Book of the Consulate of the Sea
![]() Book of the Consulate of the Sea | |
Author | Unknown |
---|---|
Original title | Llibre del Consolat de Mar (Catalan) |
Language | Catalan |
Genre | Compendium of laws |
Publication date | 1320–1330 |
Published in English | N/A |
Media type | Paper and parchment |
The Book of the Consulate of the Sea (
When setting the first Consulate of the Sea in Valencia, king Peter III of Aragon decided to apply the maritime customs of Barcelona, called costums de mar, which had not yet been codified, although there did already exist in Barcelona another compilation of maritime rules, called Ordinacions de Ribera, which established norms for policing harbours and coastal waters.[1]
The merit of the Book of the Consulate of the Sea is that it is the first work to collect the scattered laws and customs of
Until the publication of the Ordonnance de la Marine in France in 1681,
Origin
According to Chiner and Chacon, the Ordinances of the Ribera (i.e. seaside) ( Ordinationes Ripariae ), written in 1258, did not yet encode the maritime customs of Barcelona, and that the first reference to "Sea consuls" appears in Barcelona in 1282, just one year before the Consulate of the Sea was created in Valencia. Also note that the consuls of Barcelona had no independence assigned later on in the Book of the Consulate of the Sea. Customs collected in the book would be in part coming from a Barcelona origin, but many would have been created and consolidated in Valencia, from which have been copied to the subsequently created consulates. According to Arcadi Garcia Sanz, the main difference between the consulates of Barcelona and Valencia would be the fact that the latter had from the start a "royal jurisdiction", and therefore has influenced so strongly in the other consulates in the fifteenth century.[1][5]
Customs Consulate were explicitly based on the Usus at consuetudo Maris according to the privilege of founding of the December 1 of 1283, which was a juridic set of maritime practices (Usus Maris) based on a written legal text (Consuetudo Maris) and both together would be the jurídicomarítima tradition of the western Mediterranean.[1] is documented that the text was already in Catalonia, as it was in Vic 1231, and was incorporated in Catalan in the 'Custom of Tortosa in 1272.[1] This paper certainly come from outside the Peninsula and have introduced through "maritime Costums of Ribera" from Barcelona.[1]
The General Encyclopedia of the Sea says there is a controversy on the origin of the book, in which three countries dispute the glory of being the first to have written it: France (Marseille), Spain (Valencia, Barcelona and Tortosa) and Italy (Pisa).[6]
In the late eighteenth century,
Influence and impact
The expansion of the Catalan Navy and its commercial and maritime supremacy meant that the Book of the Consulate of the Sea was respected throughout the Mediterranean and up into the Atlantic. Based originally on the maritime customs of Barcelona and supplemented by the Valencia Consulate of the Sea, the Book of the Consulate of the Sea laid the basis for all subsequent Mediterranean maritime customs.[1]
Originally written in Catalan, the Book of the Consulate of the Sea was translated into Italian, French, English, Castilian and other languages, and for centuries was the basis of merchant marine legislation in many countries, even up to modern times.
An annex of the book contains Barcelona's ordinances of 1435 on marine insurance. The wide circulation of the book helped spread these ordinances throughout Europe.[2]
The Nueva Planta decrees (1707–1716) entirely suppressed the Consulates of the Sea in Mediterranean Coast, except in Mallorca and Barcelona. The latter did not usually act in interference with the Bourbon laws. The rules of the Book of the Consulate of the Sea were active in Spain until 1829, when they were replaced by the Spanish code of commerce, inspired by French law.
Several European countries continued to use these ordinances until the eighteenth century.[1] In 1874 Sir Travers Twiss translated them into English for reasons of utility, in the early twentieth century a court in the United States denied an action on the grounds of its not being supported by the Consulate of the Sea, and in March 1937 the Court of Appeal of Alexandria quoted a chapter of the book in its judgment.[1]
Editions
First compilation 1320–1330
The first Valencian collection of customs sea was made in Valencia between 1320 and 1330. [1]
Majorcan Edition 1345
The city of Mallorca surrendered to
Valencian Consulat de Mar 1407
It is considered the masterpiece of medieval maritime law, and one of the icons of valencian jurisprudence.[8]
The original manuscript is preserved in the Municipal Archives of Valencia. It is a work of great historical value with great international impact through the centuries.[9]
There are several medieval manuscript copies, although one of the finest examples from the artistic point of view is the codex called "Consolat del Mar" with miniatures from Domingo Crespi made in 1407, kept in the Municipal Archives of Valencia.[10][11]
First publication in print between 1436 and 1484
With the advent of the printing press, the first known printed edition is the one of 1436–1484 from Valencia.[2]
Barcelona Edition of 1502 (Foreword by Francisco Celelles)
Pedro the Ceremonious gave Barcelona its Consulate of the Sea saying he would be in the same form as that of Mallorca, "sub ea scilicet forma qua concessum est civitati Maioricarum".[1] Customs were adapted from Valencia in Mallorca, and from there in Barcelona.[1][12]
Capmany says that because of these adaptations the first seven chapters dealt with matters that were only useful for Valencia Sea consuls, and several laws and ordinances from Barcelona were added indiscriminately,[12] adding that the rest of chapters of the ordinations that form the biggest part of the Book of the Consulate of the Sea was not copied from Mallorca and Valencia, but was compiled thereof from Barcelona customs known as Free Consulate of the Sea and being those Barcelona's customs compiled before the Valencian ordinations by early printers, have caused confusion in later authors, who have given a Valencian origin when in fact they have originated in Barcelona.[12]
The first edition came out of print on 14 August 1502.[13]
Part I consists of 43 chapters that prescribe methods to choose the consuls of the sea and appellate judges in Valencia, the legal responsibilities of each and the procedural regulations of awards of cases brought before them. Articles 44 and 45 were discarded, probably for being illegible, as shipments concerned towards Alexandria[14]
Part II consisted of Articles 46 to 334 of the laws of the year 1343. The first area of Article 46 to 297, deals with generally accepted customs of maritime trade, while the second area, up to 298 items 334, it deals with the
First Lawyers
Article 43 prescribes the oath of office for the lawyers of Mallorca, decreed by James I of Aragon and promulgated before the year 1275. It is not known when or by whom it was imposed an oath to lawyers of Barcelona and other cities.[14]
Moliné y Brasés edition of 1914
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4b/Llibre_del_Consolat_de_Mar_1814.jpg/225px-Llibre_del_Consolat_de_Mar_1814.jpg)
One of the most complete editions is due to Moliné y Brasés of 1914, which contains not only the old customs prior to the first compilation but included all subsequent contributions. Contains:[6]
- The regulations of the consuls of Sea from Valencia. (1 to 45)
- The maritime customs of Barcelona. (46–297)
- The arrangements for armed ships that go along armed and leaving the sea. (298–334)
- The chronicle of enactments.
- Chapters of king Oere Terç. (1 to 40)
- The ordinations of 'consuls' of Barcelona for the Consulate of the Sea of Sicily.
- The ordinations of 'consuls' of Barcelona on maritime events of November 21, 1435.
- Laws and ordinations Recognoverunt Proceres on maritime and commercial cases.
- The ordinations of 'consuls' of Barcelona on marine insurance.
- Chapters and ordinations of the General Court of the General Chapter of Barcelona of October 8, 1481.
Compilations in the antiquity
The oldest collection is probably the Babylonian index, from the eighteenth century BC, followed by the "Phoenician customs" compiled in 2000 BC, that were copied by the Greeks and later by the Romans. The people of Rhodes directly adapted the Phoenician laws.
Compilations from which originated
The book was inspired distantly from previous compilations, as the Pisan Constitutum usus (1161) and Breve consulum maris (1162) and the Latin text Consuetudo maris of the first half of the 13th century, which has been documented in Catalonia in 1231.[1]
In 1010 were codified in
In 1243 James I of Aragon has demarcated the Ribera (seaside) of Barcelona and its ordinances were codified in 1258 in the Carta consulatus riparie Barchinone, which had not yet codified the maritime customs of Barcelona itself. Shortly afterwards, Barcelona's municipal boundaries were reorganized and the Ribera (seaside) came under the Consell de Cent, so the Ribera (seaside) lost its autonomy. In the last quarter of the 13th century Barcelona consuls they started naming the great men of the Ribera (seaside), which in 1282 were named "consols de mar" ("consuls of sea").[1]
Compilations with its influence
Many authors believe that the laws specified in the Book of the Consulate of the Sea had a big influence on all other compilations of maritime law in Europe, which are partly based on it.[14]
Some of these laws specified in the Book of the Consulate of the Sea were already adopted in the ninth century in places like the Baltic, the North Sea, the
According to some authors the
The Black Book of the Admiralty of Britain also dates back to the twelfth century.[14]
See also
- Ordinamenta et consuetudo maris
- Catalan cartography
- La Cartografía Mallorquina
- Consulate of the Sea
- Antoni Palau i Dulcet
- Història de la Marina Catalana
- Próspero de Bofarull y Mascaró
- Memorias históricas (Capmany)
- Tartane
- Catalan navy
- Marine sandglass
- Octant projection
Bibliography
- Codigo de las costumbres maritimas de Barcelona: hasta aqui vulgarmente llamado Libro del consulado. en la imprenta de don Antonio de Sancha. 1791. pp. 51–.
- Alexander S. Wilkinson (2010). Iberian Books: Books Published in Spanish Or Portuguese Or on the Iberian Peninsula Before 1601 ; [IB]. BRILL. pp. 140–. ISBN 978-90-04-17027-8.
- Serna Vallejo, Margarita (2004). Los Rôles d'Oléron. El 'Coutumier' marítimo del Atlántico y El Báltico de época medieval y moderna. Centro de Estudios Montañeses – Santander. ISBN 84-933708-1-9.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n JJ Chiner Gimeno, JP Galiana Chacon (2003). "Del 'of the Sea' in the 'Book of the Sea called' historical approach". In Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Navigation of Valencia (ed.). Book called Sea Consulate (Valencia, 1539). Valencia. pp. 7–42.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b c ar / adetail.asp? id = 546 were baptized insurance Seawater
- ^ forward – propos.pdf maritime Code. Avant-propos[permanent dead link]
- ^ Maritime law history
- ISBN 978-84-7003-161-8.
- ^ a b c Enciclopedia General del Mar. Ediciones Garriga Barcelona (1957)
- ^ a b Capmany, pp. xii–xxv
- ^ 1407 facsimile of the manuscript[dead link]
- ^ delivery Rita Barbera copy in the Library of Washington
- ^ Contribució the State of the issue of the legal iconographic studies illustrated manuscripts in the Middle Ages. Art and Iconography Notebooks / Volume IV – 7. 1991. 1991. Archived from the original on 2008-07-02. Retrieved 2015-10-28.
- ^ Infociudad: Town hall and its urban environment – Y.
- ^ a b c Capmany, pp. 317–318
- ^ Capmany, p. xxxv
- ^ a b c d e f g h (a) The Consulate of the Sea and Related Documents Library of Iberian Resources Online. 1974.
- ISBN 978-1-74220-379-9.
- ^ Keevil, John Joyce (1957). Medicine and the Navy, 1200–1900,vol.1: 1200–1649. Livingstone.
- ^ Francisco Xavier de Salas and Rodriguez (1864). Spanish Marina Middle Ages: Historical sketch of the main events in connection with the history of the crowns of Aragon and Castile, Volume 1. T. Fortanet. pp. 498–495.
External links
- Libre apellat con(n)solat de mar in Cervantes virtual (in catalan)
- Consolat de Mar Derogation Archived 2014-02-08 at the Wayback Machine
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