{
  "schema": "https://archive.neruda-archives.org/files/context/public-context-v1.schema.json",
  "identifier": "NRA-L-000024",
  "language": "en",
  "status": "published",
  "title": "Debt, pledged household goods and the Avignon Mont-de-piété",
  "deck": "A family appeal whose figures preserve an unresolved discrepancy",
  "reviewed_on": "2026-07-29",
  "version": "1.0",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Dating the letter",
      "paragraphs": [
        {
          "text": "The writer dated the letter only '20 April'. The year 1843 is inferred from the Avignon-Tarascon postal marks of 21 April and a later docket, rather than from the heading itself.",
          "sources": [
            1
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "heading": "Debt and pledged possessions",
      "paragraphs": [
        {
          "text": "Writing as the recipient's aunt, M. G. describes debts of 600 in the monetary notation represented by the manuscript's # sign. She says that 150 is owed to the Mont-de-piété and that linen, a place setting and small spoons have been pledged there. She values the pledged goods at more than 700.",
          "sources": [
            1
          ]
        },
        {
          "text": "The three instalments written in the surviving text are 300 for 22 June, 100 for 1 November and 300 for 22 December. They total 700, although the same letter states a debt of 600. The document does not explain the difference, and this context does not silently reconcile it.",
          "sources": [
            1
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "heading": "The Avignon Mont-de-piété",
      "paragraphs": [
        {
          "text": "Avignon's Mont-de-piété opened its doors in 1610. Its role was to advance money against pledged movable property under regulated conditions. A printed set of statutes and rules was issued in Avignon in 1843, the same year assigned to the letter by its postal evidence.",
          "sources": [
            2,
            3
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "evidence_limits": [
    {
      "text": "The currency name is not written out in the letter, so the # sign is preserved without a modern conversion. The reason why the listed instalments total 700 while the stated debt is 600 remains unresolved. No repayment record or Mont-de-piété account for these particular goods has been located.",
      "sources": [
        1,
        2,
        3
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "source-1",
      "kind": "Primary source · manuscript",
      "citation": "Neruda Archives, NRA-L-000024, digital images, postal evidence and reviewed transcript.",
      "url": "https://archive.neruda-archives.org/NRA-L-000024",
      "link_text": "View the archive record",
      "support": "Supports the inferred date, relationship, debt, pledged goods, valuation and instalments."
    },
    {
      "id": "source-2",
      "kind": "Municipal archive",
      "citation": "Archives municipales d'Avignon, 'Du Mont-de-piété au crédit municipal', digital exhibition.",
      "url": "https://www.expositions-archives.avignon.fr/du-mont-de-pi%C3%A9t%C3%A9-au-cr%C3%A9dit-municipal",
      "link_text": "View the exhibition",
      "support": "Supports the institutional history and purpose of the Avignon Mont-de-piété."
    },
    {
      "id": "source-3",
      "kind": "Published primary source",
      "citation": "Règlement et statuts du Mont-de-piété d'Avignon (Avignon: Seguin aîné, 1843), Bibliothèque numérique patrimoniale Odyssée, RES 260098.",
      "url": "https://odyssee.univ-amu.fr/items/show/801",
      "link_text": "View the 1843 statutes",
      "support": "Confirms a contemporary published regulatory text for the institution."
    }
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "NRA-L-000024-claim-01",
      "statement": "The year 1843 is inferred from postal and docket evidence rather than written in the letter heading.",
      "evidence_type": "scholarly_inference",
      "certainty": "strongly_supported",
      "source_ids": [
        "source-1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "NRA-L-000024-claim-02",
      "statement": "The letter describes pledged household goods and a debt to the Mont-de-piété.",
      "evidence_type": "stated_in_document",
      "certainty": "documentary",
      "source_ids": [
        "source-1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "NRA-L-000024-claim-03",
      "statement": "The written instalments total 700 while the stated debt is 600.",
      "evidence_type": "scholarly_inference",
      "certainty": "confirmed",
      "source_ids": [
        "source-1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "NRA-L-000024-claim-04",
      "statement": "The discrepancy between the total debt and instalments is unresolved.",
      "evidence_type": "unresolved",
      "certainty": "open",
      "source_ids": [
        "source-1"
      ]
    }
  ]
}