Although the language is legalistic, repetitive and convoluted it is the beautiful script highlighted in gold and illuminated with rabbit and birds that makes the vellum fragment of this 1582 Spanish legal manuscript document desirable.
It appears that lawyer called Alvar Pérez de Espinaredo is appealing an earlier court decision against a certain Miguel Gómez de Montoya (now deceased) on the grounds that the judges failed to show why he, the plaintiff, a man of property and good standing, should have had his case dismissed.
The most interesting part of the document is in the final section in which the lawyer calls on the Judge for justice and an award of costs. He is presenting the appeal on behalf of Joseph Gómez de Montoya [presumably the eldest son of aforementioned Miguel] and Doña Isabel María de Oquendo, his mother and guardian of Juan and Alonso and Nicolás de Montoya, the surviving children of Miguel Gómez de Montoya, her late husband.
Framed x Ref. AR226/DNN/l.andl>ESL PRICE CODE C SOLD Click here for price guide