Page 89 - Latent Defect or Excessive Price?Exploring Early Modern Legal Approach to Remedying Defects in Goods Exchanged for Money - Bruijn

EARLY MODERN CASTILIAN LAW
the seller's bad faith.45 Apparently, it was impossible to bring a remedy for latent defects against a seller in good faith. Though this exclusion goes against medieval ius commune, it squares well with how some early modern Castilian scholars thought about the liability of sellers in good faith.46 These and similar notable findings are discussed against the backdrop of contemporary legal and theological scholarship throughout this chapter in the sections arranged in accordance with the themes presented in this book's chapter on methodology.
Finally, before proceeding with its substantial part, I would like to draw attention to the handling of the manuscripts in this chapter. A first remark concerns the use of footnotes as far as they concern the pleitos. The files I investigated in Valladolid are stored in card- board boxes, in Spanish: cajas. These boxes contain elaborate descriptions of the procedures from first instance to the appeal to the Royal Chancery. Moreover, they bring the researcher separate copies of the parties' claims, letters in which power of attorney is granted, interlocutory orders, renunciation clauses, and final judgements. In short, one can find all sorts of documents which are part and parcel of a sound procedure and which the Chancery's clerks consequently found necessary to preserve as proof of a proper proceeding. Out of these heaps of paper the documents I thought relevant were scanned by the staff of the Archive. To facilitate access to the documents which are quoted in this book, the footnotes refer to the caja, the file and the number of the scan on which the passage can be found. Though some manuscripts contain folia-numbering, I chose not to refer to those, since this numbering is not always consistent. Moreover, loose documents more often than not are left unnumbered.
An example of how a pleito is referred to is: 'Pl. civ., F. Alonso (f) (1577), Caja 447, 1, sc. 39'. In full: 'Pl(eitos) civ(iles), F(ernando) Alonso (f(allecido), Caja 447, 1, sc(an) 39'. Fernando Alonso is the name of the scribe (escribano). The term fallecido, as opposed to the word olvidado ('forgotten'), indicates that the mentioned case has been concluded by means of a final judgment by the Royal Chancery. Writs of execution are referred to in the following manner: 'Reg. ej., Caja 349, 13, sc. 2'. In full: 'Reg(istro) ej(ecutoria), Caja 349, 13, sc(an) 2'.
In transcribing the manuscripts I kept the Castilian as I found it. As a consequence, acutes (´) and circumflexes (~) which are much used in today's Castilian are often missing. Furthermore, I rendered abbreviations in full without further indication. Abbreviations are such a common practice in the humanist and cadenada handwriting-style that a separate indication of all abbreviations would result in illegible transcriptions.47 Incomprehensible or illegible words are represented in brackets with a question mark \[...?\]. Both scans of the
45 Pl. civ. F. Alonso (f.), Caja 128, 4 (1577), sc. 3: 'y ser ansi que abiendo bendido a mi | parte y al dicho su marido los dichos bienes por libres de | censo | y tributo y binculo an parezido serbiendo de binculo'; Pl. civ. F. Alonso (f), Caja 493, 3, sc. 7: '...y es ansi que el dicho pedro hortiz | de villalon el moco ven- | dio el dicho cavallo por sano | y de hedad de cinco años sin | ninguna tacha';
46 See 3.2.2.1.
47 For more information on the styles used by the Royal Chancery's scribes see Marín Martínez,
Paleografía, passim.
77