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Jacobo (sometimes found as Jacomo) was the form of the Latin Iacobus used in the Iberian Peninsula at the time only by Italians. On the basis of his son’s name and of a sixteenth-century document that records information related to the father’s burial, his surname appears to have been Junta, a Hispanizing of the Italian Giunta (-i) or Zonta. Jacobo is thought to have studied at Bologna before arriving in Castile in the period 1250/1252. He is first documented as the principal allocator (repartidor) in the land distribution that followed the Christians’ reconquest of Murcia (1266), a post that implies his presence in the kingdoms of Alfonso X before then. In a royal document of 1267 he is addressed as “Maestre Jacobo de las leys,” and in one of 1268 as “Maestre Jacobo, nuestro juez.” His residence in and association with Murcia seems certain by 1274, and he held appointments there as a royal judge and as collector of royal income or auditor of royal accounts. Among his other assignments were those of principal in the second repartimiento of Lorca (1268–1272); confirmer, with two others, of the repartimiento of the Campo de Cartagena (1269); and participant in a mission to Aragón to seek aid against the Muslims during the campaign of 1278–1279.