I remember the grandmother With his black and white gingham check robe and thick straps. perpetual grief Winding herself sitting on a chair. He carried the shaft so close to his chest that the rods clashed against it, causing a rhythmic percussion that could last for hours. Music in the key of heat. “In the summer, every worm is alive”, he consoled himself, while I learned this and other made-up phrases that came out of a mouth made to speak and give loud kisses to the little ones in the house.
When we got to learn from grandparents! Transmitters of popular, traditional, ancestral knowledge… that we cannot afford to lose. That is why it is so important that a small publishing house from Figueres, Brau, has been working for ten years to fill a gap that its promoters detected in the Catalan bibliography. There were practically no publications that dealt in depth with artisan trades.
And this is how the collection Tools and tasks was born, a choral work based on monographs commissioned from top scholars in each subject. The first volume: Farmer’s tools and jobs, by the doctor in contemporary history Llorenç Ferrer i Alòs. Words and objects that we don’t even imagine are reborn throughout the pages of the book to prevent them from falling into oblivion and, therefore, disappearing.
Then came other publications, such as those dedicated to popular costumes, to the traditional or peasant house, to forge, tile, glass, fishing… until reaching the last, very recent one, which deals with a topic that moves everything, money.
The coin of the Catalan lands of Miquel de Crusafont, quite a benchmark in numismatics, is full of curiosities. Because every coin has a story. The first of all comes from Lydia, from Asia Minor in the 7th century BC, and was intended to facilitate fiscal perceptions. The Greek Moors saw that it was useful for exchanges and they are the ones who took it to Empúries and Roses, the first two places in the Iberian Peninsula to mint coins.
Between the 13th and 18th centuries, more than 80 Catalan towns made their own, a rather unique fact throughout Europe. Of course, they were of little value, like quarters or money, small units that have ended up designating the whole.
And it’s because, as grandma used to say, “knowledge doesn’t make us rich”, and this collection makes us rich. And not exactly in money.
