Majorque

réf. ABC_48001 — 1337. Small folio 21.8 x 30.2 cm. Stored in a custom-made half purple morocco case. The leaf is folded lenghtwise into two columns. 1 ll. An account of expenses incurred for the maintenance of the royal falcons of King Jaime III of Mallorca: "Aquastas són les masions fetas per los falcons del senyor rey. Primerament donam a 1 hom quils anà aspiar 3 s. 6. Ãtem per altra dia quils anà traura 20 s. Ãtem donam a 1 fadrí ab 1a bístia qui portà la exàrsia 2 s. Ãtem donam a 2 hòmons qui anaren ab nós con anam traura los falcons 4 s. Ãtem despenguem a vianda 13 s. 2. Ãtem costaren 2 pols que donam a manjar als falcons antra 2es vaguadas 22 d. Ãtem donam a 1 hom qui portà als falcons a la ciutat 5 s. Ãtem costà 1a bèstia en què anà cavalcant lo batla con anà traura los falcons 1 s. 6. Ãtem costà 1a senalla an quà vangueran los falcons 7 d. Suma per totas las ditas masions 51 s. 7 d.".The document is not dated. A note in the margin much later indicates the year 1337 which could be the year the account was written.Written in Mallorcan a dialectal variant of Catalan in a scribal hand on cotton paper manufactured in Mallorca by Arab paper makers. Under Muslim rule from 903 until 1229 Mallorca "Mayurqa" had formed one of the Eastern Islands of al-Andalus "al-jaza’ir al-sharqiya li-l-andalus". The art of papermaking long mastered by the Arabs had reached the southern Spain only in the 12th century through the Muslim conquest at a time when most of western Europe still favoured vellum as a writing material. The Arab tradition of papermaking is still evident in this early 14th century insular specimen.An extraordinarily rare survival in excellent state of preservation. hardcover