The Rise and Decline of an Iberian Bourgeoisie
Manresa in the Later Middle Ages, 1250–1500

One of the first long-term studies of the Catalonian city of Manresa during the late medieval crisis.

Jeff Fynn-Paul (Author)

9781107464773, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 October 2018

369 pages, 1 b/w illus. 3 maps 38 tables
23 x 15.3 x 2 cm, 0.56 kg

'Jeff Fynn-Paul provides a promising contribution to Spanish urban history in the later Middle Ages. Telling the story of the Catalan city of Manresa over the fourteenth century, he wisely combines three historiographical traditions (Iberian, English and European) in order to approach this region's position in the larger late medieval urban history.' David Gonza´lez Agudo, European History Quarterly

The Rise and Decline of an Iberian Bourgeoisie is one of the first long-term studies in English of an Iberian town during the late medieval crisis. Focusing on the Catalonian city of Manresa, Jeff Fynn-Paul expertly integrates Iberian historiography with European narratives to place the city's social, political and economic development within the broader context of late medieval urban decline. Drawing from extensive archival research, including legal and administrative records, royal letters, and a cadastral survey of more than 640 households entitled the 1408 Liber Manifesti, the author surveys the economic strategies of both elites and non-elites to a level previously unknown for any medieval town outside of Tuscany and Ghent. In a major contribution to the series, The Rise and Decline of an Iberian Bourgeoisie reveals how a combination of the Black Death, royal policy, and a new public debt system challenged, and finally undermined urban resilience in Catalonia.

1. Introduction: Catalan urban institutions, the Catalan Bourgeoise and the late medieval crisis
Part I. Politics: 2. The creation of a regional capital: town government and Royal policy
3. A portrait of the Manresan Partricate
4. Plague, war and calamity: the makings of the fourteenth-century crisis at Manresa
5. The practice of government at Manresa during the fourteenth-century crisis
Part II. Economy: 6. The Aragonese financial revolution: a nexus of state formation and personal investment
7. Demography, wages and prices in the age of the Black Death
8. Fruits of the urban system: equality, inequality and quality of life
9. Conclusion: the rise and decline of Manresan civic vitality as a function of the city's 'Bourgeois system', 1250–1500
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], European history [HBJD]