CREDITS AND CRITERIA

Coordination: Albert Reixach Sala

Research team: Alexandra Beauchamp, Miriam Cabré, Sadurní Martí, Pere Orti

Technical consultants: Massimiliano Grava, Estefania Domínguez

Credits

The base layers of the historical map were produced by the University of Girona's Servei de Sistemes d’Informació Geogràfica i Teledetecció Espacial [Geographical and Spatial Teledetection Information Systems Service] (SIGTE). They were created by combining information from various historical atlases applied to municipal templates from free-to-access sources on the Web of the three current principal states. For the territories of the Crown of Aragon and the definition of the changing boundaries of its constituent entities, Hurtado 1998 and Fatàs 1999 have been combined with the appendices from Sabaté 1997 and, with regard to the Valencian territory, Guinot 1995. The ancient domains of the counts of Toulouse and the rest of the territories of the Languedoc area have been represented following the model of Pélaquier 2009 (based in many aspects on Macé 2000). Katsura 1999 has been used in the specific case of identifying the extent of the domains of the lords of Montpellier, as well as a specific document from 1205 (Benito 2009: 114). For Aquitaine and other areas on the western side of the troubadour area, and for the new demarcations following the southern expansion of the French crown, Menant et al. 1999 has been used (with some additional information from Débax 2008). All content on Provence comes from Baratier-Duby-Hildesheimer 1969. Finally, specific information regarding the Italian peninsula has been taken from Luzzatto-Pedullà 2010, I: 27–40.

The available data on the courts of kings, counts, and other magnates was much more limited and vague compared to the principal territorial states. In fact, it is often problematic establishing the geographical extent of these institutions and converting this into map form. Various strategies have been employed to combat this. For the courts of the successive kings of Aragon, despite the diversity of studies and sources, these have been indicated with a sign on the towns and cities of royal patrimony where they spent the most time on their travels (Beauchamp 2009).

For the rest of the courts within their domains, in other words those of the various counts (Rosselló, Empúries, Pallars Sobirà, Pallars Jussà, Ribagorça and Urgell, and, in King Jaume II’s time, the mountains of Prades), the houses of viscounts with most continuity (Rocabertí, Bas, Cabrera, Castellbó, and —later on— Illa and Canet), and other preeminent aristocratic families (Cardona, Montcada), the classic synthesis by Sobrequés 1957 has been taken as a starting point. However, we only have cartographic representations of some of these aristocratic courts. We have used as a reference the overview of the mid-14th century situation from Hurtado 1998: 110 and, for the specific cases of the counts of Empúries, the counts of Urgell, the viscounts of Cabrera, and the viscounts of Castellbó, graphics like those in Conejo 2015: 58; Sabaté 1997: 478–79; Martínez 2015: 676, 679; and Sabaté 1997: 480–81. We have had to reconstruct the evolutions of the possessions of some of these families from partial maps with bibliographical information that has never been properly mapped out before. In the case of the Cardona family, for example, information has been garnered from Galera 2001 and Rodríguez Bernal 2009; and for the Montcada family, from Schideler 1987.

Also in the courts layer we have included houses to which Catalan troubadours, or troubadours from elsewhere, connected in some way with the Crown of Aragon, had ties. Worthy of note are the courts of the counts of Provence, which were, as is well known, headed until the 1240s by descendants of the house of the counts of Barcelona; those of the counts of Toulouse; and those of the counts of Foix. Also taken into consideration are the courts of the Trencavell family, the counts of Comminges, and the dauphins of Auvergne pre-1200, and the court of the counts of Rodez post-1200; in general it has not been possible to do much more than match the domains of the respective courts with the entities already defined in the mosaic of territories. Also included for more specific periods of time are the courts of the counts of Orange, Agoult, Savoy and Baux (viscounts of Marseilles), in the case of the latter thanks to information from Aurell 1989. With regard to the north of the Italian peninsula, only the courts of the dukes of Montferrat, the Malaspina family, the House of Este, and the Da Romano have been shown, based on Luzzatto-Pedullà 2010, I: 27–40.

In addition to all the works cited, the various layers of the digital map have been created with the assistance of several specialists who have provided bibliographical information and/or personal contributions: Matthieu Allingri, Vicent Baydal, Andreu Galera, Isabel Grifoll, Marco Grimaldi, Alejandro Martínez, Lluís Sales, Pere Verdés, and Oliver Vergés, as well as the members of the map team.

The census of troubadours with ties to the Catalan courts includes 119 entries, made possible thanks to the broad and systematic bibliography in Mariona Viñolas’ 2018 doctoral thesis. Basic information such as the chronology of events and areas of origin have been taken from the Bibliografia Elettronica dei Trovatori [Electronic Bibliography of the Troubadours] (BEdT), which is supplemented with certain details from Riquer (1975) and the most recent update from Guida i Larghi (2014).

The information on the courts (59 have been included) comes from a wider variety of sources. In addition to attempts at systematization like those of Paterson 1993: 91–100 and Vatteroni 2001: 353–98, the network of aristocratic Catalan courts beyond the royal court, as we explained, comes essentially from Sobrequés 2011. As for the place names mentioned by troubadours, we have used Chambers’ 1971 work on proper names in troubadour poetry, as well as the Concordances de l’Occitan Médiéval [Concordance of Medieval Occitan] (COM).

All the layers and files have been uploaded to an Esri web GIS viewer (http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html) from the creation of a user’s account linked to an academic institution. On the use of GIS applications, as well as for the initial commission of the historical base layers from SIGTE, we have been advised by Massimiliano Grava and Estefania Domínguez.

Criteria

For the labelling in the various layers, the following criteria have been followed. In general, place names have been given in the language of the area in question. So all those locations within the historical limits of the principality of Catalonia, of the counties of Rosselló and Cerdanya, and of the ancient kingdoms of Valencia and Majorca are given in Catalan, while those in the kingdoms of Aragon, Navarre, and other Hispanic realms in Spanish. Within the French state, Occitan has been used for places in Languedoc, Provence, Aquitaine, and other areas of the historical linguistic domains of Occitan (Xavier Lamuela has been the consultant in this respect). On the other hand, French has been used for those areas characterised by linguistic transition such as Franco-Provencal and for any location in the traditional area of the languages ‘d’oïl’.

In parallel with the labelling, the choice of colours for the graphic representation of each territory provides certain complementary information. Thus, domains or areas under the control of a single lord have been grouped together by showing them in varying graduations of the same colour depending on their level of dependence. Besides the independent entities each of which has its own colour, this criterion has been used to identify the possessions and areas under the sway of the dukes of Aquitaine, the counts of Toulouse, the royal house of Aragon, and the Trencavell family.

Albert Reixach