ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the inhabitants of Manresa by examining the experience of a particular family, the Sartas, over the course of the long fourteenth century. It describes the family structure, marriage strategies, material ambit, professional life and political careers of as many family members as our documents allow. Manresan families of the fourteenth century were nuclear, meaning that they lived in relatively small households of four or five family members, plus a small number of servants, which would have decreased as the century wore on. Geralda's experience provides an opportunity to compare the relative sizes of castellan and merchant dowries in fourteenth-century Bages. The partnership of Amargos, Sarta and des Valls that had been restructured in the wake of the Black Death suffered its first loss of a partner during the second wave of plague in 1362–1363.
