José M. Cruselles edits the accounts and family records of Valencian notary Antoni Llopis
José M. Cruselles Gómez, Lecturer in Medieval History at the Universitat de València, has published Llibre dels censals, memòries familiars i altres negocis del notari Antoni Llopis, ciutadà de València (1453-1493). The volume provides an edition of an exceptional documentary source for the study of urban society, family relationships, professional practices and economic activity in Valencia during the second half of the fifteenth century.
The book has been published by Publicacions de la Universitat de València in partnership with the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua. It is volume 94 of the Fonts Històriques Valencianes collection and volume 17 of the Documents Històrics Valencians series.
The printed edition comprises 392 pages. Its ISBNs are 978-84-1118-719-0 for the edition published by Publicacions de la Universitat de València and 978-84-482-7141-1 for the edition published by the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
A distinctive source on late medieval Valencia
Antoni Llopis worked as a notary between 1433 and 1491. For forty-six years, Antoni Llopis headed the chancery of the Governor’s Court in Valencia, one of the kingdom’s most important administrative offices. This responsibility was combined with notarial practice and the representation of private clients.
In 1453, Antoni Llopis began compiling a book in which personal, family, economic and professional matters were recorded. The manuscript contains information on annuities, debts, accounts, expenditure, payments, private correspondence, bills of exchange and handwritten receipts. It also records marriages, births, deaths and the professional careers of members of the family.
This documentation provides valuable evidence of the economic and family strategies adopted by an urban social group closely connected with legal practice and administrative work. The manuscript reveals the investment required to enter specialised professions, aspirations for social advancement, networks of trust and the everyday concerns of a family occupying an intermediate position within fifteenth-century Valencian society.
A new contribution to Valencian medieval history
The edition prepared by José M. Cruselles Gómez makes an important document available for research into the social, economic, family, legal and administrative history of late medieval Valencia.
The editor’s research focuses on late medieval urban society, notaries and notarial records, grammar schools and education, the political networks of the Borgia family, the persecution of converts and the origins of the Spanish Inquisition.
The book is now displayed in the new publications cabinet at the Facultat de Geografia i Història. This initiative is intended to raise the profile of books published by members of the Faculty and to make this academic work more visible across the university community.
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