“Introduction to the Archive of the Crown of Aragon (documents in Latin to ca. 1350)”
3rd Mediterranean Studies Summer Skills Seminar (Online)
12—15 May 2020 • University of Colorado Boulder

Course overview
The Archive of the Crown of Aragon (ACA) in Barcelona contains one of the largest and richest archival collections relating to medieval Europe, comprising hundreds of thousands of documents, most from the twelfth to fifteenth centuries, and including financial records, royal letters, administrative documents, trial records, treaties, and many other genres. The documentation can be used for a whole range of topics including social, economic, political, institutional, gender, diplomatic, cultural and religious history. 
The territories of the Crown of Aragon included much of the Iberian Peninsula, parts of southern France, Sicily and southern Italy, parts of Tunisia and Greece, the Balearics, Sardinia and other Mediterranean islands. It had a large and diverse urban population, was highly integrated into Mediterranean and European trade systems, and had significant populations of Muslims and Jews. It developed one of the earliest and most robust chanceries of medieval Europe; the collections of which have weathered the vicissitudes of history all but intact. Much of the documentation has yet to be used by historians. The skills seminar will focus on the Latin-language documentation (from the eleventh to the mid-fourteenth centuries) in the archive’s collections.
This four-day intensive skills seminar will provide participants with an overview of the collections of the ACA, including access to online resources and reproductions, and focus on a hands-on introduction to reading unedited documents from a variety of the archive’s fonds.
Other topics will include: manuscript abbreviations, dating systems, place and personal names, and research resources and techniques. As much as possible the content will be catered to participants’ interests and needs. Medievalists of all disciplines, graduate students, and qualified undergraduate students, as well as library and archival professionals are encouraged to apply. 
The goal is to provides attendees with a solid preparation for conducting work remotely via the PARES web portal and on-site at the ACA. Participants will find the skills and techniques which the course focuses on useful not only at the Archive of the Crown but at other medieval archives across Spain and Europe.
This Summer Skills Seminar builds on the experience of earlier editions, which participants signaled as “transformative” in terms of their research, and which provided them with an opportunity to network and lay the foundations for future collaborations. For information and participant reviews of our former Skills Seminars (Ladino/Judezmo & Aljamiado).

Due to measures taken to reduce the danger of the current COVID pandemic, the University of Colorado Boulder has cancelled on-campus events through May 2020. Thus, this represents a slightly reduced online version of the Summer Skills Seminar originally planned, and will be held via ZOOM. Those who attend the 2020 Skills Seminar via ZOOM will have the option of also attending a fuller in-person, on-campus iteration of the skills seminar in May 2021, should this be held (for which we will be reading a different selection of documents).

Faculty
The course will be conducted by Prof. Brian A. Catlos (Religious Studies, CU Boulder). A graduate of the University of Toronto’s Centre for Medieval Studies (Phd, 2000) and now a historian of pre-Modern Spain and the Mediterranean, Catlos has been using the collections of the ACA since 1995, primarily for research into the social and economic history of the Crown of Aragon and Muslim-Christian-Jewish relations.

Cost
The cost of the course is: $1000 for Full Professors, Librarians,  Professionals, Independent Scholars; $750 for tenured Associates; $500 for non-tenured Associates and Assistants & Graduate and Undergraduate students; $350 for Adjuncts, Lecturers & Contingent faculty. Members of supporting University of Colorado departments are eligible for a 50% discount. The cost may be tax deductible.

Application & Information
Apply via this form. 
For further information or inquiries, contact Brian Catlos (brian.catlos@colorado.edu; subject: “Summer Skills Information”)
This program is organized by the CU Mediterranean Studies Group under the aegis of the Mediterranean Seminar and is made possible thanks to the support of the University of Colorado Boulder.

Program

Tuesday, 12 May 2020
Please sign on and test your connection betweem 9:30 and 9:50am.
10am-noon; 2:00-4pm (Mountain Time)
1.     The History & Structure of the Archive of the Crown of Aragon
a. Reading Practice (Chancery) 
b. History of the Archive
c. Structure and Scope of the Collection 
d. Themes of Research 
e. Indexes & Research Tools 
f. Introduction to PARES 
g. Using the archive in person 
2.     Pergaminos/Pergamins
a. Introduction to Royal Charters and Parchment Documents
b. Scope of the Fond
c. Themes of Research
d. Indexes & Research Tools
e. Reading practice (Pergamins & Chancery)

Wednesday, 13 May 2020
10am-noon; 2:00-4pm (Mountain Time)
1.     The Royal Chancery: The Registers
a. Introduction
b. Scope of the Fond
c. The Chancery Registers
d. Themes of Research
e. Indexes & Research Tools
f. Reading practice (Chancery)
2.     Structure and Content
a. Structure of the documents
b. Common Abbreviations
c. Reading practice (Chancery)

Thursday, 14 May 2020
10am-noon; 2:00-4pm (Mountain Time)
1.     Royal Letters
a. Introduction
b. The Cartes Reials Diplomàtiques
c. Structure
d. Themes of Research
e. Indexes & Research Tools
f. Reading practice (CRD & Chancery)
2.  When, Where, and Who?
a. Dates and dating
b. People
c. Places
d. Reading practice (Chancery)

Friday, 15 May 2020
10am-noon; 2:00-4pm (Mountain Time)
1.     Beyond the Chancery
a. Mestre Racional
b. Other Fonds (Varia, etc.)
c. Other Archives
d. Non-Latin Documents
e. Reading Practice (MR, Chancery)
2. Research techniques
a. Problems and Challenges
b. Research Techniques
c. Access to Originals and Reproductions editing
d. Reading Practice (Chancery)

Sample documents and transcriptions 
1)   ACA, C., reg. 139, f. 303v – transcription
2)    ACA, C., reg. 232, f. 80v–81r  – transcription
3)    ACA, C., reg. 304, f. 19r  – transcription