I am Berenguer Tovia, brutener artisan of the city of Valencia.

I was born in Valencia 37 years ago, the year of the Incarnation of the Lord in 1279. As told by my father, grandfather Berenguer, who barely remembers anything, was the first of the family to come here right after King Jaime I the Conqueror finished taking the city from the Moors. He was a pelaire in his hometown back in Catalonia until he bought the workshop (that I now own) from a soldier of Navarre. I took over the workshop here in the pobla of Bisbe shortly after I married Guillema, when I was 23. I am a bruneter, and my job is to make and sell fabrics made of wool from Morella.
My wife and my two daughters spin the wool, then take it to the weaver and, once woven, use clippers on the cloth to get rid of dirt and grease. I myself thistle and stretch the wool to size it properly and, finally, my trusted dyer colors the wool and gets it ready to ship. I sell some of my goods in the city´s fabrics market, but I also use the workshop as a store. I can not complain: people buy a lot because our fabrics are becoming better by the day; now, they are nearly as good as any cloth from France or Flanders. Other than my family, I have an apprentice: a boy helps me in the workshop so that he can learn the trade. I hope my little Pasqualet, who just turned 2, can inherit a good deal from my growing success.