{"id":13818,"date":"2020-07-15T06:10:25","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T06:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/?p=13818"},"modified":"2021-06-08T23:17:25","modified_gmt":"2021-06-08T23:17:25","slug":"fragments-of-a-castle-capbreu-from-catalonia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/fragments-of-a-castle-capbreu-from-catalonia\/","title":{"rendered":"Fragments of a Castle ‘Capbreu’ from Catalonia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fragments on Paper
\nfrom a Medieval Capbreu<\/em>
\n(or Terrier)
\nfor a Castle in Catalonia:<\/h2>\n

Vallfort or<\/em> Castellv\u00ed?<\/h2>\n

[Posted on 15 July 2020, with updates<\/em>]<\/p>\n

We examine fragments from a late-medieval Spanish manuscript on paper, with texts in Latin and Catalan.\u00a0 They come from a castle in Catalonia, Spain.\u00a0 In its texts the castle is named (so I am told) as Vallfort<\/em>.\u00a0 Its lord is noted in one formula as Gaspar vilana senyor dela baronia e terme de castellny strem dela marcha . . . <\/em>(“Gaspar Vilana, Lord of the Barony of Castellny<\/em> and its Bounds, at the edge of the March . . . “). The “March” in this case presumably refers to the Hispanic Marches<\/a> or the March of Barcelona<\/em> \u2014 wherever and from what perspective then stood its particular terme<\/em>.\u00a0 Purchased several years ago from a seller in Barcelona, the fragments are now in a private collection.<\/p>\n

What’s In a Name?<\/h3>\n

Because the book has been dismembered and scattered, without the transmission of a clear record of its former state, contents, and sequence of leaves, and because medieval spellings of names of people and places exhibit differences and variants in the records (even in a single record or set of records for a particular individual or place), it is useful to state some givens.\u00a0 The power of such respect for individual and varied forms is exhibited, for example, in the study of another document elsewhere in this blog:\u00a0 A Charter of 1399 from High Ongar in Essex<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the Catalan manuscript fragment, or rather the available parts of it, we encounter names designating one or other castle.\u00a0 In the Catalan language, or Catal\u00e0<\/a>, the word Castel<\/em>(l<\/em>) means “Castle”.\u00a0 Vell<\/em> means “old”.\u00a0 Castelv\u00ed<\/em> comes from Castel<\/em>(l<\/em>)vell<\/em>. See, for example, Castellvi<\/a>; and Occitan and Catalan Names<\/a> in the Medieval Names Archive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a region of the world where, given its history, there were many castles (see a partial List of castles in Spain<\/a>), some of them, by the late medieval period, could or would have been perceived and described as “old”.\u00a0 Moreover, over time, as names for a particular place could have varied before settling down into a preferred and established choice, the forms –vell<\/em>, –v\u00ed, <\/em>and the like, all meaning “old”, might have alternated with each other for the same edifice and place, not least when translating a name from another language into the Catalan.\u00a0 Some of those names may have passed out of use for the given place in modern times, and some may have disappeared from the record altogether.<\/p>\n

\"Private

Private Collection, Castle Cartulary Fragment, Folio 1r \/ Page 1 fuller view.<\/p><\/div>\n

In some bilingual portions of the fragment, a single location is referred to as the “old castle” in both Latin and in Catalan.\u00a0 On a single page (both Folio ‘1’ recto and verso), it appears both as Castri ueteris<\/em> (in the Latin genitive) and as Castellv\u00ed <\/em>or Castellvy<\/em> (or Castellny\/Castellni<\/em>).\u00a0 <\/em>Such patterns appear both on the title-page of the book (as known from the seller’s image) and on the first pages of the fragment from it as preserved in the collection which we showcase here.<\/p>\n

Given multiple “old castles” which remained in seigneurial or baronial use at the time of these records, this one might well have required other descriptive elements to differentiate one from another.\u00a0 Such is the case now for some places which have, or retain, the name Castellvi<\/em>, Castel<\/em>(l<\/em>)vell<\/em>, and the like. For example, in Barcelona, there are still:<\/p>\n