Note 452 — APPENDIX.

The Avilés document is regarded by all who have noticed it as of great importance for the earliest history of the Castilian. It is first mentioned, I believe, by Father Risco, in his “Historia de la Ciudad y Corte de Leon” (Madrid, 1793, 4to, Tom. I. pp. 252, 253); and next by Marina, in his “Ensayo” (Memorias de la Acad. de Historia, Tom. IV., 1805, p. 33);—both competent witnesses, and both entirely satisfied that it is genuine. Risco, however, printed no part of it, and Marina published only a few extracts. But in the “Revista de Madrid,” (Segunda Epoca, Tom. VII. pp. 267-322,) it is published entire, as part of an interesting discussion concerning the old codes of the country, by Don Rafael Gonzalez Llanos, a man of learning and a native of Avilés, who seems to have a strong love for the place of his birth and to be familiar with its antiquities.

The document in question belongs to the class of instruments sometimes called “Privilegios,” and sometimes “Foros,” or “Fueros” (see, ante, Vol. I. p. 47, note 28); but where, as in this case, the authority of the instrument is restricted to a single town or city, it is more properly called “Carta Puebla,” or municipal charter. This Carta Puebla of Avilés contains a royal grant of rights and immunities to the several citizens, as well as to the whole municipality, and involves whatever regarded the property, business, and franchises of all whom it was intended to protect. Charters, which were so important to the welfare of many persons, but which still rested on the arbitrary authority of the crown, were, as we have previously said, (Vol. I. p. 47, note 27,) confirmed by succeeding sovereigns, as often as their confirmation could conveniently be procured by the communities so deeply interested in their preservation.

The Carta Puebla of Avilés was originally granted by Alfonso VI., who reigned from 1073 to 1109. It was, no doubt, written in such Latin as was then used; and in 1274 it was formally made known to Alfonso the Wise, that it had been burnt during the attack on that city by his son Sancho. The original, therefore, is lost, and we know how it was lost.

What we possess is the translation of this Carta Puebla, made when it was confirmed by Alfonso VII., A. D. 1155. It is still preserved in the archives of the city of Avilés, on the original parchment, consisting of two skins sewed together,—the two united being about four feet and eleven inches long, and about nineteen inches wide. It bears the known seal of Alfonso VII., and the original signatures of several persons who were bound to sign it with him, and several subsequent confirmations, scattered over five centuries. (See Revista, ut sup., pp. 329, 330.) So that in all respects, including the coarseness of the parchment, the handwriting, and the language, it announces its own genuineness with as much certainty as any document of its age. As printed, it fills about twelve pages in octavo, and enables us to judge somewhat of the state of the Castilian at the time it was written.

After a caption or enrolment in bad Latin, it opens with these words:—

“Estos sunt los foros que deu el rey D. Alfonso ad Abilies cuando la poblou par foro Sancti Facundi et otorgo lo emperador. Em primo, per solar pinder, I solido a lo reu et II denarios a lo saion, é cada ano un sólido en censo per lo solar: é qui lo vender, de I solido á lo rai, é quil comparar dará II denarios a lo saion,” etc. p. 267.

A part of one of its important regulations is as follows:—“Toth homine qui populador for ela villa del rey, de quant aver qui ser aver, si aver como heredat, dè fer en toth suo placer de vender o de dar, et á quen lo donar que sedeat stabile si filio non aver, et si filio aver del, delo á mano illo quis quiser é fur placer, que non deserede de toto, et si toto lo deseredar, toto lo perdan aquellos á quen lo der.” Revista, p. 315.

Its concluding provisions are in these words:—“Duos homines cum armas derumpent casa, et de rotura de orta serrada, LX. sólidos al don de la orta, el medio al rei, é medio al don dela.—Homines populatores de Abilies, non dent portage ni rivage, desde la mar ata Leon.” Ibid., p. 322.

It ends with bad Latin, denouncing excommunication on any person who shall attempt to infringe its provisions, and declaring him “cum Datam et Abiron in infernum damnatus.” Ibid., p. 329.

By the general consent of those who have examined it, this Carta Puebla of Avilés is determined to be the oldest document now known to exist in the Castilian or vulgar dialect of the period, which dialect, in the opinion of Don Rafael Gonzalez Llanos, received its essential character as early as 1206, or six years before the decisive battle of the Navas de Tolosa, (see, ante, Vol. I. p. 9, note,) though not a few documents, after that date, abound in Latin words and phrases. Revista, ut supra, Tom. VIII. p. 197.

I am aware that two documents in the Spanish language, claiming to be yet older, have been cited by Mr. Hallam, in a note to Part II. c. 9 of his Middle Ages, London, 1819, 8vo, Vol. III. p. 554, where he says: “The earliest Spanish that I remember to have seen is an instrument in Martene, Thesaurus Anecdotorum, Tom. I. p. 263; the date of which is 1095. Persons more conversant with the antiquities of that country may possibly go farther back. Another of 1101 is published in Marina’s Teoria de las Cortes, Tom. III. p. 1. It is in a Vidimus by Peter the Cruel, and cannot, I presume, have been a translation from the Latin.” There can be no higher general authority than Mr. Hallam for any historical fact, and this statement seems to carry back the oldest authentic date for the Spanish language sixty years earlier than I have ventured to carry it. But I have examined carefully both of the documents to which Mr. Hallam refers, and am satisfied they are of later date than the charter of Avilés. That in Martene is merely an anecdote connected with the taking of “the city of Exea,” when it was conquered, as this story states, by Sancho of Aragon. Its language strongly resembles that of the “Partidas,” which would bring it down to the middle of the thirteenth century; but it bears, in truth, no date, and only declares at the end that the city of Exea was taken on the nones of April, 1095, from the Moors. Of course, there is some mistake about the whole matter, for Sancho of Aragon, here named as its conqueror, died June 4th, 1094, and was succeeded by Peter I., and the person who wrote this account, which seems to be, after all, only an extract from some monkish chronicle, did not live near enough to that date to know so notorious a fact. Moreover, Exea is in Aragon, where it is not probable the earliest Castilian was spoken or written. Thus much for the document from Martene. That from Marina’s Teoria is of a still later and quite certain date. It is a charter of privileges granted by Alfonso VI. to the Mozárabes of Toledo, but translated in 1340, when it was confirmed by Alfonso XI. Indeed, it is so announced by Marina himself, who in the table of contents says especially, that it is “translated into Castilian.”