Componiment de Sardenya (1358)

The Aragonese administration in Sardinia

The so-called book of the Componiment de Sardenya is a list of the villages, places and castles of Sardinia under the rule of the King of Aragon, with indication of the rents and duties that corresponded to him in each one of them. The royal officers and their salaries and the military obligations of the landowners are also related.

It was written in 1358 under the supervision of Ramon de Vilanova by order of King Peter the Ceremonious. It responded to the request formulated in the Sardinian parliament celebrated in 1355 to update the rents assigned to each place according to the previous componiments made during the pisan domination of the island. It is part of the attempts made by Peter the Ceremonious to consolidate the royal administration in Sardinia, thirty years after the beginning of the conquest of the island and after the rebellion of Mariano de Arborea.

Salto de línea Sardinia in the middle of the Fourteenth Century

The Componiment de Sardenya, therefore, provides a complete picture of the island's fiscal situation at a particular time in its history of great interest. It has promoted a great number of studies on the conquest of the kingdom of Sardinia and its consequences thanks to the detailed cast of the fiefs and the villages and castles, as well as on many other questions of economic and social history.

The book of the Componiment of Sardinia in the ACA

The book is written in Catalan and consists of 175 sheets of folio-sized paper. Its complete original title is Componiment de totes les villes e lochs e castells quel senyor rey posseex en la isla de Serdenya (Composition of all the villages and places and castles that the King owns in the island of Sardinia). It is organized following the traditional division of the island into curatorias and makes a detailed list of all the places and castles of each one of them. The mentions of the castles are illustrated with allusive drawings made in ink. Of particular note is the castle of Cagliari (Caller in the text), full flat (fol. 3r), of great accuracy and fidelity. The castles of San Michele or Malvahi (fol. 13v), Argulles (fol. 48v), Joyosa Guardia (fol. 72v and 73r), Salvaterra (fol. 77r), Quirra (fol 87r), Galtelli, Fava and Padrís (fol 100r), Sassari (fol 127v), Osilo (fol 136r) and Bonvehí (fol 147r) are also represented, albeit to a smaller size and sometimes more schematically.

It was published by Prospero de Bofarull in the year 1856 in Volume XI of its Colección de documentos inéditos del Archivo de la Corona de Aragón, under the title of Compartiment de Sardenya and together with the Repartimientos of Mallorca and Valencia, with which, however, differs in nature and content.

Partial transcription

Bibliography

Link to PARES

Link to CODOIN