Now when I first worked on this document, I was interested in the conquest story that these people were being made to tell, because it really isn't true. Although the endowment charters of both Sant Joan de Ripoll (now known as Sant Joan de les Abadesses) and its sister monastery of Santa Maria downriver have been messed about with, one of the reasons we know there's some truth in them is because they record the people that Guifré had bought the relevant lands from—bought, not violently conquered. That has to be contemporary, because by 913 as you can see a different story was already being told. And a charter from 880 records a separate donation to Santa Maria, Sant Joan and Sant Pere de Ripoll, this being several years before those endowments and thus making it clear to us that there were going churches before the count put his daughter in as 'primus homo'. And you can read about all that in the paper, which is these days online for free from my website (whose publication pages are even up to date at the time of writing). All of which made me think, and still makes me think, that actually what's going on is that people are dubious about a woman being given these rights, and so her brothers turn up and lose to her in court so as to make it official and written, proven and established. This sort of case is not unknown and is usually called a Scheinprozess, 'false trial'.

But then for my thesis, I went on to go into the question of who the people were and what they owed to Emma that meant she could call on so many people to swear untruths for her, and that in turn led me deep into the question of how the document had actually come to be written, which turned out to be very complex, and made me feel very clever when I worked it out. Unfortunately the word count is a harsh mistress. Lots has to go from the thesis as I convert it into a book, with new material as well making the pressure worse. So the extreme cleverness, because it is in the thesis to be referred to, and because I will almost certainly use it elsewhere when trying to show that charters are complex documents as I tend to do, has had to go. But I lament it, and want to show off. And, as has been said before, this blog is for nothing if not me showing off, so...

493 people is a lot of names. They're mostly in pairs, too, one man one woman, which makes it seem that whole families were being sworn, not including children presumably but basically everyone of legal age in the Vall de Sant Joan, in twenty-one different subordinate hamlets, some of which had forty-odd people and one only two. So did they all roll up at the abbey and the scribe, whose name was Garsies, write them down as they identified themselves? It would have taken days, and in fact we can show that he did not do this. Instead, he had lists, and we know this because he shows every sign of having been unable to read them properly. We can tell because once the names of those present are listed, the matter of the oath is stated, and then their names are given again, and there are errors between the two sets. (There's also quite a lot of people gone or added, but I'll come on to that in a minute.) Once you lay them out next to each other in a table it's pretty clear. For example, in the first set of names there is the meaningless "Aiorazel", but the equivalent set in the actual swearers is "Aione. Razel" which makes rather more sense. So were the second set being given to Garsies out loud? No. There is also, in the first set of names, one "Imitara". Lovely name, but not real; in the signatures, though, she's called "Marcia". How does Garsies manage that? Well, this is the second Marcia signing for that hamlet, so I think that what was on Garsies's list was "item Marcia", 'another Marcia'. Therefore both exemplars must have been written Latin ones. (This was roughly the point at which I felt clever.)

I think in fact they may well have been the same exemplars, but the second time the people who wrote them could tell Garsies what they said. All the same, some updating had gone on. 474 people are listed as swearing; 498 sign, and they're not all the same people; seven people had gone, and apparently thirty more arrived. Children growing up and adults dying off? Possibly, but how long a timeframe are we stretching Garsies's work over? More likely that a lot of this movement is migration, into and out of the monastery's valley as opportunity beckoned or disappeared. But Garsies's work did carry on, because five more names of signatories are later added between the witnesses, who must presumably have been recorded beforehand or else why would these people not be where they should be on the page? So that's an update. And then six more further down in a different ink, another update. I honestly think that after that there just wasn't room to add any more, or Garsies died. Because it does seem to have been important that it be him; he didn't write anything else that survives, never turns up in another document and the nunnery had a kind of chief notary called Gentiles who did most of their charters, including the partner document to this in which Miró's representative foreswore his master's disproven rights. So Garsies was dragged in several times to keep this unique record going, and was therefore a man of some special status I can't describe more fully.

[I wish I had an image of this document I could post here. I'm getting in touch with the ACA asking for a facsimile, and if and when it arrives I'll back-form it in here.]

But the point is, this is an original document. It's got autograph signatures by the witnesses (though not by the people swearing the oath—given that all their names were on lists, were they ever there altogether?) and everything, the script is contemporary and lots of other things. Any diplomatist would have to call this both authentic and original. And this helps you not at all, because when you look into it and investigate it properly, you find that it was done on at least four separate occasions (first list, second list/witnessing, extra names one, extra names two), that the occasion it records probably never happened as recorded, and that the oath these people may or may not have sworn is a lie. The lesson here is, words like 'original' and 'authentic' don't mean a damn thing.

Divendres, 2 de maig de 2008.

Finalment em vaig decidir. La ruta del ferro que uneix Ripoll i Sant Joan o Sant Joan i Ripoll ja no és una autèntica desconeguda. Després d'anys de la seva inauguració, anys després que l'antiga via de tren s'hagi convertit en una via verda, jo en vaig fer un tros a peu, fins al tennis i ens vam desviar cap al pantà de cal gat. Ho sé, m'hauria de caure la cara de vergonya [llegir amb la màxima entonació xava [mauríaðakaúralakaraðaβarγóɲa], no recordo si seria així la transcripció...]. Però finalment l'he fet. No tot, un tros. Però de la nit al dia ha deixat de ser una desconeguda que només espio des de la carretera. Ara, ja sé què hi ha, les fotos i les imatges de vídeo quedaran en un segon pla, les imatges del meu record en un primer.

Via verda, recomanada. Millor entre setmana i ben d'hora al matí. Sinó pot recordar les rambles de Barcelona un dia de Sant Jordi.

The town of Sant Joan de les Abadesses, as it now is, which stands just along the Ter valley from what is now bustling industrial Ripoll, is far tinier and very very focussed on its tourism industry. As well as Emma, who is remembered here, they make great play with the legend of Comte Arnau, a legendary evil ruler who is supposed to have abducted the abbess and caused the nunnery to collapse as a result. As I mentioned before, Comte Arnau was not real, and the real story of the nunnery's dissolution is actually even more messy, but I can't blame them for running with it, any more than I do Nottingham for making the most of Robin Hood. It did mean that a lot of their stuff also has nuns on it, but worryingly racy nuns, with visible ankles as they run through cloisters and so on.

So yup: this is the cloister through which they would have run:

The actual abbey, and its attached museum which is rather nice, are extremely small. The nuns and priests must have lived elsewhere in the town, or else, when this thirteenth-century building was done for the Augustinian canons who were by then the occupants, the whole thing was just a smaller concern. This is almost entirely belied by the church to which the cloister is attached, which is a fine example of a particular Catalan architectural theme, squeezing maximum geometrical splendour onto a fairly small ground footprint:

Here, I believe, the building is late eleventh-century. Still not the church Emma would have known, but probably its immediate replacement. Inside it's a vast-seeming space that's actually quite closely bounded, but the massive pillars in the nave, of which there are only two, make it seem as if there is actually much more that simply can't be seen all at once, and the transept and apsidioles hide small devotional foci that, indeed, you can't see from the main space, like this one to Guifré:

And this church wasn't even where the people of the town worshipped. It may have been, when first built, but the canons and monks who variously replaced the nuns thought better of their seclusion and instead sent the plebs to a new church, of Sant Joan and Sant Pol (John and Paul—Ringo and George were presumably commemorated at Santa Maria), through this very door here:

Unfortunately, due to an earthquake in 1429, going through that door now doesn't get you very much...

And after that, the monastery being long gone by then anyway, they let people back into the abbey church. But back over there, or wherever she is actually buried, Emma had rested sound through the whole thing and you can still sort of meet her there:

Salute, domina. Gratiam tibi debeo.

Opina sobre aquesta qüestió al Fòrum pobles de Sant Joan de les Abadesses.

Roqué i Nadal no estan d'acord amb l'ús del Palmàs?

Article publicat a ElRipollès.info (31/01/2008)

La història del Palmàs

El Palmàs és un edifici amb història. I és que va ser la casa natal de Jaume Nuné i Roca, santjoaní cèlebre per guanyar el concurs internacional de composició de l'himne de Mèxic. Precisament, en els jardins d'aquest edifici hi ha instal·lat un monument per commemorar l'agermanament amb la població mexicana de San Luís de Potosí, on va néixer l'autor de la música de l'himne.

L'anterior equip de govern va iniciar el projecte per instal·lar-hi la biblioteca. De fet, es va acabar la primera fase d'adequació de la façana i del pati. Posteriorment, el canvi en l'equip de govern va paralitzar les obres ja que en el programa del PSC s'hi va incloure la seva conversió en casal d'avis. Aquest fet va suposar segons l'anterior alcaldessa Elisabet Regué la pèrdua d'una subvenció de 600.000 euros de la Generalitat i la Diputació. En declaracions a ElRipollès.info ha afirmat: "ens diuen que l'Ajuntament està arruïnat, però el problema l'han creat ells en demanar crèdits per tornar subvencions que havíem aconseguit".

La diferència entre els documents de Joaquim Nadal i Ramon Roqué ha provocat avui que, encara que anecdòticament, l'ús del Palmàs hagi estat de nou motiu de controvèrsia.

Joaquim Nadal i Ramon Roqué firmen el conveni. Foto: Arnau Urgell/ElRipollès.info

El conseller de Política Territorial i Obres Públiques (DPTOP) ha firmat a Sant Joan de les Abadesses el conveni per a la reforma integral de la Vila Vella. Aquesta actuació, amb un total de 3,14 milions d'euros està inclosa en la darrera convocatòria de la Llei de Barris. Un instrument legislatiu que Nadal ha qualificat de "radicalment municipalista" i que arribarà enguany als 1.000 milions d'euros invertits en un centenar de municipis. En el cas de Sant Joan Nadal considera que servirà per "polir un diamant en brut" ja que el patrimoni, la història i les potencialitats del centre de la població són molt importants.

Corresponsabilització i multiplicació

La Llei de barris es basa en dos principis. Per una banda la corresponsabilització ja que el pressupost s'aporta a parts iguals (1,5 milions d'euros) pel DPTOP i per l'Ajuntament i també amb la participació veïnal per a l'execució dels projectes. D'altra banda, aquesta llei "radicalment municipalista" esdevé una "bola de neu" segons Nadal ja que permet un efecte multiplicador amb la participació d'altres departaments -programes de salut, treball, habitatge...- i dels privats. En aquest sentit considera que "no és una operació de maquillatge sinó de renovació global".

Actuacions en quatre eixos

L'alcalde Ramon Roqué ha explicat els principals eixos del projecte que es desenvoluparà els propers quatre anys. Per una banda equipaments com el casal d'avis al Palmàs o el projecte Terra de Comtes al Palau de l'Abadia. En segon lloc els elements de caràcter urbanístic, com l'arranjament de places i carrers o la creació del Parc de la muralla. Finalment, els projectes de desenvolupament econòmic i cohesió social així com la rehabilitació d'edificis.

Nadal firma en el llibre d'honor de Sant Joan amb presència de l'equip de govern.

Roqué també ha volgut destacar el paper dels anteriors alcaldes que van impulsar un Pla especial per a la Vila Vella (Gerard Costa i Josep Bassagaña) mentre que amb Elisabet Regué al capdavant del consistori es va optar a la convocatòria finalment concedida. Tanmateix, l'actual alcalde no ha fet referència a la seva posició en el ple extraordinari en el qual es va aprovar el projecte. En aquell moment va considerar que s'actuava amb "masses presses" i que si no es concedia l'ajut es "llençarien a les escombraries els dos milions de pessetes de l'estudi".

Escolta a Ramon Roqué (16''): assegura que amb les millores de la Vila Vella aquest barri serà un dels més emblemàtics del país (ACN).