An Andorran Grant
Grant of Bernardus de Granana and his wife Saurina of a tithe from the Valley of Argolel (Andorra) for the usufruct of Prior Guillermus during his lifetime and to the Hospital of Albergaria (Urgell, Catalonia) after Guillermus’s death. Dated 2 January 1183.
An very rare example of a 12th-century document concerning Andorra and Catalonia.

c.150 × 250mm. 8 lines of main text, 6 lines of witnesses, and a subscription by the scribe: ‘Notum sit omnibus hominibus qualiter ego Bernardus de Granana et uxor mea Saurina donamus deo et beate Marie et ospitali sedis quod vocatur Albergaria et Guillelmo priori decimam tocius vallis de Argolel […] Ita tam ut tu Guillerme prior habeas usum fructum dum viveris. Post obitum vero tuum usus fructus ad Albergariam in pace et quiete reveratur […] Guillermus scriptor scripsit sub die et anno quo supra’, endorsed ‘[added: Hospital] de decimis de valle Argollel’, to which was added ‘de la Caxa xxxvi’.

Provenance:
(1) Bernard M. Rosenthal; inscribed in pencil ‘BMR Misc. 53’; reportedly acquired at Swann Galleries, New York, 5–6 November 1986.
(2) Colker 539; acquired from Quaritch probably after 2004.

This document appears to be unrecorded, but Bernardus may perhaps be the same man as Bernat, son of Guillem de la Torre, who granted all his property in La Seu d’Urgell and Cerc to the hospital in 1187: see Cebrià Baraut, ‘Els documents, dels anys 1151–1190, de l’Arxiu Capitular de la Seu d’Urgell’, Urgellia, 10 (1990), 7–349, no 1814.

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