A Quaestio disputata on the Figure of the Royal Tresaurer in the Dotzè del Crestià (Chaps. 752-755) by Francesc Eiximenis

Abstract

Between chapters 752 and 755 of the Dotzè del Crestià, the great political encyclopedia of Eiximenis, a sort of quaestio disputata takes place regarding the ideal profile of the royal treasurer. The debate takes place in the court of  Jaume II, el Just, the King of  Aragon. The nobles Pere de Queralt, Guillem Ramon de Montcada and Ermengol X, count of Urgell; the Infante Joan d’Aragó, Patriarch of Alexandria and the King of  Aragon himself, the Infante's father, take part in the dispute. The options considered for the ideal profile of the king's treasurer are clergy, Jews, castrated men, knights, and "notable citizens." After discussing the pros and cons of each candidate, Joan d’Aragó settles the discussion by choosing the "notable citizens" for their broad culture and good relations with both the knightly and commercial establishments. The "notable citizens" he refers to are likely jurists, notaries, lawyers, doctors, or clothiers from the "middle class" of the cities, excluding merchants. These citizens are the political engine of the cities, while the merchants are the economic engine. The debate is a fiction concocted by Eiximenis, who sought to inject verisimilitude into the story, but made a chronological error that shows it to be a fiction. The story in chapters 752-755 of the Dotzè del Crestià had an initial version in chapter 430 of the same book A comparison between the two exempla, written a few years apart, highlights the evolution of political thought toward a radical reformulation of the Catalan-Aragonese pactism.