Seven centuries protecting rights and disputes
In 1313, in the heart of the Middle Ages, a manuscript began to be compiled, destined to preserve something that could be worth as much as a fortune to the communities of the time: their rights.
The codex, linked to the Community of Villages of Teruel, brought together privileges and provisions granted during several reigns of the Crown of Aragon and ended up becoming an extraordinary X-ray of Teruel society.
Today, it preserves 170 folios and 107 legal acts, and its pages allow us to learn about decisions that directly affected daily life.
The manuscript was created on Hispano-Arabic paper and written in Aragonese Gothic script. Its pages contain texts in Latin and Castilian, and the documents come from different periods and were added over time to preserve the rights recognized for the communities.
Those leaves ended up forming a kind of legal memory that could be consulted whenever a dispute arose.
The content of the 1313 codex
The privileges of four kings
The pages gather provisions from various monarchs of the Crown of Aragon. Through these documents, the kings could grant or recognize certain rights and powers to the Teruel communities, as well as establish obligations or protect rights that had already been recognized for them. These documents, known as privileges, could therefore serve to record the concessions and rights granted by the Crown.
The preservation of these texts had a practical purpose, because when a dispute arose, having the privilege granted by a king could allow for demonstrating which rights had been recognized and who could exercise them.
Fines for homicide
Some documents deal with fines related to homicides and who had the right to receive them.
A financial penalty could represent a significant amount, and its collection was related to the authority that had the capacity to impose justice; determining who received that money allowed for clearly establishing a part of the existing jurisdictions within the territory.
Grazing rights
Livestock farming had an enormous weight in rural communities, and access to certain pastures could directly affect the resources of families and villages.
The preserved documents established usage rights and conditions of use. When two communities argued over a grazing area, a royal privilege could become the main evidence to defend a certain position.
Rules regulating markets
Markets were fundamental spaces for economic activity; merchants, buyers, and products from different places converged there.
The codex preserves provisions related to their organization and location, rules that helped determine how commercial activity should be conducted and which authority had jurisdiction over it.
Rules for butcher shops
The documentation also includes provisions related to butcher shops, which were essential establishments for the supply of the towns.
Their presence in the codex demonstrates that medieval regulation reached very specific activities of daily life. The sale and distribution of meat were subject to rules that were part of the economic organization of the communities.
The value of the Arcos salt mines
The Arcos salt mines also appear in the documentation, as salt was a resource of great economic importance during the Middle Ages, especially due to its use in preserving food.
Control of the salt mines generated rights and economic interests, and their presence among the preserved documents shows the importance that certain natural resources could reach within the territorial organization.
Loans and Jewish usury
The codex also contains references to Jewish usury, related to loans and economic operations.
Credit was part of medieval economic activity and could generate conflicts regarding interest, repayment conditions, and assumed obligations; the preserved provisions allow us to know how authorities intervened in these matters.
When a document could win a dispute
A royal privilege could retain its value for generations; if a conflict arose over land, pastures, markets, taxes, or economic rights, the document made it possible to demonstrate what the authority had granted.
For that reason, keeping these pages was fundamental for the communities: the codex functioned as a legal memory that gathered the rights that might be needed many years later.
