Season 1, Episode 159

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Violant advocates for Bartolomeo Ponci to receive a new provision as a member of the canonry at the Monastery of Scornalbou.

Today’s Document

• Subject: a new provision for the canonry membership of Bartolomeo Ponci
• Date: June 1, 1387
• Day of the Week: Saturday
• Language: Latin
• Archival Reference Number: ACA CR R2037 f29v
• Link to PARES
• Place: Barcelona
• Sender: Violant
• Recipient: Archbishop of Tarragona

Historical Thinking Notes

• Sourcing: Violant, as queen, did not have direct authority over the ecclesiastical appointments in the Crown of Aragon, and neither than Joan; this document, which starts out by referencing Joan’s previous communication about Bartolomeo Ponci, might signal a level of co-rule not common in the earlier communications from Violant to ecclesiastical leaders in the provinces of the Crown of Aragon; the Archbishop, while of lower status than Violant in terms of political power, would have probably seen himself as answering primarily to his superiors within the Church hierarchy, the Cardinals and the Pope

• Contextualization: it is difficult to imagine that any ecclesiastical controversy was not affected by the Great Western Schism in at least some way; possibly Bartolomeo Ponci ran into trouble for reasons having to do with allegiances and taking-sides as the Schism reverberated through the various realms since 1378; in their earliest communications with the Avignon Pope, Joan and Violant argued for more secular control over ecclesiastical appointments

• Corroboration: the documents examined in Episode 31, Episode 65, Episode 74 and Episode 107 offer a useful comparison to this one, since those two documents also are Violant making a recommendation for an ecclesiastical post but do not reference any action taken by Joan

• Close-Reading: the use of the phrase ‘esset valde absurdum’ likely indicates that Violant is frustrated with the fact that the Archbishop did not grant this provision after receiving the letter about it from Joan

What is this document doing?

• This document operates under the presumption that the recipient does have the final authority over the decision regarding the requested provision.
• The document treats the queen’s intervention as a natural outgrowth of earlier communication from the king.

Questions

• What was the value of the ecclesiastical post discussed in this document?
• Why had there been a problem with the requested new provision for Bartolomeo Ponci?
• Did Violant see her intervention in this issue as a natural outgrowth of Joan’s earlier work, or was she consciously taking over something that would normally be in his portfolio if he was operating at full capacity?
• Would the Archbishop have resented the phrase ‘esset valde absurdum’? Why/why not?

AI Usage

I gave an initial transcription by Gemini to Claude for a reconciliation. Claude then produced a translation with footnotes.

Bibliography

• Olson, Sherri. Daily Life in a Medieval Monastery. Santa Barbara: Greenwood, 2013.
• Rollo-Koster, Joëlle, and Thomas M. Izbicki, eds. A Companion to the Great Western Schism (1378-1417). Brill, 2009.

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