B. Barcelona. Biblioteca de Catalunya, Ms. 152, fols. 6v-8v; 14v-16r. End XIVth century.

C. Valencia. Biblioteca Universitaria, Ms. 212, fols. 7r-9v. Before 1418.

D. París. Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. esp. 13. . Beginning XVth century, before 1431.

E. Barcelona. Biblioteca de Catalunya, Ms. 487, fols. 104r-v,108rv,115r-116v. Middle XVth century. Copy of Joan Francesc.

F. Madrid. Biblioteca Nacional, Ms. 1814. End XVth century. Aragonese version.

G. Barcelona. Biblioteca Universitaria, Ms.741, fols. 250v-251r. Copia ca. 1500. Latin-Catalan version of fra Esteve Rollà.

H. Vic. Museo Episcopal, Ms.225, fols.3-8. Año 1599. Copy of Jeroni Pujades.

I. Barcelona, Archivo de Sant Pere de les Puel·les, Crónicas, núm. 1. End XVIth century-1610. That text is a copy of K.

J. Barcelona, Archivo Municipal de Historia de Barcelona. Marià Aguiló, núm. 1634. XVIII century.

K. Private collection, location of original unknown; a repographed copy has been conserved at the l’Arxiu de Sant Pere de les Puel·les. XV century.

Transcription of B.

The chronicle has not been published in its entirety; a complete edition can be consulted in Montserrat Cabré, El monaquisme femení a la Barcelona de l’alta edat mitjana: Sant Pere de les Puel·les, segles X-XI. Typed degree dissertation. Faculty of Geography and History, Department of Medieval History, University of Barcelona, 1985, vol. II, pp.143-150.

The transcription of some fragments of the Aragonese version (F) can be consulted in Montserrat Cabré, “Madruí: Genealogía femenina y práctica política”, Madrid: Al-Mudayna, 2000, pp. 61-81.

The history of the foundation and the early times in the life of the women’s monastery of Sant Pere de les Puel·les of Barcelona, belonging to the Benedictine Order. The chronicle explains with particular forcefulness the way in which the community suffered and dealt with a male attack, in the form of a Saracen raid.

The area of Sant Pere de Barcelona takes its name from that religious community.

Urbanistically, that neighbourhood is the result of the historical development of that feminine community; an area where women’s projects have been visible in all times.

In a strict sense, it is the first women’s history in Catalonia that we have. It has been transmitted as an anonymous text, but it is possible to suggest and defend its attribution to a collective feminine authorship.

20. On how Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, endowed the monastery of Sant Pere of Barcelona with women nuns.

After this the aforementioned Louis, son of Charlemagne, donated the fortress to which he had initially laid siege, which was a little distance from the city of Barcelona. He provided there a beautiful monastery with women nuns and made an altar in honour of Saint Peter of Rome, because his father was the emperor. The nuns had to serve the monastery and also the chapel of San Saturnino, which was located nearby. And out of love for all of this, the said Louis donated to the nuns and the monastery a great part of the land around the fortress and that small hill and a lot of flat land, up to the gate of the said city, near to what is now the market place for wheat. And when the said Louis, son of Charlemagne, had the city of Barcelona re-established and organised, and the monastery of Sant Pere was endowed, and abbess and nuns named, he gave them a lot of land from which they were able to live well. And he returned to France, and when he was before Charlemagne, he explained to him the conquest he had carried out and all that he had put in order in the city of Barcelona, and of how he had banished all the Saracens from the land and had populated it with Christians. And on hearing this, Charlemagne was very happy and was satisfied and content that his son Louis had done his job so well. And thus Charlemagne reigned as the Emperor of Rome and the King of France for 49 years and 9 months. And then he died, and was buried in the monastery of San Dionisio, when San Gil was the abbot.

21. On the Bovària and the place where the oxen and livestock of the monastery of Sant Pere of Barcelona were.

It should be known that near to the monastery of Sant Pere, for a long time, in the middle of the plain, towards the gate of the city of Barcelona, a very beautiful tower was built in the form of a fortress, that is, with houses around it. And here is where the oxen and small livestock were kept, because often the Saracens of Mallorca had consecrated land destroyed, and took and captured many Christians, and they also took the livestock. Because of this was this fortress was built here, so that those who cultivated the plain could take refuge there and have protection there. And this tower was known as the Bovària of Sant Pere, because the oxen of the said monastery were there. And after that tower was built, //(fol.8v) it became populated, as can now be seen and it is called Bòria.

50. How Borrell, count of Barcelona, engaged in battle with the Saracens and died, as did many other people, and the city of Barcelona was taken by the Saracens.

With firmness, Borrell kept the earldoms of Barcelona and Urgell at peace; he took a wife and had three sons and a daughter with her. The first son was named Ramón Borrell; the second Bernat, the third Ermengol, and the daughter they called Bonadona. And after a time there came towards the city of Barcelona Saracens from Mallorca, from Tortosa, from Lleida and from all over the land. And that year there was much suffering, due to hunger and to the plague. And the Saracens from Mallorca took the Abbess of Sant Pere, who was called Madruí, together with all the nuns, who //(fol.15r) were injured and taken prisoner along with all the documents, books and clothes that they found.

Afterwards, they burnt the monastery and only its walls remained. And through the will and deed of God, Borrell, Count of Barcelona, obtained the help and succour of his friends, and all together they expelled the Saracens from the city of Barcelona. And the Saracens of Mallorca retreated with the booty they had taken, and they went. […]

52. On Ramón Borrell, Count of Barcelona, who established his sister as the abbess of the monastery of Sant Pere.

//(fol.15v) After Borrell the father, his son Ramón Borrell was Count of Barcelona, who had his sister Bonadona, also daughter of Borrell, consecrated as the abbess of Sant Pere, and with great honour. And the said Ramón Borrell, Count of Barcelona, restored the monastery documentarily, with all the lands and possessions that they had been given by Louis, son of Charlemagne, King of France and Emperor of Rome, on taking the city of Barcelona and expelling the Saracens, which the old people were able to remember and know. And this was in the Year of our Lord 976.

53. Of how Madruí, Abbess of the monastery of Sant Pere of Barcelona, returned from Mallorca.

Now you should know how Madruí, the abbess of the monastery of Sant Pere who was taken to Mallorca by the Saracens when they took Barcelona, returned. After a time, it happened that a relative of hers recognised her when she was a slave in Mallorca, and he told her that when he returned to Barcelona, he would take her, secretly, away from the island. And this man, when he had to return to Barcelona, remembered what he had promised and thought about how he could get her out without being accused by the king of Mallorca, and without this harming him in any way. And it occurred to him, and God wished it thus, that they could put her in a sack of cotton and hide her, with such ingenuity that she was able to escape. And afterwards he picked her up by boat, along with other sacks of cotton. And when her master missed her, he had her searched for all over the land and he did not find her. After, he had the boat that was due to leave for Barcelona searched and they found nothing. And also //(fol.16r) they searched the boxes of the merchants in case she had been put there and they found nothing. And then, they took an iron spear and drove it into the sacks of cotton, in such a way that she was injured in four or five places, and she said not a word so that they should not find her. And as they did not find her, the Saracens and the guards who were guarding the shore let the boat leave. Afterwards, that good man, the relative of Madruí, asked her how she was, and she answered that she was wounded and that she was losing a lot of blood. And as soon as the boat had left the island, they took Madruí out of the sack of cotton and took care of her as best they could.

And when they arrived at Barcelona, they took her to the monastery of Sant Pere, and the women of the monastery rejoiced greatly, because the said Madruí had been the first abbess of that monastery and the people of the land spoke very well of her. And Madruí, after having stayed there for a day, found the monastery all changed and hardly recognised any of the nuns. And the Abbess of Sant Pere, Bonadona, daughter of Borrell, Count of Barcelona, on discovering that that sainted woman Madruí had been the abbess of that monastery, wanted to leave it and give the role of abbess back to her. But she did not want this, because the other woman was the daughter of the count and of honourable lineage. And Bonadona freed a room for Madruí where she could stay and they took good care of her. And when she was stronger, they showed her all the belongings and incomes of the monastery of Sant Pere, and six months after arriving she died, because of the wounds which had not healed well. And her soul was taken by the angels to paradise, and she was wept over greatly by all the people of the land. And the body of the said woman rests at the door of the church that looks to the north, on the left hand side as one enters the church, and her sarcophagus is not permitted to be covered with either gravestone or arch. And this is done thus by the will of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who performs many miracles and good deeds for her. And this was in the Year of our Lord 979.

20. Com Lodovich, fill de Carles, dotà lo monestir de Sant Pere de Barchinona de dones monges.

Puys aprés d'assò damunt dit, Lodovich, fill de Carles Maynes, donà la dita força qui era lluny I poch //(fol.8r) de la ciutat de Barchinona, ço és, llà hon ell posà lo setge primerament. E dotà aquí I bell monastir de dones monges e aquí féu altar a honor de Sant Pere de Roma, per ço com son pare n'era emperador, les quals monges deguessen servir lo dit monastir e encara la capella de Sant Sadorní qui era aquí pres. E per amor d'açò lo dit Lodovich donà a les dites monges e al monastir gran partida en gir e entorn de la força e del puget aquell e en lo pla molta terra, ço és, fins al portal de la dita ciutat prop lo qual ara és la plassa del forment. E quant lo dit Lodovich, fill de Carles Maynes, hac la dita ciutat de Barchinona partida e·stablida, e lo dit monastir de Sant Pere dotat, e feytes monges e abbadessa, els hac donada assats terra de què podien bé viure, sí se’n tornà a França. E quant fou davant son pare Carles Maynes sí li comptà la conquesta que havia feyta e tot ço que havia ordonat en la ciutat de Barchinona e com havia gitats tots los serrahïns de la terra e la havia poblada de crestians. E com Carles hoy açò, sí·n fou molt alegra e pagat e hac gran plaer com tan bé fahia ses fahenes son fill Lodovich. Adonchs Carles Maynes regnà emperador de Roma e rey de França XLIX anys e IX mesos e puys morí; lo qual fou sebollit en lo monastir de Sant Dionís. E en aquell temps era Sant Gili abbat del dit monastir.

21. De la Bovària e del loch hon staven los bous e·l bestiar del monastir de Sant Pere de Barchinona.

Devets saber que·l monastir de Sant Pere s'i féu fer per temps al mig del pla, envers lo portal de la ciutat de Barchinona, una molt bella torra en manera de força, ço és, ab cases entorn. E aquí tenien los bous e·l bestiar menut per ço com los serrahïns de Mallorcha fahien sovín destruí terra sancta aquí, e prenien e cativaven molts cristians, e encara lo bestiar que se’n menaven. E per ço fou aquí feyta la dita força, que s'i recullissen aquells qui leuraven en lo pla e haguessen aquí recobre. E dehia hom a la dita torra la Bovària de Sant Pere, per ço com hi·staven los bous del dit monastir. E quant la dita torra fou feita //(fol.8v) sí·s poblà per temps segons que hom pot ara veher e diu-li hom Bòria.

50. Com en Borrell, compte de Barchinona, hac bataylla ab serrahïns e morí e gran multitut de gents e fou presa la ciutat de Barchinona per serrahïns.

En Borrell tench lo comtat de Barchinona e d'Urgell poderosament en pau. Pres muller e hac-ne III fills e una filla. Lo primer hac nom Ramon Borrell, lo segon hac nom Bernat, el terç Ermangol e la filla hac nom na Bonadona. E a cap de temps vengren serrahïns de Mallorcha e de Tortosa e de Leyda e de tota la terra en la ciutat de Barchinona. E fou molt dura pestilència e fam en aquell any. Els dits serrahïns de Mallorcha se amanaren la abadessa de Sant Pere, la qual havia nom Madruy, ab totes les monges, qui //(fol.15r) naffrades, qui preses e totes les cartas e libres e roba e tot ço qu·y atrobaren. Puys cremaren lo monastir que no·y romàs res sinó les parets. E per enginy e per voluntat de Déu, en Borrell, comte de Barchinona damunt dit, hac ajuda e secors de sos amichs, e ahontadament gitaren los serrahins de la dita ciutat de Barchinona e los serrahïns de Mallorca se reculliren ab presa que havian feyta e se n'anaren. [...]

52. D'en Ramon Borrell, comte de Barchinona, lo qual féu consagrar la germana sua abadessa del monestir de Sant Pere.

//(fol.15v) Aprés del pare en Borrell, son fill en Ramon Borrell fou comte de Barchinona, lo qual féu consagrar la sua germana, filla del damunt dit Borrell, abadessa de Sant Pere ab gran honor, la qual havia nom na Bonadona. E lo dit Ramon Borrell comte de Barchinona los conformà ab cartas totas las terres e possessions, de les qual los membrà ne pogren saber per gents antigues, les quals los havia donades Lodovich, fill de Carles Maynes, rey de França e emperador de Roma, quant pres la dita ciutat de Barchinona e la tolch a serrahïns. E açò fou en l'any de Nostre Senyor DCCCCLXXVI.

53. Com na Madruy, abadessa del monestir de Sant Pere de Barchinona, vench de Mallorcha.

Ara devets saber que com na Madruy, abadessa del monastir de Sant Pere, la qual se n'amanaren a Mallorcha los damunt dits serrahïns quant preseren Barchinona. Esdevench-se a cap de temps que un seu parent la conech estant ella en Mallorcha cativa, e dix-li que quant ell se’n tornaria en Barchinona, que tot secretament li·n trauria. La qual Madruy ne fuy fort pagada de la prometença que aquell seu parent li hac feyta. E lo dit parent de na Madruy, quant se’n dech passar en Barchinona, membrà-li la prometença que li havia feyta e pensàs en si mateix com l'en gitaria perquè no fos blasmat de la senyoria del rey de Mallorques ne li·n vengués dampnatge. E vench-li·n en cor e Deus qui·u volch e mes-la en una sacha de cotó e féu enginsà, e tant ginyosament que ella pogué d’enar. E puys recullí-la ab leny ab d'altres saques de cotó. E quant son senyor la atrobà menys, féu-la cercar per tota la terra e no la atrobà. Aprés féu·scorcollar lo dit leny qui se’n devia venir en Barchinona e no·y trobaren res. E noresmenys //(fol.16r) sí·scorcollaren les caxas dels mercaders, sí la havien mesa aquí, e no·y trobaren res. E puys hagueren I aster de ferro e per les dites saques de cotó lo messeren sí que la naffraren en IIII o en V lochs de la sua persona, e ella no sonà mot per ço no fos atrobada. E los dits serrahïns ab les gardes qui guardaven la ribera, com no la atrobaren, exiren-se del leny. Enaprés aquell bon hom parent de na Madruy demanà-li com stave e ella respòs que era naffrada e perdia molta sanch. E·l dit leny encontinent que foren fora la ylla, tragueren la dita dona na Madruy de la sacha de cotó, e pensaren-ne alò mils que pogren. E quant foren en Barchinona amanaren-la al monestir de Sant Pere e les dones del monestir hagren-ne gran goig, per ço com la dita Madruy fou la primera abadesa d'aquell monastir e les gents de la terra qui·n dehyen gran bé. E la dita Madruy, com hac estat un jorn aquí, viu tot lo monastir cambiat e no·y conech quaix naguna monge. E la dita filla d'en Borrell, comte de Barchinona, na Bonadona, abadessa del dit monastir de Sant Pere, quant sabé que aquella sancta dona na Madruy era estada abadessa d'aquell monastir, ella·s volch deposar que no fos abadessa, mas que·u fos la dita dona na Madruy, mas ella no·u volch pendre com aquella era filla de comte e d'onrat linatge. Perquè la dita na Bonadona liurà una cambra a la dita na Madruy la qual estech aquí, e pensaren-ne molt bé. E quant fou reforçada, mostrà·ls totes les pertinències e les rendes qui eren del dit monastir de Sant Pere e a cap de VI meses quant ella fou venguda, per les dites naffres qui no eren ben curades, morí. E la sua ànima portaren àngels en paradís, la qual fou molt planta de totes les gents de la terra. Lo qual cors de la dita dona jau a la porta de la església qui guarda vers tramuntana, a mà sinestra com hom entra en la església, e lo seu vas no·s lexa cobrir ab pedra ne ab volta. E assò·s fa per volentat de Nostre Senyor Ihesuchrist qui aquí fa molts miracles e virtuts per ella. E assò fou l'any de Nostre Senyor DCCCCLXXIX.

Who is an author? This is an apparently easy question to answer: an author is the person who has written a text. But the question may become a bit more complicated if we take into account, for example, that the person who writes a text has not necessarily thought up the words that they use, and are perhaps simply transcribing that which they have heard others say, adding words of their own or not. There are, then, those who write texts that someone dictates to them; faithful, or not, to that which they are being told. Others happily copy texts written by another hand, with or without saying so. In the case that they do not say so, today we consider them to be plagiarizing, that they are lying in attributing to themselves what others have written before. And if they do say so, we consider that their function has been that of compiling, making known or spreading through a text the knowledge and thoughts of others, put together and ordered, perhaps, in another way; a function that can become quite important and original. There are also people who produce texts which usurp knowledge thought up and elaborated by others, but which had never been written down before. Authorship, then, is related to the elaboration of texts, but it is a concept that is rich in subtleties. An author can be someone who has never directly written anything, but has caused another person to write down what they have thought.

Today, the authorship of texts is a privileged way of recognizing someone’s capacity to inscribe in the world that which is considered to be significant or new. Habitually, this is considered to be an individual capacity, attributed or ideally attributable to a person who, with their sex and their name, is considered to be the origin of the knowledge, thoughts, representations and feelings that are captured in a text in the written word. Often, it may be interpreted that the individual attribution of authorship of a text endows its writer with authority, recognized thus as the cause or origin of a text. That is: a text signed with a name gives authority to that person. It is precisely because of this that women’s historiography has devoted so very many efforts to the recovery of individual women authors of texts; it is an attempt to restore authority to women. Restore it, because on many occasions it had been previously usurped; there are many cases in which there have been attempts to deny that one woman or another had written a text, especially if it was recognized as being important. As Luce Irigaray says, patriarchal cultures base themselves symbolically on the murder of the mother, hence the political value of affirming maternal genealogy. Women’s historiography has wanted to make feminine authority visible through the recognition of women as having been the producers of texts, of having been authors.

In the Middle Ages, individual authorship was not valued to the same extent that it has been in modern societies. Because of this, to understand how, in the Middle Ages, mechanisms were produced that lead to the inscribing of meaning in texts, helps us to look at the complexity and richness of the subtleties of the concept of authorship of today. In fact, in the Middle Ages, the question of authority and authorship functioned in the opposite way to how it does in the modern world: it was the recognition of authority that created authorship, in a process whereby the origin and/or the source of the knowledge could be completely absent from the production itself of the text. Thus, we know of the subtle and complex thought of some intellectuals through the notes that their students took when listening to their lectures in university classrooms. Above all we have the great example of the Gospels: text of knowledge par excellence, a text from which Jesus is absent as the author, although it is his authority, previously recognised, that generates its writing; writing that results from the mediation of someone in whom authority is recognised as the narrative witness of something attributable to another person. Often, too, we are presented with medieval texts without a name, without an attribution of authorship, that is, their author did not sign them, and the person who afterwards copied them down did not necessarily record who was at the origin of their production. This anonymity does not seem to have negated the authority of the medieval texts; the authority of a text without a signature and without the attribution of authorship did not decrease for those who at that time heard or read it.

In the Middle Ages, the importance of relationship in authorship is very visible.

It was not only the women sponsors or the relationships of patronage that had an extremely important direct function in the production of texts. Other characteristics of medieval culture also meant that relationship had a fundamental importance in the process of writing. There were above all two. In the first place, the fact that it was a manuscript culture, a culture in which, therefore, the texts were open to the silent intervention of editors and copyists, meaning that it was difficult to for an author to secure a written text as fixed. Secondly, medieval culture was one where the oral played a fundamental role not only in the transmission of texts but rather, strictly speaking, in its creation. The many texts that were dialogued or in the form of dialogue that have been conserved (amongst them La Cité des dames, de Christine de Pisan) are an explicit example of the importance of relationship in the process of elaborating a text. Recognising the authorising action of the other does not imply, necessarily, the negation of the self: Christine de Pisan writes in the first person, but her writing is represented as an incitation and as a product of relationships that authorise it. A self that can also be recognised as such through the recognition of authority of the other: it is Adonça de Montsoriu, the editor of the Vita Christi of Isabel de Villena, who puts Isabel’s authorship in writing; Isabel herself seems not to have signed her text. In doing so, she makes her literally into an author, although her companions and first receivers of the text in the community very probably had always known that Isabel was the author.

The Crònica de Sant Pere de les Puel·les les is an account written in Catalan probably at the end of the thirteenth century, although the versions that we know today are from the second half of the fourteenth century. It tells of a supposed Carolingian founding of the monastery and the effects that the raid of al-Mansur had on the monastic life; a raid that we now know took place in 985, although the dates offered by the chronicle are different and we cannot afford them historical credibility. According to the account, the act of aggression destroyed the life of the community and made a prisoner of the Abbess Madruí, who lived as a slave in Mallorca, until she escaped with the help of a relative, freeing herself heroically of slavery. Her act of freedom consisted of returning to the monastery, where she found a welcoming community, working and with a new abbess; little after arriving, the chronicle has her die. Her return liberates the monastery from a symbolic slavery: that of living in a history, a thread of meaning that was broken by masculine aggression. Her return restores to the monastery a time and genealogy of its own, which in this way is, through circumstance, interrupted but not usurped.

La Crònica de Sant Pere de les Puel·les debió ser originalmente compuesta oralmente por las monjas del monasterio de manera colectiva, en relación de reconocimiento de la autoridad de la voz de la otra, en un diálogo que lleva a la elaboración de una memoria común. Y esto, independientemente de quién escribió las versiones que hoy conocemos. Su escritura deriva de la voluntad del monasterio de reconocer la autoridad femenina, y de la capacidad de preservarla significante en el mundo.

The Crònica de Sant Pere de les Puel·les must originally have been composed orally by the nuns of the monastery in a collective manner, in a relationship of recognition of the authority of the voice of another, in a dialogue which led to the elaboration of a shared memory. This is independent of who wrote the versions that we know today. Its writing is derived from the wish of the monastery to recognise feminine authority, and from the capacity to preserve it as meaningful in the world.

The history of the composition of the text of the Crònica de Sant Pere de les Puel·les allows for the reflection in the classroom upon the way in which the action of women, that which they have wanted to inscribe in the world, often fails to respond to the modern formulas and definitions that are based on individuality. The slogan “The anonymous is feminine” becomes a very concrete reality in this example, an example that permits, in a more general way, a reflection upon the need to give value to all that which has meaning although it does not have a name.

In the classroom context, the elaboration of a story through the dialogue between the members of the group can become a practice of collective authorship, done consciously in the first person.

After reading the fragments of the chronicle, a walk through the streets of the Sant Pere neighbourhood of Barcelona, with a map in the hand, may help us to reflect, with the example of the monaquism, upon the historical capacity of intervention in the world of projects that are strictly feminine, as well as acting as a practical class of urban history.