Medieval Sourcebook:
A Promissory Note Secured By Collateral, 1200
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. In the year of the Incarnation 1199, on the
fifteenth day of February. Let it be clear to all reading or hearing these presents that
we, Bartholomew Mazellier, of Marseilles, and Peter Vital, by common consent, have jointly
accepted in the city of Messina from you, Stephen de Manduel and William Benlivenga 1,600
tarins of gold (Messina weight) weighing fifty-three and a third ounces, at the risk of
God and the sea; for which, by a secure contract, we agree to give you in Provence
fifty-five solidi in royal crowns of Marseilles for each ounce, i.e., the sum of ,146.13s.3d. We owe this money and we are bound to
return it to you, peacefully and without molestation, up to one month after the ship in
which we sail shall have arrived at Marseilles, or other port of safety in Provence, for
discharging its cargo; and for your greater security we have pledged to you 141 pigs which
we jointly own on that same ship. Moreover, I, Peter Vital, put in pledge with you four sacci of gall-nuts of my own, being two quintaria of Acre less twenty-seven rotae,
and six bundles of licorice wood, being three quintaria of Acre less one third. I,
Bartholomew, add as my own pledge five bundles of soft leather, namely 324 skins, and nine
bundles of licorice wood, being six quintaria of Acre less eighteen rotae;
but if those pledges are worth more than the debt to you, it will be to our credit, the
rest to yours. At that time, I, the said Bartholomew, have taken by agreement from you,
Stephen de Manduel, eight ounces of gold, half of which belongs to Hugh Vivaldi, for which
I ought to pay to you in Provence twenty-two pounds of the said money, for which I put
twenty-five pigs in pledge with you and one quintarium of licorice wood and
eighteen rotae by the weight of Acre. If the money is in small coins or debased
lawfully in weight, we ought to pay you a mark of fine silver for fifty-seven solidi until
the whole debt is paid. We expect those things of you, just as they have been written,
without fraud or trickery, on the safe arrival of the ship or of the greater part of the
goods of the ship. This was done at Messina, in the month and year stated, in the presence
of these witnesses: Hugh Aldoard, etc.
Source:
From: L. Blancard, ed, Documents Inédits sur le Commerse de Marseille au Moyen Age,
(Marseilles: Barlatier-Feissat, Pere et Fils, 1884), Vol. 1, p. 3, reprinted in Roy C.
Cave & Herbert H. Coulson, A Source Book for Medieval Economic History, (Milwaukee:
The Bruce Publishing Co., 1936; reprint ed., New York: Biblo & Tannen, 1965), pp.
105-106.
Scanned by Jerome S. Arkenberg, Cal. State Fullerton. The text has been modernized by
Prof. Arkenberg.
This text is part of the Internet
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© Paul Halsall, September 1998
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