Although in ancient times the existence of Count Salomó de Cerdanya was questioned, going so far as to say that he was actually the Solomon of Sacred History, the truth is that there is sufficient documentary evidence to affirm his existence. The Gesta Comitum Barcinonensium themselves mention this count and even refer to his ethnicity: “Salomone nacione gallicum” (MH. col.538), despite his name of Jewish-Byzantine tradition.
In fact, among the oldest counts of Cerdanya, he is perhaps the one with the most documentary evidence (…).
The counts of this period appear as leaders, warriors and above all, exercising public justice. Thus, a year before the expedition to Córdoba, in 862, a trial “in ipso mallo publico” took place in All (in vico Alle), presided over by the count (Martí Santjaume, 1928, p.467). The “mall” was, among the ancient Germanic towns whose heirs are our first local counts, the assembly formed by free men with the right to bear arms, presided over by the leader (Rovira i Virgili, 1922-1934, vol. II, p.242).
In this trial, a man named Witiscle, nephew of Ailó, son of count Asnar Galí, complained that a man named Sennane wanted to have rights over the “villa” Sedret (valley of the Querol river). Sennane said he had the town for the benefit of his lord, Count Salomó (“per beneficio de seniori meo”). Witiscle claimed, on the contrary, that Ailó gave him the town with its church of Sant Martí (“domum Sancti Martini”) and that later Count Sunifred took it and gave it to Isarn illegally (“absque legis order”). The judges, after listening to the parties, gave the right to Witiscle. Finally, the archpriest Protasi, probably the founder of Eixalda and Cuixà, wrote the document. This ends with a reference to the joy with which Witiscle received the count’s justice (“congaudeat se ipse Witisclus in nostro iudicio sua iusticia recepisse”) (…).
Of Salomó we do not know where he was born or where he died, but his personality is sufficiently profiled as a pro-Franco character, but at the same time prudent and wise, who knew how to stay next to the sun that warmed the most at every moment . He ruled Cerdanya as mónim from 862 to 868. R. d’Abadal (1983, p.30) states that Solomon must have ruled Cerdanya from the death of Sunifred, that is, around 848. However, the fact is that Salomó’s performance is documented only from the aforementioned year 862, when he appears presiding over the trial of All.
[Extract from the book “Els oblidats Comtes de Cerdanya (798-1117)” by Joan Blasi i Solsona (1999. pp 85 to 89)].
