Archives And Documents 59
Simancas.25 These investigations in the archives have led to the publication
of sources and registers,26 as well as the creation of supplemental microfilm
archives of entire series of documents from Barcelona—such as the registros
of the Cancellaria’s Sardiniae series—on the part of the research institutes of
the Universities of Cagliari and Sassari, the Institute of Italo-Iberian Relations
(today the Institute of the History of Mediterranean Europe), as well as the
CNR and State Archive of Cagliari.
The loss of written memory is therefore a constant that dramatically marks
the entire history of medieval Sardinia even if, as noted, it is not peculiar to
Sardinia alone. The real reason for the loss of Sardinian documents from the
Middle Ages—from the giudice and post-giudice, and even to some extent of
the modern era—can be imputed to human negligence; natural factors—war
and destruction—may have contributed something, but the human factor has
dominated and been decisive. Fires too have contributed to the depletion of
the archives of Sardinia; one may recall the fire of 1386 in Cagliari that dev-
astated nearly two thirds of the city, and then again the fire that struck the
archiepiscopal archive of Cagliari in the early fifteenth century; the devasta-
tion of Oristano in 1478 by the troops of the Viceroy Carroz; the damage suf-
fered by the archives of Sassari during the 1527 attack by the French. The loss
of sources was already lamented in medieval times. In terms of Cagliari’s State
Archive, and therefore the arxiu reale, for example, vol. B5 of the Prammatiche,
istruzioni e carte reali series is a cartulary that amassed copies of documents
drawn from the Archive of the Crown of Aragon in Barcelona in 1425 at the
bidding of King Alfonso V the Magnanimous because he lamented the loss of
the originals; the documentation covers a period of around one hundred years,
from 1323 to 1419.27 In 1471, John II ordered that all privileges, orders, statutes,
and freedoms granted to vassals, cities, and communities be collected in order
to replenish the royal archives.28 The Municipal Archive of both Cagliari and
25 Francesco Loddo Canepa, “Gli archivi di Spagna e la storia Sarda,” Studi Sardi, a. IX, fasc. I–
III (1950), pp. 142–214; Luigi Bulferetti, “La Sardegna nell’Archivio Generale di Simancas,”
Archivio Storico Sardo, 25, fasc. 1–2 (1957), pp. 241–259.
26 See, for example, the work of Olla Repetto, Saggio di fonti, vol. I, Gli anni 1323–1396; Olla
Repetto, “La Sardegna nell’Archivo Histórico Nacional di Madrid,” Archivio Storico Sardo,
XXXI (1980), pp. 147–173.
27 See Catani, “Alcune note sulle carte catalano-aragonesi,” pp. 305–315, esp. p. 307.
28 Archive of the State of Turin, Fondo Sardegna, Inventory 57, political materials, Archives,
p. 95, bundle 3, fasc. 1 (3 August 1471).