Biblioteca Històrica

Furs del Regne de València

The Historical Library of the University of Valencia has identified a valuable legal miscellany containing various manuscript and printed versions of the "Furs del Regne de València" (Laws of the Kingdom of Valencia), a collection of texts that are fundamental to understanding the law and history of the region.

To publicize this discovery, a public presentation will be held on Wednesday, September 17, at 12 noon, in the Duc de Calàbria room of the Historical Library, at the La Nau Cultural Center.
The event will feature the participation of: Carlos Hermenegildo Caudevilla, Vice-Rector for Research; Cristina Tomás Martínez, Director of the Library and Documentation Service; and Francisco M. Gimeno Blay, Professor at the University of Valencia.

The manuscript cataloging team, led by Professor Francisco M. Gimeno Blay, has accurately described the contents of this volume, which brings together three pieces of extraordinary interest:

1. A 15th-century manuscript containing the charters promulgated by Kings James I, Alfonso the Benign, Peter the Ceremonious, Martin the Humane, and Alfonso the Magnanimous.
2. An incunabulum printed in Valencia in 1493, containing the charters established by Ferdinand the Catholic in the Cortes of Orihuela (1488).
3. The “Furs de Montsó” (1518), printed in Valencia by Joan Jofré.

Of the three documents, only the latter was catalogued. The other two were insufficiently referenced and, consequently, inadequately referenced. The contents of all the materials collected in this volume by a Valencian jurist or scholar are now fully known. Some authors have suggested that this volume belonged to Francisco Pérez Bayer, a claim that cannot be verified given the current state of knowledge. The book, with the call number ms 897, has not preserved any clues as to the identity of the owner who decided to create this miscellany, binding them together as if they were a single work. In reality, the three form a small portable legal library. 

All the materials have been cataloged and digitized and can be consulted through the TROBES catalog and the SOMNI Digital Library of the University of Valencia.

With this new discovery, the Historical Library of the University of Valencia reaffirms its role as a center of reference in the conservation, study, and dissemination of Valencia's bibliographic heritage.