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Denarius, denarii EEMCA Estudios de Edad Media de la Corona de Aragón EHDAP Estudios históricos y documentos del Archivo de Protocolos de Barcelona extrainv. extrainventari(s) GAKS Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Kulturgeschichte Spaniens Huici-Cabanes, Documentos Documentos de Jaime I de Aragón, eds. A. Huici Miranda and M. Desamparados Cabanes Pecourt, 5 vols. to date, Valencia, 1976– LA Libri antiquitatum, 4 vols. (in ACB) lb. libra, libre LFM Liber feudorum maior: cartulario real que se conserva en el Archivo de la Corona de Aragón, ed.

Page 18 many towns; when brought together, the extant charters provide a rare glimpse into the early formation of an urban society. Beginning in a steady stream from 985, the date the city was put to the torch by an Islamic army and its early documentation destroyed, the source material swells to a raging torrent by the late thirteenth century, overwhelming even the most intrepid researcher. Although the large number of surviving parchments can not completely compensate for the loss of thirteenth-century registers, by their antiquity, continuity, and diversity one has the unusual opportunity of probing into the distant urban past.

From the perspective of urban studies on the medieval Mediterranean, it quickly became clear that many of the models of early urban development and social organization I had been prepared to employ failed to capture the nature of the world that slowly opened up before me as archivists dutifully carried out stacks of parchments and thick notarial registers. On my first day of investigation in the splendid viceregnal palace that houses the Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó, the better part of an afternoon was spent (with occasional breaks to observe with romantic fascination the guitarist playing Albéniz outside and avid youngsters intent at soccer in the ancient Plaça del Rei) struggling over the cramped hand of a royal scribe, who must have intended to confound the uninitiated with inexplicable strokes and indecipherable contractions.