Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

The main objective of this article is to provide a detailed analysis of the interesting epigraphic heraldic reredos located on the wall of the tower of Baeza Cathedral. So, its external, internal and functional elements have been studied and a rigorous edition have been done. This edition has some variant readings in relation with those of previous authors who studied the inscriptions. Also, four unpublished epigraphs are studied and edited; these are integrated in the coat of arms that are in the reredos. This research offers a new hypothesis about the provenance of this reredos, arguing that its original situation was one of the towers of the old fortress.

This article addresses the claims that the idea of a flat earth was an essential part of the dominant cosmological paradigm in the Middle Ages. After examining the origin and transmission of the main arguments that ancient science passed on to medieval scholars with respect to the signs and evidence of the earth’s (almost) spherical shape, we will also explore both ancient and medieval advocates of alternative models, only to conclude that throughout the Middle Ages the standard scientific paradigm involved the notion of a spherical earth. The (inaccurate) belief that medieval science generally upheld the flat earth paradigm seems to be part of a widespread prejudice held in contemporary times against the Middle Ages writ large.

The objective of this work is to study and highlight an account book from the year 1453 belonging to the mayordomía de Fábrica of the Seville Cathedral, found in the Historical Archive of the House of Alba, and until now unpublished. The analysis of its materiality and its formal aspects will allow us to frame it in the context of the economic- administrative machinery of the institution chapter at a crucial moment in its history, that of the construction of the current Gothic temple during the fifteenth century, replacing the old Christianized aljama mosque. From the data collected, we have also been able to accurately identify the mayordomo who produced it and trace him to one of the most powerful medieval lineages in Castile, that of the Enríquez family of admirals, as well as to discern the path that led this book to its current archival location. Finally, a complete edition of its text is presented.

This study aims to rescue from medieval sources a panoramic perspective during the Late Middle Ages of the winegrowing that developed in the Ribeira Sacra at the hands of monastic institutions and the peasantry linked to them. A line of research within the Agrarian History that, in the last decade, has enjoyed a considerable interest on the part of regionally-based peninsular historiography. The following paragraphs intend to contribute modestly to this line of research directed at giving more prominence to the world of wine and the landscape that its cultivation generated. In order to carry out this task, I have proceeded to examine the written sources originating from seven monasteries located near the banks of the river Sil close to flowing into the Miño. The topics to be addressed are the following: the importance of wine in the Ribeira Sacra during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the great expansion that the vineyard experienced at the expense of the wasteland in the fifteenth century, the physiognomy of the resulting landscape and, lastly, agricultural practices and manorial charges associated with the winemaking.

This article examines the relationship between the clergy and confraternities in Seville during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries using archival records produced by these institutions. Clerics played an increasing role in the life and activities of Sevillian confraternities at the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Early Modern Age. Many members of the secular and regular priesthood yearned to experience this kind of spirituality by joining these confraternities or by admitting them within the confines of their convent. When clerics joined confraternities, they had to comply with a number of obligations and were obliged to perform certain functions, but they also enjoyed certain benefits which differentiated them from the rest of the members. Although there are many studies that touch on this topic, until now the presence of clerics in confraternities had not been studied in an exclusive manner. Hence, the main objective is to study the role of the clergy in the many facets that shaped these institutions.

This study offers a first look at the notaries public identified in the city of Segovia within the framework of its legal establishment in the kingdom of Castile. It offers an overview of the notarial profession through archival records from various institutions, analysing the selection process for these officials, their diplomatic praxis and professional jurisdiction. In this study, we can distinguish two consecutive periods of development, whose turning point is the identification of the first notary public, Blasco Iohanes. The first section which deals with the precedents of the phenomenon focuses on the earliest producers of private documents, while the development of the notarial body is studied in a second section dedicated to interpreting and locating different typologies. There is a seemingly apparent continuity marked by a strong demand for notarial work which explains its introduction in different areas of society and the consolidation of the notary collective throughout the centuries.

Ecclesiastical restoration in the kingdom of Jaen lead to the creation of the institution of the cathedral chapter founded in Baeza until it was transferred to Jaen after its conquest was completed, with part of the canons remaining in the old cathedral. The organization of this chapter coincided with the spread of the use of the validation seal in the Iberian kingdoms during the thirteenth century. This article studies the creation of the chapter seal of Baeza-Jaen, its use as an instrument of legal guarantee for the production of documents and their safekeeping. Through various imprints preserved in the chapter archive of Toledo, we will analyse the evolution of the iconography of the seal, with important changes taking place in the last third of the thirteenth century.

During the archeological excavation carried out in 2020 on the site of Os Conventos (San Mamede de Vilachá, A Pobra do Brollón, Lugo) a slab of gneiss stone with epigraphic remains was found. It was identified at the top of a wall, possibly reused material, and its content remained unpublished until now. The aim of this article is to study the piece, present its text and determine the chronology and cultural context in which it was produced. This allows us to conclude that the epigraph is in fact an epitaph dated between the ninth and tenth centuries.

This article explores one of the least known aspects of the slave trade: the existence of a percentage of failed operations, in which the debts of their owners involved the seizure of goods or even of the slaves themselves, conceived as guarantees of payment. The island of Mallorca is presented here as one of the most appropriate places on which to focus this study, given the well-known significant presence of slaves in the late Middle Ages on the island and the persistence of judicial sources that allow for the tracking of foreclosure orders. This information, collected from the correspondence of the kingdom’s governor, confirms operations that until now could only be inferred, since they did not appear explicitly in notarial records, the most common source for the study of slave transactions.

This article aims to highlight the medieval records found in the section concerned with the construction of the cathedral (Obra y Fábrica) of the Chapter Archive of Toledo (Archivo Capitular de Toledo) before 1503. This is the period prior to the publication of the «Pragmática de Alcalá» which established a new system for preparing future notarial protocols. Catalogued in 1977, the complete set of twenty-one registers, also called libros de notas toledanos, are mostly books and some notebooks written between 1415 and 1503. They are assessed in the context of their production in the Cathedral of Toledo. These records are the product of public, as well as ecclesiastical notaries at the service of the chapter and the archbishop.