Season 1, Episode 161

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Violant issues a summons to appear for three members of the Jewish aljama in Valencia in response to a criminal petition.

Today’s Document

• Subject: criminal petition from Valencia, likely for a financial crime
• Date: June 3, 1387
• Day of the Week: Monday
• Language: Latin
• Archival Reference Number: ACA CR R1822 f151v
• Link to PARES
• Place: Barcelona
• Sender: Violant
• Recipients: Nomer Cavhell, a doctor, Naçan Marveç, and Samuel Shimone, Jews of Valencia

Historical Thinking Notes

• Sourcing: it is very well possible that Violant’s chancellor, Bernardo des Pontes, authored this document in its entirety with only a brief discussion with Violant about its topic; the recipients, all under Violant’s direct jurisdiction because of being members of the aljama of Valencia, are Jews and one of them is of the professional class, identified as ‘physico’

• Contextualization: the monarchs of the Crown of Aragon had direct jurisdiction over the aljamas, based on a tradition stemming from the time of Muslim rule in Iberia; in the second half of the fourteenth century, the Jewish aljama of Valencia was connected to maritime trade, with a high population, and its internal governance was quite centralized¹

• Corroboration: the documents examined in Episode 95 and Episode 134 corroborate this one in that a Jew from Figueres is also summoned, but for a different kind of violation; within the first month of her reign, Violant sent a letter, examined in Episode 29 to all of the aljamas in the province of Valencia regarding tax collection

• Close-Reading: the last sentence of the document before the dating clause clearly connects ‘absentia’ to insubordination, ‘obsistere et contumacia’

What is this document doing?

• This document invokes the power of the state to compel the physical presence of three people in Barcelona.
• The document operates with the voice of the monarch while clearly being authored by the chancellor.

Questions

• What criminal activity had the inquisition discovered?
• What roles did Nomer Cavhell, Naçan Marveç, and Samuel Shimone have in the leadership of the Valencia aljama?
• Was Violant aware of the incident that initiated this document?

AI Usage

The transcription and translation of this document was carried out by my OpenClaw pipeline. The agentic AI output for this document was almost entirely useless.

Bibliography

• Baer, Yitzhak. A History of the Jews in Christian Spain. Jewish Publication Society of America, 1961.
• VanLandingham, Marta. Transforming the State: King, Court and Political Culture in the Realms of Aragon (1213-1387). Brill, 2002.

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