Metadata: Notarial fonds
Collection
- Country:
- Spain
- Holding institution:
- Moià Historical Archive
- Holding institution (official language):
- Arxiu Històric Moià
- Postal address:
- Rafael de Casanova Street 8. 08180 - Moià
- Phone number:
- +34 938 300 143
- Web address:
- http://www.arxiu.moia.cat
- Email:
- arxiu@arxiu.moia.cat
- Reference number:
- AHM/Fons notarials: Notaris de Moià
- Title:
- Notarial fonds
- Title (official language):
- Fons notarials
- Creator/accumulator:
- Notaries from Moià
- Date(s):
- 1283/1312
- Language:
- Latin
- Extent:
- 10 volumes
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection is part of the notarial registers of Moià from the Moià Historical Archive. The fonds is arranged in the following series: books of wills; inventory books; marriage contract books; rubric books (a specific genre of notarial logbook, the “llibres de rubrica” (Catalan) included compilations of documents); unidentified anonymous or fragments; notaries of Moià; foreign notaries; miscellaneous and documentation of notaries of Moià preserved in other archives.
The presbyters and priests of Moià acted as notaries. The ten logbooks preserved between 1283 and 1312 correspond to the presbyters Guillem Mercader, Arnau de Torrent, Guillem de Soler and Bernat de Sant Feliu. In the same archive there are ten volumes of common books of notaries that have not been identified (1292-1318).
The town of Moià, located in the interior of Catalonia, was an important center of local trade in medieval Catalonia, highlighting the celebration of a renowned trade fair on August 11, which was held beginning in 1154. Moià’s location in central Catalonia facilitated communication, and therefore commerce, with other towns and cities, including with their Jewish communities.
The records books of the notarial office of Moià preserved since 1287 show that despite not having its own Jewish community, there was an active presence of outside Jews at the end of the 13th century. This presence was connected to the trading fair that was held there. The visit to Moià of Jews Baró Vidal, from Cardona, and Isaac Cap, from Granollers, was to make loans, but mainly to collect previous loans from defaulting debtors (who often paid the guarantors) as well as to appoint legal representatives to collect these loans. This collection is a good example of the itinerant activity of the Jews, who, despite being settled in a population, moved around the territory specifically to be paid their credits, and is evidence of the temporary establishment of Jewish families in small populations without a Jewish community.
- Archival history:
- The Moià Historical Archive was created in 1936, when documents from various sources were deposited in Can Casanova to preserve them from the destruction of the first moments of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). No further additions of documents are expected.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The Moià Historical Archive is located in the ground floor of the Birthplace of Rafael Casanova (1660-1743), a lawyer, jurist, politician, and military figure who played a prominent role in the War of Spanish Succession (1702-1715). The building is currently the seat of the Museum of Moià, the Museum of Rafael Casanova, the Municipal Historical Archive and the Archaeological and Paleontological Museum of Moià.
The Museum of Moià was created in 1997 because of the merger of the old Museum-Regional Archive of Moià (1935) and the Archaeological Museum (1954). The archive currently holds the historical documentation of the municipal archive of Moià (1840-1975), as well as different collections of individuals, companies, institutions, and entities of the population. Notarial Collection, with volumes from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries and almost 1200 parchments (ninth to eighteenth centuries) and the collections of the old Community of Presbyters of the church of Moià (fifteenth to twentieth centuries) are particularly interesting. The archive therefore includes civil and ecclesiastical documentation from the tenth to the nineteenth centuries. It should be noted that in 1839, the town suffered a fire during the first Carlist war (1833-1840), and many documents were burned.
- Access points: locations:
- Cardona
- Granollers
- Manresa
- Moià
- Vic
- System of arrangement:
- The collection is made up of 10 volumes arranged chronologically.
- Access, restrictions:
- Unrestricted access regulated by the current legal environment on access to historical archives (law 16/1985 of Spanish Historical Patrimony and Catalan law 10/2001 of archives and documents).
- Finding aids:
- The summary guide can be found on the archive website, and in the list of notarial fonds, each sub-fonds has a link to its specific list.
- Links to finding aids:
- http://arxiu.moia.cat/fons_notarial_Notaris.php
- Yerusha Network member:
- Spanish National Research Council
- Author of the description:
- Irene Llop Jordana; UVic-UCC; April 2020
