Archives And Documents 53
precautionary creation of copies that were to be deposited in the patrimonial
archive of Cagliari; however, it is precisely this rule that appears to have been
“the primary cause of the scarcity of archival documents dating to the four-
teenth century in Sardinia, both because it was often ignored (the Aragonese
sovereigns frequently reaffirmed it, and this, therefore, is a sign that it was vio-
lated) and because mandating the preservation of a copy as a mere precau-
tionary measure paved the way for its destruction once it was certain that the
original had arrived safe and sound in Barcelona.”6 The contrast between the
archival policies of the Aragonese sovereigns and the actual behavior of their
subordinate officials is obvious; while the former claimed to have the origi-
nals in their possession and anticipated their possible dispersion, the latter
were not particularly concerned with drafting, let alone preserving copies. If
it is relatively easy to reconstruct the vicissitudes of the Catalan-Aragonese
and Spanish archival resources preserved in Sardinia and if it is possible, by
integrating these with Iberian documentary resources, to fill in the gaps from
which they suffer, then the situation appears to be very different from that
of other medieval archives on the island, of which there remain only fleeting
memories and rare evidence.
Examining the Sources: Some Reflections
In the last 50 years, historical research on Sardinia has seen considerable prog-
ress, thanks to vast and systematic archival research, which has extended from
the island’s archives to the libraries and archives of other geographical regions
focused on the Mediterranean and the repositories of documents of the Iberian
Peninsula, particularly the Archive of the Crown of Aragon in Barcelona. Due
to the disconcerting gaps in the documentation recorded in Sardinian archives,
and, above all, to the multiplicity and complexity of political, economic, and
cultural relations that existed over the centuries between the Sardinian peo-
ple and the most important urban centers and monastic settlements of the
Italian peninsula (Genoa, Pisa, Monte Cassino, Camaldoli), but also Marseilles
(the Benedictine abbey of St. Victor), and other European entities (France
of the Carolingian kings, the Swabian dynasty of the Hohenstaufen, and later,
the count-kings of the Crown of Aragon), there is a crucial need for synthet-
ic studies. Many of these scholarly incentives—so critical for deepening our
knowledge of the late medieval history of Sardinia—we owe to the research
6 Olla Repetto, Saggio di fonti, pp. 15, 100–101.