Medieval accounts

During the period of baronial reform in England, power swung back and forth between king Henry III and a reforming council, eventually dominated by Simon de Montfort. Differences over royal accountability - for example, the right of the county community to have a say over the choice of sheriff, and the need to control the use of royal revenues - proved irreconcilable, and ended in civil war.

L'autore analizza il libro dei conti  redatto dal canonico del Capitolo della cattedrale di Aosta Gerard Blaver tra il 1440 e il 1450. Contiene i conti per la costruzione del chiostro tardogotico della cattedrale. Si analizza la struttura contabile e i sistemi di controllo per la loro correttezza adottati dal capitolo in  un epoca interiore all'uso della partita doppia.

La torre Baldovina o Balldovina és una construcció mil·lenària que encara avui és un dels referents geogràfics de la vila de Santa Coloma de Gramenet. Dins de la sèrie "Extravagants" de l'Arxiu Històric de la Catedral de Barcelona es conserva un petit lligall d'una trentena de folis, de 1349-1350, que conté, segons el seu íncipit, el "Libre de rehebudes i datas fetes per en Pere Fatiu en la torre Baldovina". Tal com el títol deixa entreveure, ens trobem davant el llibre de comptes que l'administrador de la torre, Pere Feliu, va fer durant la seva gestió, el curs 1349-1350. Els comptes es refereixen principalment al que podríem anomenar la "reserva" del domini, aquelles propietats que es gestiona ven directament. Hi apareixen també referències a terres que diversos pagesos tenien a cens, però la comptabilitat és bàsicament la de la torre central i, sobretot, els seus molins. Quina relació tenen aquests comptes amb el mas català? Crec que l'administració directa d'aquesta propietat ha de ser força similar a la que devia tenir un mas coetani. Cal tenir present que els comptes ens mostren com la torre tenia camps que treballava directament, així com hort i aviram i bestiar que criava per a l'autoconsum i la venda. Era, des d'aquesta perspectiva, una "unitat d'explotació agrària", definició bàsica del mas. Com que no es conserven massa comptabilitats de masies medievals, crec que aquests comptes de la torre són una oportunitat extraordinària per veure el funcionament d'una explotació agrària, independentment que aquesta, a més, pogués comptar amb drets jurisdiccionals o d'altra mena sobre altres masies i terres, dels quals, d'altra banda, la font no n'ofereix cap referència.

Mark of Vysoká chamberlain to King Louis II was sent on a mission to the Ottoman Empire in 1517. His aim was to meet Prince Süleyman, son of Sultan Selim, and if possible also meet the imprisoned Hungarian envoy Barnabas Béley. Mark and his group achieved the aim of their mission in a short time – after 19 days of travel. He kept a detailed record of his stay in the city of Edirne and return journey, but only three fragments survive today. The study presents an analysis of the historical context of the mission and an edition of the surviving fragments of Mark’s record of the journey.

L’étude codicologique et paléographique des comptes des collecteurs pontificaux des provinces ecclésiastiques d’Arles, d’Aix et d’Embrun entre 1274 et 1406 est permise par la conservation de 41 registres aux Archives secrètes du Vatican. L’analyse du papier ou des écritures permet de comprendre la culture comptable des agents de la fiscalité pontificale. Dès le xiiie siècle, une culture commune et stable s’observe. L’élaboration de la comptabilité s’effectue localement par les collecteurs, mais aussi à la Chambre où les documents sont recopiés. L’étroite surveillance des comptes témoigne aussi d’une construction administrative déjà bien élaborée au xive siècle et qui se normalise.

The preservation at the Vatican Secret Archives of 41 registers allows the codicological and palaeographical study of papal collectors'accounts for the ecclesiastical provinces of Arles, Aix and Embrun between 1274 and 1406. Analysing the materials and writings allows us to understand the accounting culture of papal fiscal officers, which appears stable and unified from the 13th century. Accounting is done both locally by the collectors and at the Camera, where the documents are copied. The close surveillance the accounts are under also goes to show how elaborate and regulated the fiscal administration was as early as the 14th century.

In Eastern Normandy at the end of the Middle Ages, the preserved accountings appear like general or final accountings. Held in ‘simple part’, these countable registers for which we preserve important series from 14th to 16th centuries, present a structural and rhetoric uniformity who question historians about accountings practices and genesis. From the studies of incipit registers, accountings vocabulary and marginal mentions, these accounts allow to inferred considerations about the accounting year, the collectors and the silent partner as well as the countable process filiation (structure, vocabulary, recording mechanism, etc.) : so many elements which finally question the registers uses and the collectors and seigniorial expectations.

At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the especially detailed accounts of the Chambéry toll (Savoy, France) sometimes bear a sketch of the merchants’marks that were drawn on the balls, to justify their exemption from the toll rights. This corpus of about sixty different marks offers an insight into their formal typology (the cross, its support, and letters of the alphabet are the main recurring graphical elements), but also their evolution, and even in one exceptional case the similar graphical features of a merchant’s mark and another identification device, his signature. A series of letters, linked to the accounts and requesting exemption from the toll rights, sheds further light on the wide range of practical uses of the merchants’ marks.