Icons and Minor Arts: a Neglected Aspect of Trade between Romania and the Crown of Aragon PDF

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2012 · BAND 105 · HEFT 1 BYZANTINISCHE ZEITSCHRIFT SONDERDRUCK HERAUSGEBER Albrecht Berger, München WISSENSCHAFTLICHER BEIRAT Panagiotis Agapitos, Nicosia Bernard Flusin, Paris Geoffrey Greatrex, Ottawa lohn Haldon, Princeton Paul Magdalino, St Andrews Ingela Nilsson, Uppsala Juan Signes Codofier, V...

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2012 · BAND 105 · HEFT 1

BYZANTINISCHE ZEITSCHRIFT SONDERDRUCK

HERAUSGEBER

Albrecht Berger, München WISSENSCHAFTLICHER BEIRAT

Panagiotis Agapitos, Nicosia Bernard Flusin, Paris Geoffrey Greatrex, Ottawa lohn Haldon, Princeton Paul Magdalino, St Andrews Ingela Nilsson, Uppsala Juan Signes Codofier, Valladolid Claudia Sode, Köln Vlada Stankovic, Belgrad Vasiliki Tsamakda, Mainz Ioannis Vassis, Thessaloniki Niecola Zorzi, Padova

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DOI10.1515/bz·2012·0003 -

BZ 2012; 105(1): 29-52

Daniel Duran I Duelt

Icons and minor arts: a neglected aspect of trade between Romania and the crown of Aragon Abstract: Icons and furniture have been largely neglected by studies on trade between the Crown of Aragon and Romania. Only a small number of objects coming from Byzantium and other parts of Romania have survived to the present day, but documentary evidence from inventories shows us their relative abundance in the past. As some fiscal accounts demonstrate, the arrival of these objects was related mainly with trade, especially in the second half of the fourteenth and the first half of the fifteenth centuries, when a large trade developed. An examination of this sort of trade opens the way to reinterpretations of the production of these objects, the manufacture centers, the chronology of large-scale production, and their influence in Western taste.

Dr. Daniel Duran i Duelt: Dr. Daniel Duran i Duell, C/Sicflia 173 Sobreatic 1•, 08013 Barcelona, Spain, [email protected]

It is not unusual to find in several western European countries objects originating in Byzantium and in other parts of Romania, 1 or references to them arriving

I want to express my most sincere gratitude to Professor David jacoby, who encouraged me and gave me his wise advice on contents, redaction and bibliography; and to Professor Cristina Santjust i Latorre for our discussions and her help on bibliography and Professor Matilde Miquel joan for the documents of footnotes 28 and 33. Finally I also owe a debt of gratitude to Professor Marie A. Kelleher who has patiently corrected my poor English. 1 In documents from Catalonia, Majorca and Valencia, Romania is often synonymous with Constantinople and Pera. A good example of this is the book of accounts of Berenguer Benet entitled Manual que fas en Ia bo viatga que enten a fer jo, Berenguer Benet, en Romania (Book I do in the good trip I think to make to Romania). All the commercial operations contained in it concern Constantinople and Pera, Barcelona >vithout, D. DURAN I DUELT, El manual del viatge fet per Berenguer Benet a Romania, 1341-1342. Estudi i edici6. Barcelona 2002. Commenda contracts also tend to identify Romania with Constantinople and Pera (ad partes Romanie, videlicet, ad locum de Constantinoble, apud Contastinopolim Romanie); Arxiu de Ia Catedral de Barcelona (ACB), Notaris publics vol. 94, f. 78r; ACB, Notaris publics, vol. 95, f. 62r-v; Arxiu de Ia Catedral de Mallorca (ACM), 14564, f. 87r. But in a larger sense, Romania designates also lands under Byzantine control before 1204. Three examples: Stives pardum Romanie, ACM, 14.720,

30 - - Byzantinische Zeitschrift Bd. 10511. 2012: I. Abteilung

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there throughout the Middle Ages. In many cases we cannot accurately determine their origin, travel routes, or date of arrival. When such determinations are possible, we often discover that the person responsible for their transfer was some monk, bishop, ambassador or dignitary who received an object as gift or purchased it, either for himself or for someone else. 2 No less important for the transfer of many objects from east to west was the conquest and looting of Constantinople in 1204 and the settlement in various parts of the former Byzantine territories of Latin landlords who sent these objects to the West or facilitated their transfer. In fact, in some places, such as Venice, the Latin conquest of Byzantine territories led to a massive influx of articles, especially religious items such as icons, manuscripts, reliquaries and liturgical objects. 3

Pergami de coberta; castri et loci de Modo versus partes de Romanie sistentis, Arxiu Historic de Ia Ciutat de Barcelona (AHCB), Consellers, Miscell...