© Archivo de la Corona de Aragón, Consejo Supremo de Aragón, Legajo 247, 24.02.1654
- Language:
- 17th-century Spanish
- Place of origin:
- Spain (Madrid)
- Time of origin:
- 1654
- Transcription:
- “Señor,
Hasse visto en el Consejo un memorial que en nombre del Dr Jayme Juan Campí de Pauls advogado de pobres de las cárceles reales de la ciudad de Barcelona se ha presentado en el qual refiere son notorios a VMagd sus servicios y los de sus padres y hermano, haviendo muerto los mas dellos en el de VMagd de que consta por papeles que ha presentado; por lo qual y ser solar conocido el de su casa y haverse tratado los suios siempre como cavalleros, si bien por haverle saqueado su casa el enemigo no tiene presentes los papeles dello, supplica a VMagd le haga merced de Privilegios de Cavallerato y Nobleza sin perjuhicio de su pretendida milicia.
De los papeles que el supplicante ha presentado consta haver servido a VMagd él y sus hermanos y que ha padecido persecución y destierro de Cathaluña por los ministros de Francia y muchos trabajos y necessidades con su mujer e hijos y pareze al Consejo que por esta consideración es digno de recibir merced de VMd y que podría VMd servirse de hazérsela de cavallerato sin perjuihucio de su pretendida milicia.
VMagd mandará lo que fuere servido.”
- Translation:
- “Sir,
The Council has examined a memorial presented in the name of Dr. Jaume Joan Campí de Pauls, advocate for the poor of the royal prisons of the city of Barcelona. In it he states that his services, and those of his parents and brother, are well known to Your Majesty, most of them having died in Your Majesty’s service, as is shown by the papers he has submitted. For this reason, and because his house is of known lineage and his family members have always been treated as knights—although, since the enemy sacked his house, he does not presently have the papers proving this—he petitions Your Majesty to grant him privileges of knighthood and nobility, without prejudice to his claim to military rank.
From the papers submitted by the petitioner, it appears that he and his brothers have served Your Majesty, and that he has suffered persecution and exile from Catalonia at the hands of the ministers of France, as well as many hardships and needs with his wife and children. The Council therefore considers that, on this account, he is worthy of receiving a favor from Your Majesty, and that Your Majesty might be pleased to grant him knighthood, without prejudice to his claim to military rank.
Your Majesty will command whatever may best serve him.”
Additional Information:
The text is the petition of Dr Jaume Joan Campí de Pauls for privileges of knighthood and nobility. In a few lines, the Council of Aragon condenses claims about service, lineage, the loss of family papers, persecution, exile and poverty into an administrative judgement. Campí is deemed worthy of royal favour, and the final decision is channelled through the formula of the king’s will. As such, this example illustrates how early modern paperwork recorded political identity and shaped it through selection, abbreviation, and formulaic wording.
The related project in the Cluster documents produced by the Council of Aragon in post-rebellion Catalonia (1652-1700) are studied. It follows how memorials, consultas, epitomes, and lists compressed and re-expanded information, concerning especially labels of fidelity such as bueno, malo, malísimo, and francés. Methodologically, it combines close philological transcription with Transkribus, structured annotation, and AI-assisted classification with a relational database that preserves spans of evidence and the trajectories of individual people. The theoretical premise is that summarization operated as a technology of government: it was a way of making subjects legible, ranking their loyalty, and regulating access to office through writing.
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