Aquileian Patriarch Raymond della Torre promises Count Albert I of Gorizia that he will grant him the village of Barban in Istria, in accordance with the terms of arbitration previously agreed upon by their respective representatives, once he has received absolution from his current excommunication, so that the excommunication shall not prejudice Albert’s future claim to the property.
R(aymundus) Dei gratia sancte sedis Aquilegensis patriarcha nobili et potenti viro dilecto fideli et amico suo Al(berto) comiti Goricie dilectionem sinceram.
Nobilitati vestre tenore presentium pollicemur, quod obtento absolutionis beneficio super excommunicatione qua nunc tenemini alligati, vobis villam Barbane sitam in Istria, secundum formam arbitrii lati per nobiles viros dilectos fideles et ministeriales nostros Henricum de Pisino, Walterumbertholdum de Spengnemberch, Hugonem de Duino et Iohannem de Çucula inter nos ex una parte et vos ex altera, concedemus, nolentes quod occasione huiusmodi excommunicationis super concessione ipsa vobis in futurum valeat preiudicium aliquod generari.
In cuius rei testimonium presentes litteras nostras vobis concessimus nostri sigilli munimine roboratas.
Datum Civitate XIIIo intrante iunio, quinte indicionis.
(SP D)
“Anno Domini MCCLXXVII, indictione V, die mercurii IX intrante iunio, in Civitate Austria, in palatio patriarchali fuit per dominos Walterumbertoldum de Spenginberche, Iohannem de Zucula patriarche, Ugonem de Diwino et Henricum de Pisino comitis Albretti arbitros pronunciata arbitrando inter eos firma pax et concordia perpetua.” – Julian of Cavalicco, Civitatensis chronica, ed. Tambara, RIS, ser. 2, 24/14 (Città di Castello 1905), p. 12.
The document is dated only with the indiction that, when considering the careers of Count Albert I and Patriarch Raymond della Torre, it can only be equated with either 1277 or 1292. Dopsch (cited above) dated it to 1292 and interpreted it as evidence of Patriarch Raymond’s early involvement in the Anti-Habsburgian league of princes that was forming following the death of King Rudolph I in 1291.
Peter Štih (cited above), corrected this dating by noting that Henry of Pazin was deceased before 1292, as his wife Elisabeth is attested as widow in a charter issued in Poreč on December 8, 1282 (Kandler, Codice diplomatico istriano, 2nd ed. (Trieste 1986), doc. 400, p. 700; soon to be edited here as well). Moreover, chronicler Julian notes precisely under the year 1277 (June 9) the “peace and concord” made between Count Albert I and Patriarch Raymond through the mediation of precisely the same ministerials as mentioned in this document (see Medieval Recollections above). Thus, correctly concludes Štih, the hereby edited document must be dated to 1277, and it is a direct response to the arbitral award pronounced four days earlier. Consequently, it has absolutely nothing to do with the Anti-Habsburgian league discussed by Dopsch.
The patriarch mentions all four arbiters as ministeriales nostros, which could be read as both Duino and Pazin legally pertaining to the Patriarchate of Aquileia. While the lords of Duino were indeed the ministerials of both the Aquileian patriarchs and the counts of Gorizia, this is not the case with the lords of Pazin. Thus, the phrase should be read as “our ministerials” in the meaning of “both mine and yours”.
This is how Barban became part of the Gorizian patrimony in Istria, where it remained until the extinction of the Istrian branch of House Gorizia in 1374.