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Health patent of St. Petersburg

Date
1790
Archive
Municipal Archive of Barcelona
Document type
Textual
Reference code
CAT-AHCB-AHCB1-002-1L.XI-22/C19
Link to the archive
Description

The importance of Barcelona as a European and international port can be clearly understood through the series of health patents that are preserved within the municipal fund. It is a set of 26,855 patents between 1508 and 1860 issued by the health authorities of cities, towns and places around the world. All ships wishing to disembark in Barcelona had to carry these certificates, which guaranteed that those on board and the goods they were carrying were free of disease and that, therefore, they could be spared from going through the quarantine before disembarkation. Through these patents, the commercial network of Barcelona (and, by extension, all of Catalonia) can be woven with Europe and the world.
This document is a patent of health of a vessel from Saint Petersburg, then the Russian Empire. It is written in Cyrillic and contains a seal. A border encircles the text, with the emblems of the Russian Empire and decorative elements related to sea navigation.