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Ordinations of the vedalers of Ulldemolins

Date
1343 - 1549
Archive
County Archive of the Priorat
Document type
Textual
Reference code
CAT-ACPR-61-174
Link to the online document
Description

Between the 14th and 16th centuries, the University of Ulldemolins promulgated the Ordinances of the vedalers, a set of rules that regulated the activity of these guardians of the forest and the territory. This document is a living testimony of the political and social organization of the Catalan towns during the Ancien Régime, where local communities exercised their own forms of self-government and regulation. The ordinations reflect the importance of communal management of natural resources – such as forests, pastures or water – and the need to maintain order and coexistence in a rural environment. Through these rules, Ulldemolins connects with a Europe where local communities had an active role in everyday governance. It is an example of how the written word, in the form of customary law, articulated collective life and preserved the identity of a territory.