Season 1, Episode 73

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Joan and Violant’s three year-old son, Jaume, writes a letter, in Latin, to the Pope.

Today’s Document

• Subject: the three year-old Jaume asks the Pope to change policy on admission to the canonry of Girona
• Date: March 7, 1387
• Day of the Week: Thursday
• Language: Latin
• Archival Reference Number: ACA CR R1751 f21r-23r
• Link to PARES
• Place: Barcelona
• Sender: Jaume
• Recipient: Avignon Pope Clement VII

Historical Thinking Notes

• Sourcing: identifying the ‘speaker’ of this document as the Dauphin represents the desire of Joan and Violant to import French customs into the Crown of Aragon; the purpose of the document is to play with the emotionality of the recipient in order to influence them toward the decision Joan and Violant desire

• Contextualization: in the larger context of the Great Western Schism, Joan and Violant’s movement of the Crown of Aragon from neutral to full support of Avignon must have carried with it tremendous benefit for Avignon Pope Clement VII

• Corroboration: the Dauphin Jaume came up in previous documents examined in Episode 27 and Episode 56; January 20th was the first time that Jaume was referred to as Dauphin and February 18th is one example of many letters in which Violant reports her children, including Jaume, are in good health

• Close-Reading: the inclusion of the ‘A A A A’ in the letter introduces an additional level of verisimilitude on the part of the scribe and also possibly Joan and Violant; the representation of pre-language babbling from a toddler adds to the charm of the rhetorical device introduced by the scribe, acknowledging the un-reality of the authorship of the document at the same time as playing with the idea of conventions that represent authentic authorship in chancery documents

What is this document doing?

• This document plays with conventions of authorship in the hopes of rhetorical impact for its recipient.
• The document reiterates a request for more secular authority over eccelsiastical offices.

Questions

• Did Avignon Pope Clement VII find this amusing or annoying? Both?
• How did the scribes feel about this rhetorical play? Were they having fun with it or was it uncomfortable for them?
• Whose original idea was it to write in Jaume’s voice?
• Was the request in this letter a big ask or something that Joan and Violant anticipated would not require much convincing?
• How was Jaume’s actual state of health at this time?

AI Usage

Since the scholar Jaume Riera i Sans transcribed this letter, I had Claude do a translation and analysis. Claude’s interpretation increased my focus on the scribe’s self-reflexivity in a way that I would have missed otherwise. The fun that I had with this letter should really be attributed to what Claude helped me to see about it.

Bibliography

• Riera i Sans, Jaume. ‘El Dalfinat de Girona (1387-1388).’ Annals de l’Institut d’Estudis Gironins 29 (1987): 105–28.

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