Metadata: Historical Collection
Collection
- Country:
- Spain
- Holding institution:
- Municipal Archive of Avila
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archivo Municipal of Avila
- Postal address:
- Calle Lope Nuñez. Palacio de los Verdugo. 05001 - Avila
- Phone number:
- +34 920 354 000
- Web address:
- http://www.avila.es
- Email:
- archivo@ayuntavila.com
- Reference number:
- ES.5019. AM/1.11
- Title:
- Historical Collection
- Title (official language):
- Fondo historico
- Creator/accumulator:
- City council of Avila
- Date(s):
- 1100/1807
- Language:
- Spanish; Castilian
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The historical collection of the Municipal Archive of Avila contains documents produced and received by the Avila city council. The medieval documentation ranges from the reign of Alfonso X to that of Isabel and Fernando. The type of documentation is varied (royal privileges, letters granting power of representation, judicial sentences, royal orders, letters granting protection, agreements), and its contents give us details of everyday life in Avila between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries: franchises and exemptions granted to the knights of Avila, municipal land borders, execution of wills, appointments to positions (“corregidor”, notaries, scribes, treasurer), contributions (donations), payments for purchases and services, prohibitions of gambling, tax payments, salaries of city council officials, information about the War of Castilian Succession (1475-1479), reluctance of the city council to help paying the expenses of the Brotherhood (rural police funded by city councils), etc.
Concerning Jews, the documents contain information about both individuals and the local Jewish Aljama. In 1475, the Royal Treasurer empowered Yoel Açamahas to take charge of collecting, in his name, the taxes that Enrique IV imposed on Avila. That same year, Sento Aceron and Çaçon Aru were appointed to collect the sales tax for cloth. Although the city council and, consequently, the Aljama had forbidden money lending, under penalty of punishment by excommunication, in 1475 the city council rejected this provision because some residents needed loans badly. After that, Jews were allowed to lend as long as the interest did not exceed that established by local ordinances. It was also forbidden for the city council to request clothes from (i.e. impose a form of taxation on) Jews and Muslims. Isaque Tamaño presented a proposal to the city council offering to represent the Jewish Aljama, though the Aljama attorney in the 1470s was Abraham Sevillano, who had been in charge of presenting before the Royal Council the previous petition that the city council of Avila would not take clothes and candles from Jews. In 1479, a similar request was again presented. In 1478, the city council requested information regarding all the complaints from Jews and Muslims of the city. In 1479, Sento Abenhabib, the Aljama delegate, requested that the second payment of the third of the contribution be omitted. Isabel and Fernando, rulers of Castile, forbade Jews to judge their own causes. In 1480, the King ordered that the Aljama be exempted from taxes and charges, except for the “servicio y medio servicio.” In the 1480s, the Aljama also protested the prohibition on Jews wearing silk and jewels, saying that they had been robbed due to this law. There is documentation related to debts, such as the deferral of payments. Likewise, the summons of individuals who had not made a payment was ordered, as was the case with a debt owed to Yuda Caro. In 1483, at the petition of Ysaque Bechacho, it was required that appropriate sanitary conditions be maintained in the Jewish quarter. That same year, in relation to segregation measures, it was forbidden to change the limits of the Jewish quarter. In 1488, the city council requested information about the legal customs of Jews and Muslims of the city. In 1492, a royal order was issued regarding the protection of Jews after the La Guardia affair [a case of blood libel].
Finally, information regarding the expulsion decree of 1492 has been kept at the archive: royal permission to the Jews to sell their goods before departure and an insurance letter granting safe passage to Jews leaving Castile and Aragon. There is also information about the property of the Jewish Aljama, for example, a tombstone of the Jewish cemetery was transferred to the Santo Tomas Monastery. Beginning in 1498, an order prohibited practicing Jewish rites and established the death penalty to whoever was discovered doing so. There is also documentation related to the return of Jews converted to Christianity; in particular, there are claims requesting the payment of debts left before their departure.
- Archival history:
- The historical documentation of the city council of Avila is preserved in two places: in the city hall itself, under the heading “Fondo Historico”, and in the Provincial Historical Archive of Avila, in the “Seccion Ayuntamiento”, also known as “Documentacion antigua”. Several documentary fonds were transferred to the Provincial Historical Archive of Avila in order to solve the lack of space and provide better organization.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The municipal city council of Avila was the public institution that produced or received the documents contained in this collection.
- Subject terms:
- Aljama (Jewish)
- Antisemitism
- Antisemitism--Antisemitic measures
- Blood libel
- Cemeteries
- Cemeteries--Gravestones
- Clothing
- Conversion to Christianity
- Expulsion
- Financial matters
- Financial matters--Debt
- Financial matters--Moneylending
- Jewish quarters
- Legal matters
- Plunder
- Privileges
- Taxation
- Access, restrictions:
- Free access regulated by the current legal environment on access to Spanish historical archives (law 16/1985 of Spanish Historical Patrimony).
- Finding aids:
- Data on the collection are available at the website of the Spanish National Archives (PARES).
- Links to finding aids:
- https://pares.culturaydeporte.gob.es/inicio.html
- Yerusha Network member:
- Spanish National Research Council
- Author of the description:
- Marina Girona Berenguer; ILC, CSIC; December 2019
