"Grant by Alfonso V of Aragon and Sicily, "the Magnanimous", to Rambau de Corbera (Rambaldus de Corbaria), of a vast territory in Sardinia, in Gallura, comprising a number of depopulated villages from the environs of the present Santa Teresa Gallura (in the northern point of Sardinia) to the environs of the present Castelsardo.
Dated: 4 Feb. 1421. Latin. Signed 'Rex Alvons(us)1 Subscribed by Petrus de Reus, 'domini Regis scriptor' and notary public, with notarial symbol.
Endorsements in Catalan, with pressmark 'A/No. 149'; Spanish, with pressmark 'Caxn. 22 Lign. 1 N. 4'
Seal cords; seal now missing.
The expansion of the signature above follows the example of a document of 1418 transcribed in J & D Mateu Ibars, Colectánea paleográfica de la Corona de Aragon, 1991, no. 200, and pp. 883-885.
There is a signature of 1442 on an incomplete document in BL Cotton MS Vespasian F III, f. 86.
Alfonso V of Aragon (reigned 1416-1458): lover of Italy, devoted to the Renaissance, he subordinated the interests of Aragon to those of Naples, and was recognized as King of Naples in 1442.
The present document belongs to earlier years, when he was extending his interests in Sardinia; title to Sardinia and Corsica was bestowed on Aragon by the papacy in 1297. In 1420 Alfonso bought up the claims and possessions of the viscount of Narbonne in Sardinia (J N Hillgarth, The Spanish Kingdoms 1250-1516, II, 1978, p. 249; Alan Ryder, The kingdom of Naples under Alfonso the Magnanimous, 1976).
Rambau de Corbera: from a branch of the Catalan family of Corbera which moved to Sardinia in the 14th Century. Some more famous members also named Rambau (Riambau) are included in the Diccionari Biografic I, 1966, p. 618; another was vice governor general of Sardinia in 1347.
The Rambau of the present grant was included in the Parliament of Alfonso which sat at Cagliari in January and February 1421, and he was not the only recipient of a grant in the course of that sitting (see A. Boscolo, I Parlamenti di Alfonso il Magnanimo, Milano, 1953, p. 20, who cites the register copy of the present grant in Archivo de la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona, Reg. 2784, ff. 96-98). ACA Reg. 2784 is in the group Registros del Rey 2781-2795, Itinerum sigilli secreti, 1420-1446 (Ryder, op. cit., p. 375).
The villages: over twenty are named, starting with Sylonis, Carciana, Haagiana, Crastu, Istodu; some of them are identified in John Day, Villaggi abbandonati in Sardegna dal trecento at settecento: inventario, Paris, 1973, pp. 133 -136."
Grant of Alfonso V of Aragon and Sicily
Latin
"(a) 625mm. by 320mm., grant in Latin by King Alfonso V 'the Magnimous' of Aragon and Sicily, and Count of Barcelona, to his officer, Rambau de Corbera, of a vast estate in Sardinia, dated 4 February 1421, 28 lines, written in light brown ink in the hand of the royal scribe "Petrus de reus" who names himself at the foot of the document, and with the apparent signature of the king himself, seal missing, else in outstanding condition"
The fold across the bottom of the document covers some signatures. The signatures under the fold were not captured to avoid damaging the document.
Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A439200/datastre...
