MERCHANT ACCOUNTS

[Catalan language] [Ruaix family] Llibreta de los generos que Jph. Dordal Tabarner va venent de Ignasi Alegret comensant als 6 de Jener de 1750 [i.e. 1751?]. [And other content]. [Barcelona] 1751-1841.

A Catalan-language notebook used for commercial accounts with 90 years of entries and folded-in notes (1751-1841). The manuscript dates from a period of official suppression of the Catalan language, from the Nueva Planta decrees (1716) that followed the Spanish War of Succession and saw it banned in education and public administration. The last inclusions in our book coincide with the beginnings of the Catalan linguistic revival. The first owner of the book is Joseph Dordal Tabarner, who writes a title-page and keeps a record of payments mostly from one Ignasi Alegret, from 1751 to 1758, in all over 10 pages in different places in the book. The next owner is one Anton Ruax Taberner, presumably related, whose entries start in 1765 and run through to 1794. His successor is Anton Ruaix Blanque; his entries include, from 1797, records of payments to the Congregation of St. Philip Neri of Barcelona, a relationship which continues to the later fold-in notes. We can see that the agents for the Congregation probably used Catalan too.

Amongst the references to Barcelona, which place this manuscript in that city, there is one to Ruaix interests in the Carrer Pou. Most of the transactions in the manuscript are carried out with men, although two, from 1795, are with one Taressa Oliber y Huguet. The commodity described in most of the transactions is money, although one from 1796 includes chocolate, and forty boxes of rifles!

Details

Manuscript, small 4to. (19.4 cms. x 16.5 cms.), notebook with blanks, writing to 46 pages, + 11 loose fold-in sheets (various sizes) with writing. Various hands. Light browning, bound in a contemporary vellum wallet binding, spine with longstitch over leather, fastening partially removed. Inscription to cover: “Ruaix”.