Metadata: County Archive of Vic
Collection
- Country:
- Spain
- Holding institution:
- Episcopal Archive and Library of Vic
- Holding institution (official language):
- Arxiu i Biblioteca Episcopal de Vic
- Postal address:
- Carrer Santa Maria 1. 08500 Vic
- Phone number:
- +34 938 894 432
- Web address:
- http://www.abev.net
- Email:
- abev@abev.net
- Reference number:
- ABEV AVV 10.1
- Title:
- County Archive of Vic
- Title (official language):
- Arxiu de la Vegueria de Vic
- Creator/accumulator:
- Vegueria Archive of Vic
- Date note:
- 13th-14th century
- Language:
- Latin
- Extent:
- 140 linear metres
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The Vegueria (feudal administrative-territorial jurisdiction) of Vic Archive was the judicial administration between the 13th and 19th centuries. Despite being a very large fonds, with about 140 linear meters of documentation, the presence of Jews in matters related to judicial practices in Vic is not very abundant. In the AVV, they are present in debt acknowledgements, curia books, and trials, due to the volume of credit activity with which they were involved.
Debt acknowledgements (ABEVAVV10.1.1.3.1.1, 1314-1847 with a documentary gap 1347-1379, 66 items): The property and jurisdictional administration of the Vegueria of Osona included the management of personal and property rights. Documents such as receipts or debt acknowledgements were guaranteed and overseen by the Vegueria, as it was declaring certain rights to property or people and this documentation could have an effect on judicial activity. One of the oldest series collects debt acknowledgements in different locations of the Vegueria. Within the series some books are dedicated to debts of different individuals to certain people, institutions, or groups. Two volumes are kept exclusively for acknowledgements of debts to Jews, corresponding to the year 1334 (ABEV, AVV/211) and to the almost complete period of 1340-1342 (ABEV, AVV/218).
Curia Books (10.1.01.01.01, 1297-1826, 152 items). This is the main series in the collection. In the curia books or court records, the scribe noted all the appearances and facts that were important for the administration of the curia in the form of registration. In these books, diverse documentary types that reflect the day-to-day court activity can be found. Curia books have been preserved from another AVV collection called Vegueria and Batllia of Vic (ABEV AVV 10.1.50.01, 39 items, 1318-1571), which records acknowledgements of debts of Vic residents under the jurisdiction of the Malla family, as well as other entries and documentation derived from the jurisdiction.
Proceedings (ABEV AVV10.1.01.02.04,1300-1850): Set of proceedings from the jurisdiction exercised by the Vegueria of Osona, the Vegueria of Vic, and the Corregiment of Vic and locations that depended on them. Its large size takes up most of the AVV fonds. This subgroup includes civil and criminal proceedings and peace and truce proceedings. This part of the collection has not been described at the level of unit of description.
- Archival history:
- In 1931, in one of the rooms located in the cloister of the Cathedral, Dr. Juyent annexed the Vegueria of Vic Archive to the collection of the ecclesiastical archives concentrated around the cathedral. These rooms were occupied by the Episcopal Museum, of which Dr. Juyent was a curator, until the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). During the War, the fonds was moved to the unoccupied Round Chapel (Capella de la Rodona), and around 1950 was transferred to its current location in the cathedral cloister.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The collection of the Vegueria Archive of Vic (Arxiu de la Vegueria de Vic, AVV) is an important part of the Episcopal Archive and Library of Vic. The Vegueria of Osona was the institution that had royal jurisdiction in the territory over which it presided. The Osona veguer was an official appointed by the king; he was the highest royal authority within the Vegueria. Next was the veguer's court, made up of subordinate officials: a judge, an advisor, a scribe, a notary, and asaig. The collection contains the documentation produced by the veguer's curia and the administrative structure that succeeded it. It contains a very complete series of manuals and proceedings of the curia of the royal administration in the Vegueria of Osona.
The Vegueria Archive shared the fate of the Vegueria court and was distributed into different buildings. From the extinction of the Vegueries until 1931, the archive was placed in the attic of the Clariana House in Vic in precarious conditions that contributed to the deterioration of the fonds; it was then moved to the ABEV. In the 1950s, the first major archival organization took place, which has continued to this day.
- System of arrangement:
- The ordering criterion of the collection is chronological from the date cases came before the court.
- Access, restrictions:
- Free access regulated by the current legal environment on access to Spanish historical archives (law 16/1985 of Spanish Historical Patrimony). Researchers can access private documents that are part of the documentary heritage, respecting the general limits to the right of access established by law (Catalan law 10/2001 of archives and documents).
- Finding aids:
- Data on the collection are available at the website of the Episcopal Archive of Vic. There are two search options: by hierarchical query through classification scheme or by words or combination of words. Civil proceedings are in the process of description and computerisation.
- Links to finding aids:
- http://www.abev.net/arxiu.html
- Yerusha Network member:
- Spanish National Research Council
- Author of the description:
- Irene Llop Jordana; UVic-UCC; April 2021
