Season 1, Episode 68

Return to episodes list

Joan summons the Marquis de Villena to Barcelona and awards Alfonso the Younger with the Cross of Saint George.

Today’s Document

• Subject: Joan summons for the Marquis de Villena
• Date: March 2, 1387
• Day of the Week: Saturday
• Language: Catalan
• Archival Reference Number: ACA CR R1751 ff16v
• Link to PARES
• Place: Barcelona
• Sender: Joan
• Recipient: Alfonso the Elder, the Marquis of Villena

Historical Thinking Notes

• Sourcing: Alfonso the Elder was a grandson of James II of Aragon, Joan’s great-grandfather; Alfonso the Elder had supported Pere the Ceremonious in many wars; writing to a member of the royal family, Joan perhaps summons Alfonso to Barcelona in an effort to coordinate the exercise of power stemming from his own authority as king

• Contextualization: kings and queens relied on the loyalty of other members of the royal family as power brokers and administrators in the Late Middle Ages; chivalric orders like the ‘empresa’ of the Cross of Saint George mentioned in this letter helped to motivate and organize members of the nobility in service of the king

• Corroboration: the other letters of summons examined in Episode 16, Episode 19, and Episode 60 offer valuable comparisons to the one from this episode; the language deployed in the summons genre varies in urgency

• Close-Reading: in line 3, Joan wrote that he excused Alfonso from the expectation of an earlier journey to Barcelona due to a ‘necessitat que havets havda en vostra persona,’ a necessity that you have had in your person; Joan refers to Alfonso’s injury or illness as a ‘necessity’ rather than an ‘accident’

What is this document doing?

• This document reinforces the familial and administrative relationship between members of a royal family.
• The document invokes a symbolic system of honor through the admittance of Alfonso the Younger to a chivalric order.

Questions

• Why did Joan want the Marquis de Villena in Barcelon? Did he have a particular task in mind?
• Was Alfonso already en route to Barcelona at this time?
• Why has Pere March been sent to deliver both this message and the Cross of Saint George?
• What bodily conditions or circumstances merit the use of the phrase ‘necessity of your person’ rather than ‘misfortune’?

AI Usage

I started with a transcription from Gemini and then had Claude do a reconciliation with its own transcription. Claude then created a translation with footnotes that address ambiguities and possibilities in the text.

Additional Notes

The addressee of this letter, Alfonso the Elder, raised his grandson Enrique de Villena. Enrique became an author of literature and esoterica. He also wrote the earliest surviving report of the Jocs Florals poetry competition that Joan imported from Toulouse to Barcelona in 1391.

Bibliography

• Domenge, Joan. “Les divises de Joan I d’Aragó (1350-96).” Miscel·lània d’art Medieval i Modern (Rome), 2023, 251–81.
• Villena, Enrique de. Arte de trovar. Edited by F. J. Sánchez Cantón and Alvar Gómez de Castro. Visor Libros, 1993.

← return to episode list