ABSTRACT
The vast majority of papal letters in the Middle Ages were issued not on the initiative of the pope or his government but in response to petitions, or supplications, addressed to him from all over Latin Christendom. The petitions themselves are of value as indications of the desires and aspirations of those who submitted them. A number of original petitions of the fourteenth century, written on strips of parchment or paper or in the form of rolls, survive. The Madrid roll enables one to reinterpret another group of petitions in Barcelona, dating from c. 1309. The pope or the vicechancellor signed the petitions with Audiat followed by the name of the judge. The pope signed each petition with Fiat A, but in the case of the second petition it was followed by the words 'ostendantur concessionis littere', a requirement which doubtless applied to both petitions.
