Season 1, Episode

Return to episodes list

Joan, or his court, make a decision about the jurisdicational relationship between Cerdanyola and Barcelona.

Today’s Document

• Subject: Barcelona’s jurisdictional claim over Cerdanyola
• Date: February 22, 1387
• Day of the Week: Friday
• Language: Latin
• Archival Reference Number: ACA CR R1944 f9v
• Link to PARES
• Place: Barcelona
• Sender: Joan
• Recipients: officials of Cerdanyola

Historical Thinking Notes

• Sourcing: Joan, as king, could overrule the decisions of muncipalities like Barcelona; the action in this document fits in a pattern of Joan’s involvement in municipal affairs that eventually led to bitter opposition from many in the Barcelona city government and other cities such as Valencia; it seems that Barcelona wanted to annex Cerdanyola and Joan’s purpose in this document was to side with Cerdanyola; the document requires two people to testify as to what has been happening

• Contextualization: during this period, Barcelona often attempted to claim jurisdiction over close suburbs through a concept called the carreratge, meaning that if a large street connected the suburb to the city then city officials had a legal justification for annexing the suburb; the powerful nobleman Simó de Marimon led the effort in these years to keep Cerdanyola separate from Barcelona

• Corroboration: I would need to know a lot more about civic administration and the operation of the carreratge in order to corroborate the information in this document; some of the research by local historian Miquel Sánchez i Gonzalez appears to corroborate the existence of a jurisdictional dispute at this time

• Close-Reading: Gemini called this document a compulsory summons as if the language indicates a certain known category, but I am not sure about the exact requirements being given to Pere Perera and Ramon Vinos

What is this document doing?

• This document inserts royal authority into the dispute over a suburb of a municipality.
• The document activates the enforcement mechanism of state control over the individuals required to give testimony.

Questions

• Was Simó de Marimon involved in the dispute that gave rise to this document from Joan?
• What were Joan’s main motivations for siding with Cerdanyola in this situation? Would he have had reasons to side with Barcelona?
• What was the testimony that Joan or his court expected to hear from Pere Perea and Ramon Vinos?
• What were the financial stakes for everyone involved?

AI Usage

I used Gemini for help transcribing and translating this document. I also tested out Gemini deep research mode in an attempt to learn more about Cerdanyola and carreratge jurisdictions.

AI helped me locate a blog by a local historian of Cerdanyola, Miquel Sánchez i Gonzalez.

Bibliography

• Bisson, Thomas N. Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History. Clarendon Press, 1986.

← return to episode list