Sobre la redacción y difusión de las "Ordinacions" de Pedro IV de Aragón y sus primeros códices

Abstract

Pedro IV the Ceremonious had issued his "Ordinacions" to put his house, his court and his own person in order (an order that should legitimize him in the eyes of medieval Christian society), and to insure that his limited administrative organization functioned properly. These objectives explain the number of copies that appeared in the early days of his chancellery and, as time passed, in other instances. This paper focuses on the identifica­tion, not previously accomplished, of various manuscripts still extant with those that are described in the royal documentation of the Archives of the Crown of Aragon. The "paper manuscript" that Pedro IV carried with when he travelled having recently been found in the Faculty of Law of the University of Valencia, we identify the "old" document with ms. 2633 in the library of the Juan March Foundation in Palma de Mallorca; the "new" document as probably Esp. 99 in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris; and finally, ms. R-14.425 of the Lázaro Galdeano Foundation in Madrid with the version in Castilian done at the King's orders for Juan I of Castile.