The 1480 tax census of Llamas de la Ribera (León). A new source for seigneurial Diplomatics

Abstract

The 1480 tax census of Llamas de la Ribera (León) is the only example of its kind found in the archive of the Quiñones-Counts of Luna lineage. In spite of the utility that this kind of census has for a wide variety of historical works, we do not really know very much about them, especially from the Diplomatics standpoint. We thus focused on the study and edition of this manuscript, whose characterization may hopefully contribute to improving our knowledge of the medieval tax system and its documental expression in late medieval rural León. From a paleographical and diplomatic view we proceeded to edit its contents in order to undertake the consequent study of its internal and external features, in an attempt to understand the role played by this document in the administration of the municipalities under the rule of the Count of Luna. Despite the paucity of information found in the document, we can come to the conclusion that the elaboration of this type of census may have been a consolidated reality in the tax administration of the county, although we must wait to future research in order to fully understand the real importance of this document type.