Remences redimits. El domini de l'Almoina del Pa de la Seu de Girona (1331-1458)

Abstract

This paper deals with the situation of the servile peasantry of the diocese in Girona during the Late Middle Ages. Its purpose is to the study the redemptions -that is to say, buying one's own freedom- of the remences from the Almoina del Pa de la Seu de Girona from 1331 until 1458. Such a usual redemption is what gives the name of remences to the peasants who were bound to the servile link in Catalonia.
More than five hundred redemptions that were studied belong to the same domain and are included within the Account Books of the Charity Institution. Such well-known source has never been used in this sense up to now. It not only allows to know the number of manumited people but also the prices that were paid for their freedom and the reasons that caused their redemption.
Thus, this paper analyses the chronological evolution of the redemptions, in both cases: on one hand, their quantity and the prices that were paid for them and, on the other hand the reasons that provoked them.