Contabilidad y cursividad: los libros de cargo y descargo anual del cabildo catedralicio sevillano a fines de la Edad Media.

Abstract

This paper aims to reconstruct the administrative and accounting system used in the Cathedral of Seville during the medieval period. Specially, that one utilized to carry out the economic resources management in the institution. To do this, we will focus on the administrative books, in particular in the Libros de cargo y descargo anual, accounting books written by the officials who were involved in such management: the mayordomos (administrators) and contadores (auditors). We will analyze the codicological and paleographic characteristics of these books. We will try to emphasize the use of cursive scripts whose easy and fast execution allowed to do swiftly the repetitive calculations and the work as light as possible. And finally, to compare these versions, more currentes, with others used in books with very different material characteristics and functions.