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Escriure i mercadejar a la Baixa Edat Mitjana "Navigare necesse [est]..."

This article ties the expansion of the Mediterranean and Catalan prosperity to the growth, the changes and the maturing of the society in all aspects (politically, socially, culturally...) Two of the groups that illustrate the growth well and the changes that were taking place in Barcelona society are the craftsmen and craftswomen, liberal professionals and the merchants. The article relates the changes of the XIVth Century to the increase of the capacity to read and write of the men and women of these social groups. The books of accounts of two members of a Barcelona family of merchants and ships’s copyist of the XIVth Century, the Tarascó, are the testimony of the extension of “a functional” literacy, limited and closely together with the profession, work and religious practice. These and other private sources allow for the appreciation of the diffusion of writing. The people of the world of commerce and the sea are very conscious of the decisive value of writing not only for their professional activity, but also because it allows them to make note of, in order to be able, later on, to remember: desires, interests and preoccupations. The article, finally, offers a hypothesis of documentary genesis of books of mercantile accounts

© Acta historica et archaeologica mediaevalia, 2003, núm. 25, 727-743

Universitat de Barcelona. Facultat de Geografia i Història

Author: Varela-Rodríguez, M. Elisa
Date: 2003
Abstract: This article ties the expansion of the Mediterranean and Catalan prosperity to the growth, the changes and the maturing of the society in all aspects (politically, socially, culturally...) Two of the groups that illustrate the growth well and the changes that were taking place in Barcelona society are the craftsmen and craftswomen, liberal professionals and the merchants. The article relates the changes of the XIVth Century to the increase of the capacity to read and write of the men and women of these social groups. The books of accounts of two members of a Barcelona family of merchants and ships’s copyist of the XIVth Century, the Tarascó, are the testimony of the extension of “a functional” literacy, limited and closely together with the profession, work and religious practice. These and other private sources allow for the appreciation of the diffusion of writing. The people of the world of commerce and the sea are very conscious of the decisive value of writing not only for their professional activity, but also because it allows them to make note of, in order to be able, later on, to remember: desires, interests and preoccupations. The article, finally, offers a hypothesis of documentary genesis of books of mercantile accounts
Format: application/pdf
ISSN: 0212-2960
Document access: http://hdl.handle.net/10256/9101
Language: cat
Publisher: Universitat de Barcelona. Facultat de Geografia i Història
Collection: Reproducció digital del document publicat a: http://www.raco.cat/index.php/ActaHistorica/article/view/188910
Grup de Recerca en Estudis Culturals
Is part of: © Acta historica et archaeologica mediaevalia, 2003, núm. 25, 727-743
Rights: Tots els drets reservats
Subject: Comerciants -- Catalunya -- S.XIV
Merchants -- Catalonia -- 14th Century
Title: Escriure i mercadejar a la Baixa Edat Mitjana "Navigare necesse [est]..."
Type: info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Repository: DUGiDocs

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