1867 f6r
• Link to PARES
• Place: Barcelona
• Sender: Joan
• Recipients: Officials of Roussillon and Cerdagne

A Flow Chart of the Chancery

This chart, from Las cancillerías de la Corona de Aragón y Mallorca desde Jaime I a la muerte de Juan II, by Trenchs i Odena and Aragó, provides a glimpse of how the Chancery documents were created an authorized.¹

After recording this episode, I found out that the auditores are actually judicial officials and that these records originated from court cases.

Historical Thinking Notes

• Sourcing: Bartolomeo Sirvent was not a minor official but instead as a chief scribe for Violant received ample compensation; Sirvent started his career in the chancery for Pere the Ceremonious and so the properties and income discussed in this letter were originally granted to him many years prior

• Contextualization: the way that the monarchs and their officials generated documents and then processed them through the chancery of the Crown of Aragon remained remarkably consistent across centuries;

• Corroboration: it is likely that the arrangement made for Bartolomeo Sirvent to receive income from properties in Roussillon is similar to the arrangement drawn up for Bernat Vilella discussed in Episode 94 as compensation for his services in the household of the Dauphin Jaume

• Close-Reading: there is no sign of Joan’s personality in this document and so my guess is that this is an administrative document that would have been composed almost entirely out of the king’s awareness; there might be something in this document that connects to what must have been a time of extraordinary service from Bartolomeo Sirvent, as he was certainly involved in helping Violant to find a way to write about the distressing events of the past week

What is this document doing?

• This document reveals problems in the management of faraway property holdings.
• The document attempts to restore a revenue stream as compensation for an official of the royal chancery.

Questions

• What caused the problem with the way that the properties in Roussillon and Cerdagne had been set up to provide income to Bartolomeo Sirvent?
• Was there a connection between this document and the recent moment of crisis for the monarchy?
• Did Joan have any awareness of this document or was the toll of his illness still so severe that this was published in his name only?
• What was Bartolomeo Sirvent’s personality?
• How much of a trusted confidant was Bartolomeo Sirvent for Violant?

AI Usage

I gave an initial transcription by Gemini to Claude for a reconciliation. Claude then produced a translation with footnotes. I also used ChatGPT to research Bartolomeo Sirvent.

Bibliography

• Trenchs i Odena, Josep, Antonio María Aragó, and Rafael Conde y Delgado de Molina. Las cancillerías de la Corona de Aragón y Mallorca desde Jaime I a la muerte de Juan II. Institución “Fernando el Católico,” 1983.

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