Comtat de Barcelona i Principat de Catalunya. Sobre l'ús historiogràfic anòmal del vocabulari políticojurídic històric

Abstract

tract This review shows some of the issues caused by an excessive use, in the contemporary period, of the concept county instead of principality as a political and legal category to define the Catalunya of the Old Regime. Although, principality was the most common juridic and legal category for the political community in Catalunya, it often remained forgotten, ignored or distorted by a historiography that was never interested in the historical meaning. To prove the historical importance of the concept principality versus county referring to the Late Middle Age and Early Modern Age Catalunya, this article reconstructs the historical concept of Barcelona County and Principality of Catalunya and goes on to analyze the use of both concepts in the diaries of the Diputació del General de Catalunya and the Consell de Cent at the beginning of the xviiith century. Finally, it offers an hypothesis about the historical reasons that caused this historiography issue.