Metadata: Cathedral of Avila
Collection
- Country:
- Spain
- Holding institution:
- National Historical Archive
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archivo Historico Nacional
- Postal address:
- Calle Serrano 115. 28006 - Madrid
- Phone number:
- +34 91 768 85 00
- Email:
- ahn@cultura.gob.es
- Reference number:
- ES.28079.AHN/3.2.1.3
- Title:
- Cathedral of Avila
- Title (official language):
- Catedral de Avila
- Creator/accumulator:
- Cathedral chapter of Avila
- Date(s):
- 1100/1900
- Language:
- Spanish; Castilian
- Extent:
- 139 files; 21 boxes; 85 volumes
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The “Clero” Section of the National Historical Archive in Madrid contains documents of the cathedral of Avila. The medieval documents have different call numbers (most common are “Clero” and “Codices”) and they include royal privileges and grants; property sales and leases; obligations and debts.
Information concerning Jews is preserved from the 12th century up to the end of the 15th century; its content is varied. There is information regarding the payment of the annual rent to the Crown; privileges granted to the Jews of Avila; lawsuits between Christians and Jews; sales of real estate such as houses, land plots, or mills; obligations and reimbursement of debts; payments to the cathedral chapter’s Jewish physicians; appointment of arbitrators; rents; royal orders to contribute to the War against the Muslims, etc. Individuals who had been granted a privilege were tax exempt. There is also information regarding orphans’ guardianship, inheritance and marriage, and intra-familial transfer of properties. Other subjects included professions of Jews such as cloth merchants, gold and silver smiths, and cattle traders. Once the expulsion edict was published, Jews sold and transferred the property they had rented from the cathedral chapter. As the documents show, after the expulsion, the monarchs made grants to monasteries and convents of the city of estates and assets that had belonged to Jews and appointed a judge to supervise the assets left by the Jews. Finally, there is information about anti-Jewish measures that banned entry of descendants of Jews into religious orders.
The “Libro de Rentas del Cabildo” (Income Book of the Cathedral Chapter) is preserved in this collection. It contains information not only about Avila, but also about other nearby cities such as Arevalo, Madrigal and Olmedo. The Jews of Avila had to pay a tithe that was part of the income of the cathedral chapter.
Finally, there are also codices such as the “Becerro de las Visitaciones de Casas y Heredades de la Catedral de Avila” (Book of Inspectors of Houses and Properties of the Cathedral of Avila), a register of the cathedral chapter of Avila from 1303. It provides information about the properties of the cathedral chapter at the beginning of the fourteenth century (including around 326 houses and 380 other properties), but also about the identity of the tenants who rented them, among which were Jews. In fact, several documents are signed in Hebrew. In this period, the areas where Jews carried out their everyday activities were in Mercado Mayor, Covaleda, Plaza de Santo Tome, Calle del Lomo, Yuradero, Rua de los Zapateros, Iglesia de El Salvador, Caldeandrin, and Mercado Chico. Information is also provided on neighboring tenants, as well as the location of the synagogues, the Jewish cemetery, and the Jewish butcher shop. This codex also provides information about the professions of the Jews of Avila (silversmith, blacksmith, gunsmith, bookseller, jeweler, dyer, and goldsmith) and their participation in tax farming.
- Archival history:
- At the end of 1868, within the framework of the confiscation promoted by Mendizabal and by a Decree of the Ministry of Development, documents of the cathedral of Avila were transferred to Madrid. Later, they became part of the “Clero” Section of the National Historical Archive.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The origins of the cathedral chapter of Avila date from the beginning of the twelfth century. After Avila’s conquest by Alfonso VI, the cathedral chapter grew and acquired great influence. Later, its position became established, and its statutes were elaborated in 1250. The cathedral chapter of Avila had strong financial support.
- Subject terms:
- Antisemitism
- Cemeteries
- Expulsion
- Financial matters
- Financial matters--Debt
- Health and medical matters
- Health and medical matters--Physicians and nurses
- Jewish languages
- Jewish languages--Hebrew
- Jewish quarters
- Jewish-Christian relations
- Legal matters
- Marriage and divorce
- Orphans
- Plunder
- Privileges
- Professions
- Professions--Jewellers and goldsmiths
- Real estate
- Ritual slaughter
- Ritual slaughter--Butchers
- Synagogues
- Taxation
- Trade and commerce
- Trade and commerce--Clothing and textile trade
- Wills
- Access, restrictions:
- The access to the archive is free upon the presentation of an identification document. The consultation of the documents will be subject to the legal regulations in force regarding access and may be restricted depending on the documents’ state of preservation.
- 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
