The Liber feudorum maior of the counts of Barcelona: the cartulary as an expression of power

Abstract

The Liber feudorum maior, the late-twelfth-century cartulary of the counts of Barcelona, is at once one of the earliest surviving lay cartularies and a rare example of an illuminated cartulary. Although much of the original has been lost, its modern editor was able to use surviving single-sheet documents and early registers to reconstruct its contents: over nine hundred individual records in two volumes. Drawing on this reconstruction, this article considers the date of the cartulary, its composition, its organization, and its functions. For each of these questions the inclusion and placement of many blank folios in the original two volumes prove significant. Considered together, the organization of the cartulary and its distinctive pictorial programme, which includes some of the earliest depictions of the ceremony of homage in Europe, reveal the Liber feudorum maior as not simply an administrative tool, but as a written expression of power.