Casas - History Lab

Cadastre of the Ensenada

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:42 +0000

Between 1750 and 1754 all the towns in “las Castillas” were subjected to an interrogation consisting of the following 40 questions: Name of the town (question 1); jurisdiction (2); extension and limits (3); types of land (4, 5); trees (6, 7, 8 and 13); measures of surface and capacity used (9, 10); species, quantity and value of fruits (11, 12, 14 and 16); tithes and first fruits (15); mines, salt mines, mills and other “artefacts” (17); livestock (18, 19 and 20); census of population, with neighbours, labourers, solemnly poor (21, 35 and 36), census of clerics (38) and convents (39); houses and other buildings (22); goods belonging to the commons (23), sisas and arbitrios (24), expenses of the commons, such as salaries, festivals, paving, fountains (25), taxes (26 and 27); industrial and commercial activities, with the utility of the goods or services produced: taverns, inns, shops, bakeries, butchers, bridges, boats on rivers, markets and fairs (29), hospitals (30), money changers and merchants (31), shopkeepers, doctors, surgeons, apothecaries, notaries, muleteers etc. (32); masons, stonemasons, masons, stonemasons, blacksmiths, cobblers etc. (33, 34); ships (37); alienated goods (28) and the King’s own revenues (40); the answers to these questions are obtained following a previously regulated process. This panoramic view of the Kingdom is a small part of a larger survey, the so-called Cadastre of the Marquis de la Ensenada, set in motion by Royal Decree of Ferdinand VI on 10 October 1749, as a preliminary step to fiscal reform, replacing the complicated and unjust provincial revenues with a single tax, the so-called Contribution. The Single Tax was never implemented, but it has left an important volume of documentation in our archives, the General Answers are kept in various State Archives. The General Archive of Simancas holds the complete certified copy of the replies of the 13,000 localities of the Crown of Castile. Preservation reasons led to the initiation of the microfilming process. In the 1980s, the 545 books of General Answers kept in Simancas were microfilmed. The frequent consultation of these collections and the need to facilitate access made digitisation advisable, which was carried out by the Document Reproduction Service (SRDAE) from microfilm during 2004 and 2005. The result is 350,000 images of documents with very neat calligraphic handwriting, easy to read and with hardly any abbreviations; very few pages have legibility problems, such as faded inks or ink transfer from the back. These images are now available on this page.

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Protection on a window grille in El Bonillo (Albacete)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:31:09 +0000

The safety and security of the house was the concern of every family. A good door was accompanied by window guards. These had to be made of a hard, weather-resistant material such as iron. The grille shown here corresponds to a window in El Bonillo. The element is made up of a rectangle with 7 vertical bars and 4 horizontal ones that cross them. All of this is framed in a frame attached to the wall. At the upper ends of the frame there are two figures in the shape of cones, which are joined to another central figure with two spiral ornaments.

The post Protection on a window grille in El Bonillo (Albacete) first appeared on History Lab.

Street of stone and earth in Vandelaras de Arriba (Albacete)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:31:03 +0000

The rural world has been characterised by sober constructions with costly and durable materials. An example of this can be found in Vandelaras de Arriba, a living witness of historical survival. The photograph shows a stone and earth street with 3 houses in the background. These houses have stone masonry and rammed earth walls, with few windows and no chimneys. The roofs, placed over the chambers of the dwellings, are single-pitched and covered with tiles.

The post Street of stone and earth in Vandelaras de Arriba (Albacete) first appeared on History Lab.

Timber frame to support the roof of a house

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:31:03 +0000

The construction of dwellings during the Modern Age was conditioned by the materials available, either because of existing raw materials or because of the economic availability of these materials.
One of the most important parts of the house was the roof. A good roof made the difference between collapse and water seepage and the well-being of the home. To maintain good support, the builders used wooden frames to support the tiled or vegetable roofs. This photograph is an example of a frame, belonging to a house in Salinas de Pinilla, near El Bonillo (Albacete). It shows various elements that give shape to the structure: at the highest part, wooden beams are placed to support the roof. These logs are held in the central part by a vertical pendolon, from which two counterpoints emerge towards the log. This intermediate area is supported in the lower part by horizontal beams.

The post Timber frame to support the roof of a house first appeared on History Lab.

Age of children in the household in Albacete (1787)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:31 +0000

The number of children in the household varies with their age. Unsurprisingly, those under 18 dominate the data with a total of 2,431: 8 out of 10. Between the ages of 18 and 35 the figure drops sharply to 630 (2 out of 10). Finally, those over 35 account for 1% of the total (37 children). The data confirm the age-split structures that are configured with the life cycle of individuals. The greater the economic and legal dependency, the higher the rate of residence in the family home; on the contrary, when a marital bond is created, people leave home to form a new residential nucleus. Within these dynamics, variables can be differentiated according to the sex of the child. Thus, while men leave home more frequently, female guardianship was framed first under paternal parental authority and then with the husband. Consequently, the higher rate of celibacy among women meant that they were slower to leave the family home. If this happens at an advanced age, we find the contrast in the younger age of women, whose marriage age is lower than that of men (in proportion, they married less, but they married earlier), favouring the departure of women from the home.

The post Age of children in the household in Albacete (1787) first appeared on History Lab.

Cervantes and 17th century Madrid

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:27:35 +0000

Interactive viewer which, based on Pedro Texeira’s map of 1656 – the most detailed, meticulous and extensive of its time – allows you to explore the Madrid of the 17th century, where Miguel de Cervantes and other characters of the Golden Age lived. It is a map with different layers of information superimposed on the current map of Madrid, with different options (white background, street map, image), with the possibility of marking areas and points of interest, obtaining images or locating the houses of characters of the period (Cervantes, Velázquez, Lope de Vega, Góngora, Calderón de la Barca, Quevedo, Tirso de Molina…). Also parishes, convents, hospitals, fountains, parks, streets, squares, orchards and landscapes, city gates, the Royal Palace and other buildings of the nobility (Duke of Osuna, Maqueda, Pastrana…), among other information. By clicking on it, for each of the points indicated, a brief description of the place, the building, the spot, the personage, etc. is given, as well as a list of the references or bibliography from which this information has been obtained.

The post Cervantes and 17th century Madrid first appeared on History Lab.