Download PDF | Adam J. Kosto - Making Agreements in Medieval Catalonia_ Power, Order, and the Written Word, 1000-1200-Cambridge University Press (2001).

Download PDF |  Adam J. Kosto - Making Agreements in Medieval Catalonia_ Power, Order, and the Written Word, 1000-1200-Cambridge University Press (2001).

391 Pages 

This study examines the role ofwritten agreements in eleventh- and twelfthcentury Catalonia, and how they determined the social and political order. By tracing the fate of these agreements – or convenientiae – from their first appearance to the late twelfth century, it is possible to demonstrate the remarkable stability ofthe fluid structures that they engendered in what is generally thought ofas “feudal society.” The opportunity presented by these records to examine the process ofdocumentary change reveals the true nature and pace of the “transformation of the year .” Analysis ofthe convenientia as an instrument ofpower and its interaction with oral practices contributes to a deeper understanding ofthe role ofthe written word in medieval societies. Finally, a broad historiographical context establishes the significance ofthis study of Catalonia for a more general appreciation of the medieval Mediterranean world. The book thus raises in a forceful way many of the questions most intensely debated by historians ofmedieval Europe.  Adam J. Kosto is Assistant Professor of History, Columbia University.

INTRODUCTION On  July , the armies ofthe Cordoban dictator al-Mans· u¯r breached the walls ofBarcelona and sacked the city. The Arabic chroniclers give the impression that this was just another successful raid, and there is no reason to believe that al-Mans· u¯r thought any differently. It was, after all, his twenty-third campaign in just nine years.1 From the perspective of Barcelona, however, the event was ofcapital importance, not only because ofits effect on the city itself, but for its impact on the imagination of her inhabitants. An early and strong historiographical tradition sees in the events of  a formative step in the creation of a Catalan national identity. After the Carolingian reconquest of Barcelona in , Charlemagne organized the region between the Conflent and the Ebro River into the Spanish March. Over the course ofthe ninth and tenth centuries, Barcelona came to predominate over the other counties in the region. While the counts remained loyal to the faltering Carolingian house, they began to operate in an ever more independent fashion. The last Frankish military expeditions into the area took place in the s; Guifré I “the Hairy” of Barcelona (–) was the last count to be appointed by a Frankish king, Guifré II ofBesalú (–) the last to swear fidelity. Following al-Mans· u¯r’s attack, Borrell II ofBarcelona, reversing his earlier policy, appealed to the Frankish court for aid. By , when an offer ofassistance in return for renewed promises of fidelity finally arrived, Borrell had lost interest. The Catalan counties went their own way;  was the last straw We may discount parts ofthis tradition as court propaganda, but it is harder to ignore a document from within two years of the event that attests to its immediate impact: In the year ofthe Lord , the thirty-first year ofLothar’s rule, on the kalends ofJuly, a Wednesday [ July ], Barcelona was besieged by the Saracens and, with God’s leave, and with our sins hindering [the defense of the city], it was captured by them in the same month, on the sixth, and all ofthe inhabitants of the city – and those ofits county, who had entered the city on the order ofthe lord-count Borrell, for the purpose of guarding and defending it – all died or were taken captive; and all oftheir property was destroyed, whatever they had assembled there . . .3 Though recovery was in fact relatively rapid – Borrell II’s son led a raid on Córdoba in  – in the closing years ofthe tenth century Barcelona remained an abandoned frontier outpost of a fragmenting Carolingian empire. The principal city ofthe region lay in ruins, and Catalonia did not as yet exist. On  September , Borrell II’s direct descendant Pere I suffered another defeat, losing his life in the battle of Muret while leading forces against Simon de Montfort and the knights of the Albigensian Crusade. But by now the count ofBarcelona was no longer just one ofmany in a loosely organized frontier region; he had become the ruler of a confederation ofcounties that had for a century been called Catalonia. Furthermore, this confederation had been united since  with the realm ofAragón: the count was also a king. Pere’s ancestors had long pursued interests north ofthe Pyrenees and had played a major role, alongside the kings ofCastile, in the Reconquista. The political community had recently begun the process oforganizing the assemblies known as the Corts. And the city that lay in ruins in  was now a Mediterranean commercial capital ofthe greatest importance. Much had changed in two and one-quarter centuries.4 This dramatic growth ofthe power ofthe count ofBarcelona, the influence ofhis region, and the importance ofhis city in the eleventh and twelfth centuries rested on fundamental changes in Catalan society. These changes were in the first instance economic: Catalonia took part in the general expansion ofthe European economy in this period, and its location on the sea and on a frontier gave it a particular advantage.5 More important, however, was the ability ofCatalonia to capitalize on its new prosperity. This required a restructuring ofthe social order to allow the ruling classes to transform prosperity into power. The history ofpower and social order in the eleventh and twelfth centuries is likewise a European, rather than a particularly Catalan problem.6 That history is best examined in different ways in different regions, by taking advantage ofthe peculiar characteristics ofthe available evidence. What Catalonia offers for evidence is a wealth of archival records. This material can often seem lifeless, especially because the documentary riches of the region are not matched by a similar abundance ofnarrative sources. Nevertheless, certain highly descriptive records can compensate for the absence ofnarrative accounts, allowing studies to move beyond the presentation ofpatterns without context. For questions ofpower and social order in this period, one subset ofthese records is particularly rich: the written agreements known as convenientiae. The phrase “Hec est convenientia . . .” (“This is the agreement . . .”) opens hundreds of documents from the eleventh and twelfth centuries preserved in the archives ofCatalonia. The substance ofthe documents and the status ofthe persons they concern vary widely: agreements detailing the terms oftenure ofa castle from a count, or ofa simple plot ofland from a monastery; peace treaties between great lords, or settlements between brothers concerning division ofan inheritance; promises to be faithful, or grants of right of first refusal ofpurchase ofa property. Despite this variety, or perhaps because ofit, convenientiae determined a social and political order. This study developed from the detailed examination of approximately , ofthese convenientiae. 

The documents themselves prompted a first series ofquestions. When did the convenientia first appear in the Catalan counties? What were its sources? What were the reasons for its appearance and the rhythms ofits diffusion? How did the various types ofagreements to which scribes applied the label convenientia develop, and how and why did the distinctions among these various types gradually dissolve amidst a breakdown in formulae? The answers to these questions form an interesting story in themselves. They provide a window on the inner workings ofscribal culture and a case study ofsemantic and diplomatic development and change. Such a study, however, would be incomplete; these narrower questions about documentary typology and language must serve only as a foundation for a broader examination of the changing associations ofindividuals and communities over time. Thus a second series ofquestions focuses not on the documents themselves, but on the legal, social, political, and economic structures for which they provide detailed evidence. What explains the appearance, development, and spread ofthe institutions and relationships described in these agreements?

 How did these structures persist over time? How did they change? How did they operate within various segments ofsociety? How may they be seen as providing the bases ofsocial and political order? These are the larger historical problems that justify the close scrutiny of the convenientiae. This second story, however, is inseparable from the first, for in reconstructing the history ofa society, it is essential to understand the nature ofthe evidence that was generated by and, in turn, helped to shape that society.

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