Tracking down the Glitter of Gold in the "Diplomatari de Santes Creus"

The use of gold coinage in the Medieval Catalonian counties has received considerable academic attention over the past forty years. A crucial factor, the characterisation of individuals using gold currency as their basis of accountancy, however, has to date been neglected. The main aim of this paper is to tackle this issue on the basis of the Diplomatari of Santes Creus. After crossing the data with those extracted from seven other documental sets in the Catalonian counties, the kinship and social links and the properties of 86% of users of gold currency in Santes Creus have been identified. Results show that accounting solutions based on gold weight or gold coinage were essentially used by a closed and not too extensive group of magnates of variable status, connected by kinship, vassalage and proximity links.