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Epistola 2. La lettre diplomatique

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Hélène Sirantoine

III. — Enjeux de mémoire : la conservation des lettres dans les archives et chancelleries médiévales

Letters in Iberian cartularies (12th-13th centuries)

Hélène Sirantoine

Texte intégral

Cartularization, genre/s, and «diplomatization» of the letter

  • 1 I am grateful to María da Rosário Morujão, Ruth Miguel Franco and Amélie De las Heras for granting (...)
  • 2 The expression was coined by Bertrand, 2006. Although prior studies preceded it, indicative of a tr (...)
  • 3 See in particular Chastang, 2006a.
  • 4 Ibid., pp. 24 and 28, borrowing the expression to Jacques Le Goff.

1In the past quarter century, the scope of inquiry devoted to cartularies has changed profoundly1. As part of what has been labelled the «Nouvelle Diplomatique2», new attention has been drawn to the intentionality, uses and conservation of medieval documentary writings. The recent neologism «cartularization3» invites the study of not only the process through which records were gathered into codices, but also its derivated consequences —archeology and diffusion of the text, construction of the institutional memory, etc.— that fashion the cartulary into a «document-monument4».

  • 5 After the programmatic articles of the late Carlos Sáez Sánchez (Sáez Sánchez, 2003-2004, 2005), in (...)
  • 6 Rodríguez Díaz et alii, Liber Testamentorum Ecclesiae Ovetensis; Nascimento, Fernández Catón, Liber (...)
  • 7 Azcárate, Escalona, 2001; Peterson, 2011.
  • 8 Sáez Sánchez, 2001; Sáez Sánchez, Gutiérrez García-Muñoz, 2002; Id., 2003; Azcárate et alii, 2006; (...)
  • 9 Henriet, Sirantoine, 2013.

2The Iberian documentation has not escaped this renewed interest in cartularies5. Critical editions, along with studies and facsimiles, have increased in recent decades, respecting the original format of the cartulary and parting from the tradition of the «diplomatic collection6». Many studies have been published too, some of them aiming at the reconstruction of cartularies now no longer extant on the basis of the evidence found in surviving ones7, others dedicated to the variety of discourses emanating from these codices, often in relation with the institutional memory they built or deconstructed8, or with the ideologies they transmitted9.

  • 10 See Bádenas Población, 2011. Also, Ruth Miguel Franco is currently preparing a study dedicated to t (...)
  • 11 Bourgain, Hubert, 1993; Chastang, 2006b.
  • 12 Alonso Álvarez, 2015. See also the article by Miguel Franco, 2017, on the Toledan cartulary-chronic (...)
  • 13 Henriet, Sirantoine, 2013.
  • 14 Tock, 1993, on cartularies of the province of Rheims; more recently, Miguel Franco, 2015, again on (...)
  • 15 We think here of the Historia Compostellana, halfway between episcopal gesta (it narrates the glori (...)

3In a more or less implicit manner, most of these works also address the question of the cartulary as a type of source, and its relation with the notion of genre. Attentive to the discursive strategies that exceed the cartulary’s legal and factual contents, scholars have engaged with what had been long deemed as marginal material: index, titles and rubrics10, prologues and prefaces11, narratives12, ornamentation13, etc. These are marginal if one considers only the concerns proper to traditional Diplomatic. Yet non-diplomatic sources14 become central once one observes not only the legal claims but the intentionality linked to the realisation of a cartulary. They also lead to reconsider our conceptions of the boundaries between genres, and even to challenge the definition of diplomatic codices15.

  • 16 See the works of Morelle, 1993; Id., 1996; continuing with the case of the Historia Compostellana, (...)
  • 17 Constable, 1976, p. 17.
  • 18 Guyotjeannin, 2008.

4To consider the transmission of letters in cartularies participates in this effort of (re)conceptualization of the cartulary as an object of inquiry, by paying particular attention to the integration of material formerly considered marginal to the diplomatic genre16. This supposes first to specify what are the criteria used in this study to select the cases to analyze. Without being exhaustive, the oldest Iberian cartularies have been examined (those produced or started at the latest in the twelfth century), with a focus on documents formally composed as letters —i.e. comprising a minima greetings, and possibly a farewell subscription17— and whose contents do not include a legal dimension, nor clearly decide on a question of law, nor transmit an official order affecting the life of the institution that produced the cartulary. In short, and to use the criterion and terms of Olivier Guyotjeannin in his article on the notion of «diplomatic letter18», the present study deals with material that cannot have the value of a title deed, and whose insertion into the cartulary may therefore seem surprising —a surprise we intend to examine and question.

  • 19 This is discussed further by María Luisa Rodríguez Pardo in this volume, with respect to royal docu (...)
  • 20 See Miguel Calleja’s contribution on the writs of Alfonso VII of Castile-León (1126-1157) in this v (...)
  • 21 Edition in González de Fauve, La orden premonstratense en España, t. II, no 500, p. 397.
  • 22 Ibid.

5Thus has been left aside the presence of epistolary reminiscences in charters copied into cartularies, in particular the presence of a salutatio, a feature observed repeatedly in some manuscripts19. Another decision has consisted choosing not to consider certain types of acts on the median between the diplomatic and epistolary genres. This includes writs, a category of writings that emerged in the Iberian Peninsula during the twelfth century in response to the growing needs of fluid communication between the kings and their officials, and that is characterized by a strong hybridization, between legal act and letter20. Contemporaries themselves seem to have considered them as letters: the Becerro Mayor of the monastery of Aguilar de Campoo (13th c.) contains a writ from Alfonso VIII of Castile (1158-1214) to his merino Gonzalo Miguelez, in which he asks him (mando uobis) to act «as soon as he will have seen [his] letter» (statim uisis litteris)21. Nevertheless, writs invite royal officials to a swift action in cases involving, when they are transmitted in cartularies, the life of the institutions that compiled them. Their presence in diplomatic codices is thus explained by the fact that they bear mention of these cases, and often of a royal decision concerning them. In the example above, the merino Gonzalo Miguelez was appointed to see to the destruction of a press built by the inhabitants of Aguilar de Campoo against the interests of the monastery, whose community complained to King Alfonso VIII. The ruler decided on the case, issued a charter about it (in ista carta quam mitto uobis sub meo sigillo), and invited his official to enforce his decision (mando uobis quod […] faciatis […] defacere illam presam)22.

  • 23 To which they can also be sometimes considered as a counterpart, with the inclusion of the verb man (...)
  • 24 See on this point the remarks, in his classical Manuel de Diplomatique, of Giry, 1894, p. 662.

6A second category of writings has required some thorny choices: the letters of popes and cardinals. These constitute a body of materials whose hybrid character is as pronounced as in the case of writs23. By definition, any document issued by the popes is, at that time, a letter24. This characteristic seems to have troubled modern editors, who sometimes use unclear terminology to designate papal letters copied in cartularies: some of them distinguish simple letters from privileges, when others refer generically to bulls. Admittedly this epistolary documentation presents quite a varying formal appearance and solemnity, and a diversity of objectives. Logically, cartularists copied in their precious manuscripts the correspondence testifying to the properties and rights granted by popes to their institution, the term privilegium being the most commonly used to refer to these documents in the manuscripts’ rubrics, where they appear. In this study two cases are examined, which both include large dossiers of papal privileges: the Livro Santo of the monastery of the Holy Cross of Coimbra (initiated in 1155), and the Livro Preto of the same place’s cathedral (started during the third quarter of the twelfth century). But it is not this documentation that sparked our interest in this study, as they work as equivalent to the charters and diplomas that evidence the rights and properties of an institution.

  • 25 Edition in Lucas Álvarez, «Libro becerro del Monasterio de Valbanera», no 211, pp. 611-612.

7Other Roman letters were copied in cartularies though: of less solemnity they generally convey decisions of popes and cardinals, are addressed to clerics or kings, sometimes in response to a request, and they concern questions or disputes regarding the properties, rights, or the institutional life of the custodians of the cartulary, for which they provide settlement. For example, in the Libro Becerro of the monastery of Valbanera (12th c.), a letter from the cardinal-legate Gregory sent in February 1158 while he was visiting the peninsula, records the decision he made about a dispute between the abbot and the prior of Nájera25. If rubrics generally refer to these as epistolae or litterae, the presence of most of these letters in cartularies cannot surprise either, in as much as their contents gave them a legal value. And yet, among these less solemn letters, and unlike the cases mentioned above, a few appear to have no legal content at all. These letters are the ones particularly examined in this work.

  • 26 A precisely archaeological study of the letters preserved in cartularies is out of the range of thi (...)
  • 27 See in this volume the chapters of María Luisa Pardo Rodríguez, María Josefa Sanz Fuentes and Migue (...)
  • 28 See Chastang, 2009 and the three levels of analysis which he distinguishes to study textual reinves (...)

8In the end, leaving aside writs and most of the papal letters, few epistolary writings survived in the Iberian cartularies, and we will consider here the manuscripts produced in only four institutions. However, they provide further evidence testifying to the complexity of diplomatic codices as a type of source, and allow us to query the process by which a letter becomes «diplomatic». Indeed, in the perspective of a horizontal study of the textual transmission achieved through the production of cartularies —as opposed to the vertical relationship between original and copy26— the insertion of a letter is no longer considered any accident27. The formerly only anecdotal interest sparked by the exceptional survival of sources that, without their insertion in cartularies, would have disappeared —as was the case for the majority of the letters written— fades, and leaves room for mature reflection centered on the issues at stake behind their textual reinvestment28. Moreover, the «cartularized» letter invites a shift in our way of understanding the «diplomatic letter»: it implies questioning the criteria for a «diplomatization» of the letter, finding these not in a letter’s formal characteristics or potentially legal value, but in the vehicle of its transmission.

«Cartularized» letters in the Iberian Peninsula: a few examples

The Liber Testamentorum of the cathedral of Oviedo

  • 29 The letters transmitted in this cartulary are also evoked in the chapter that María Josefa Sanz Fue (...)
  • 30 Liber Testamentorum Ecclesiae Ovetensis, Archivo Catedralicio (Oviedo).
  • 31 Cartulary edited by Valdés Gallego, El Liber Testamentorum Ovetensis. Accompanying a facsimile of t (...)
  • 32 On Pelagius’ activities at the head of his diocese and his role as promoter and ideologue of his se (...)
  • 33 See in particular Ead., 2015, on Pelagius’ endeavours to combine and write the historical narrative (...)
  • 34 Modern criticism readily called Pelagius a «forger», and the analysis of the textual manipulations (...)
  • 35 Yarza, 1995.
  • 36 Henriet, Sirantoine, 2013.

9The cartulary produced in the scriptorium of Oviedo’s cathedral in the early decades of the twelfth century is, to our knowledge, the first one including a letter with no legal content29. This manuscript, known as Liber Ecclesiae Testamentorum Ovetensis30, is undoubtedly the most impressive of the earliest Iberian cartularies31. Entirely intended for the demonstration of the prestige of Oviedo’s Church, its manufacture is due to the initiative of Bishop Pelagius (1101-1143), who devoted his episcopate to opposing the influence of the Toledan Church and preserving his diocese’s exemption, first granted in 1105 by Pope Paschal II32. Thus, the Liber is a cartulary, containing 77 testamenti (i.e. written documents) issued by rulers and private individuals; but it also comprises papal bulls and non-diplomatic pieces33 that all contribute, in one way or another and with ample room for textual manipulation34, to the argument built by Pelagius to prove the antiquity and the merits of his Church. In addition, the manuscript showcases a rich iconographic program35, including a series of full-page donation scenes, where Asturian rulers who issued documents are represented alongside recipient bishops. As both an illustration and manifest of the relations to be maintained between royal and episcopal power, such as conceived by Pelagius, these illuminations complete the cartulary’s texts to convert it into a meaningful manuscript36.

  • 37 LT, fos 5voB-6roB, pp. 471-472.

10Noteworthy for this study’s purpose, two letters included in the Liber participate in the elaboration of this meaning37. Both are introduced by a rubric designating them as epistolae, attributed to a Pope Iohannes, addressed to the Asturian King Alfonso II (791-842), and were supposedly sent from Rome in July 821 and on 29 November 822 respectively. In the first letter, Pope John takes the king under his protection and grants metropolitan status to the Church of Oviedo. In the second letter, the pope expresses his gratitude for the letters (litterae) Alfonso II has sent him, and states that he prays for the success of the king’s wars waged against enemies who are also his —an allusion to the Saracens’ raids against Rome—; finally, he requests the king to send Arabian horses.

  • 38 See a summary of the discussion in Deswarte, 2004.
  • 39 These anachronisms are studied in particular in Fernández Conde, 1971, pp. 125-129 and Fernández Va (...)
  • 40 Especially, the anachronistic eschatocol of these letters, as it appears reproduced in the Liber, s (...)

11Both letters are obviously forgeries38. In addition to the problematic identification of a Pope John during the reign of Alfonso II, and the whimsical concession of a metropolitan status to Oviedo in 821, the vocabulary and reproduced external features of these two letters present many anachronisms39. Thus it has been demonstrated that Pelagius probably used various sources to forge hybrid documents, half-letters half-privileges40, in which are recognized uses specific to the Roman Curia of the ninth century, but also later ones.

  • 41 On those forged acts: Fernández Conde, 1971, pp. 130-137 and Fernández Vallina, 1995, pp. 359-363.

12Pelagius’ aim with the first letter is clear. It provides further evidence to the metropolitan fiction developed in another forgery immediately preceding this letter in the manuscript: the acts of a council supposedly held in Oviedo on 15 June 812 under the aegis of King Alfonso II and Bishop Adaulfo (802-826), during which was decided among other things the elevation of Oviedo to the rank of metropolitan41. However the presence of the second letter in the cartulary is more surprising since it does not even mention the Church of Oviedo. It certainly shows the privileged relationship existing between a pope who supposedly guaranteed the metropolitan status of Oviedo and a ruler who also did much for this Church. In view of the ideas promoted in the Liber on the relationship between Church and kings, especially through its iconography, this dimension is not negligible. Still, and contrary to the first letter, the second contains no elements pointing to the juridical prestige of the Church of Oviedo.

  • 42 No original manuscript of the Corpus Pelagianum is preserved, but several versions of it are known (...)
  • 43 Jérez, 2008, proposed a convincing hypothesis about the composition process of this compilation.
  • 44 Detailed contents of each manuscript of the Corpus in ibid., in particular reconstruction of the po (...)
  • 45 The Corpus’ interpolations are listed in Fernández Vallina, 1995, pp. 341-348.
  • 46 On the strategy of documentary insertion in the Corpus, see Sirantoine, 2015.
  • 47 Chronicle of Sampiro, ed. by Pérez de Urbel, pp. 284-289.
  • 48 On those inventions of Pelagius, see Fernández Vallina, 1995, pp. 359-363.
  • 49 Chronicle of Sampiro, ed. by Pérez de Urbel, pp. 289-293.
  • 50 Ibid., pp. 293-305.

13Pelagius himself seems to have noticed this incongruity, if we are to believe how the two letters were reinvested in a second compilation he promoted, this time historiographical, known as Corpus Pelagianum42. Composed in stages after the Liber and until the mid-twelfth century43, the Corpus consists of a world history leading gradually to the history of the Astur-Leonese kingdom. It comprises chronicles composed in the Iberian Peninsula between the seventh and the turn of the tenth and eleventh centuries, as well as their continuation written by Pelagius himself, covering the eleventh century until the death of King Alfonso VI of Castile-León in 110944. Placed end to end, sometimes in an awkward fashion leading to the repetition of events, these texts are also occasionally interpolated by Pelagius, in order to shed light on the Church of Oviedo45. Thus the Corpus also includes some of the Liber’s key-texts46, in particular our two letters, interpolated in the Chronicle of Sampiro (originally written ca 1000), in a passage dedicated not to the reign of Alfonso II but to that of his successor Alfonso III (866-910)47. This time dated to 871, the letters could point to the pontificate of John VIII (872-882). Above all, they both include interesting additional details. In the first letter, Pelagius added a clause confirming the previous privileges granted to Oviedo’s Church. As for the second, if John’s gratitude and prayers for Alfonso are still mentioned, the Pope requests from the king much more than Arabian horses: indeed, he asks that the church of St James be consecrated by the Hispanic bishops, with whom the king is requested to assemble a council. Following the letters, indeed, an additional interpolation48 narrates the gathering of two councils in Oviedo, one49 during which is organized the consecration of the church of Compostela —whose story also follows—, the other50 where it is decided, under the authority of Pope John, that Oviedo be elevated to metropolitan; we thus find again the conciliar acts that preceded Pope John’s letters, as in the Liber. Without any contents related to Oviedo in the Liber, the letter became «diplomatic» in the Corpus, since it conveys the papal request to hold the council. Therefore the cartulary appears as both a tool and a stage in the creation of the legend of Oviedo’s Church. An astounding characteristic, for a manuscript whose formal beauty suggested a finished product.

The Livro Santo of the monastery of the Holy Cross, Coimbra

  • 51 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (Lisbon), Cónegos Regulares de Santo Agostinho, Mosteiro de Sant (...)
  • 52 On the other cartulary (Livro de D. João Teotónio) produced at the Holy Cross monastery in the 12th(...)
  • 53 LS, fo 17, no 2, pp. 107-108.

14This role of the letter in the narration, contextualization and explanation of the events and decisions affecting the institution that produced a cartulary, finds particular expression in the Portuguese manuscripts that this study will now consider, starting with the Livro Santo. This cartulary51 was the first produced, during the second third of the twelfth century, in the then-recently founded monastery of regular canons dedicated to the Holy Cross in Coimbra (fo 1131)52. A prologue53 indicates that the realization of this «book called an inventory» —Incipit prologus in libro quo dicitur inventarius— was decided in 1155 by the canons to ensure the organization, storage and easy access to the records testifying to the monastery’s possessions. But this prologue, written on folio 17, does not start the manuscript. Indeed, it is preceded by a long introduction conceived as an integral part of the project, according to that same prologue:

  • 54 Magnum quidem et nimis utile bonum fore videtur ut sicut in precedenti opere ostendimus qualiter mo (...)

For certain we will consider it a very good thing, and extremely useful, that, in the same way that we showed in the previous work how the Holy Cross monastery was founded in the outskirts of Coimbra by Tello, very wise and venerable archdeacon in the same city, and how it was taken under the protection of the Holy Roman Church, in the same way in this work, which we call inventory, we will make a special memorial of all the possessions currently owned by that same monastery54.

  • 55 See Gomes, 2007, pp. 305-307.
  • 56 LS, fos 1-16. On the Vita Tellonis and other hagiographic texts produced at the Holy Cross monaster (...)
  • 57 On Tello, see Gomes, 2007, pp. 121-142.
  • 58 Who can be identified as Pedro Alfarde, canon of the Holy Cross monastery and prior from 1184-1190, (...)
  • 59 LS, fos 3-4, no 1.A.iii, pp. 75-76.
  • 60 This peculiarity of the Vita Tellonis has been stressed in Hagiografia de Santa Cruz de Coimbra, ed (...)

15In a clear demonstration of the symbolic and identifying character of this type of manuscript beyond its practical and diplomatic utility55, the cartulary opens on a narrative, known as Vita Tellonis, punctuated with documentary evidence, recounting the foundation and first decades of the monastery of the Holy Cross56. This hagiographic gesta is indeed initially centered on the actions of one of the foundation’s main instigators, the archdeacon of Coimbra’s Cathedral, Tello (ca 1076-1136)57. It was he who, according to the Vita’s author58, aspired to reproduce in Coimbra the Augustinian model of monastic life he had long observed in the Holy Land, where he had accompanied Bishop Maurice Bourdin (1099-1108) in 1105-1108. Returned to Portugal, and diverted for some time from his project due to the diocesan responsibilities entrusted to him, Tello gradually convinced the infant Afonso Henriques (count of Portugal in 1128, then king from 1139-1185) and Bishop Bernard (1128-1146) to grant him the donations necessary to the foundation of a monastery dedicated to the Holy Cross settled by regular canons in 1132. It was Tello again who, as a result of jurisdictional conflicts arisen between the bishop and cathedral chapter, and the young community of the Holy Cross in 1134, went to Italy with one of his co-founders, João Peculiar, to try and achieve the independence of his monastery. A successful initiative, since we see inserted in the hagiographic narration a first piece of evidence of the utmost importance: the exemption privilege granted by Innocent II (1130-1143) on 26 May 113559. The Livro Santo thus offers an interesting case of genres’ mise en abyme: that of a cartulary integrating a hagiographic text, itself incorporating documentary writings60.

  • 61 LS, fo 4, nos 1.A.v et vi, p. 77.

16The papal privilege is also followed by two letters of the same pope, preceding the grant by a few days and brought back to Portugal by Tello himself. They are addressed to the infant Afonso Henriques and the bishop of Coimbra Bernard, urging them to enforce the monastic exemption granted61. The words used by the Pope —rogando mandamus, «we ask and command you»— give these letters an official import (and force). Nevertheless, their insertion into the narrative also follows another logic: they put emphasis on the benefits provided by the pope to the Church of the Holy Cross, and at the same time on Tello’s privileged relationship with Rome. The letters are indeed introduced by the following words:

  • 62 Nec satis beato videbatur Innocentio, innocentie tociusque pie sanctitatis magistro, a pontificali (...)

But Innocent the Blessed, master of innocence and full of pious holiness, was not content with standing up from the papal throne and confirming that privilege with his holy hand in his own name; via Tello he also sent letters to the infant and to the bishop and the people, for the commendation of the house and to make show of his affection for the archdeacon, and especially to stir up towards us the scrupulous ardor of Guido, Cardinal Deacon of Saints Cosmas and Damian. Hence every day in our prayers we make memory of them, especially of the pope, and of Guido with ours and with our other benefactors62.

  • 63 Sed qualiter tocius pietatis vir perfectus ipsum adloquatur infantem audite (LS, fo 4, p. 77).
  • 64 Ab hinc quoque episcopi simul cum civibus cauteriatam ammonitionem avertite (ibid.).

17The letters are then copied, each introduced by an imperative sentence inviting the audience to acquaint themselves with their contents —«Listen to how this perfect man of absolute piety [i.e. Innocent II] addressed the infant63» for the first letter; «Now also notice the sharp warning to the bishop and the people64» for the second one —followed by a rubric— Littere Innocentii pape ad infantem Alfonsum and Ad Colimbriensem episcopum. At that point the text resumes its narrative course to recount Tello’s subsequent deeds for his monastery, until his holy death in 1136.

  • 65 Hagiografia de Santa Cruz de Coimbra, ed. by Nascimento, p. 40, n. 33.
  • 66 LS, fo 6, no 1.B.ii, p. 82.
  • 67 Quod nondum habuimus per Dominicum (ibid.).
  • 68 LS, fos 6-6vo, nos 1.B.iv and v, pp. 83-84.

18It continues with the account of the later life of the Holy Cross monastery, in which the letter proves an essential instrument. We learn that the canons, eager to persevere in their Augustinian way of life, finally decided to adopt the customs of Saint-Ruf of Avignon —with which the founders had become acquainted, as it was narrated a few folios before, during a visit to this monastery on their way back from Italy. To this effect, they sent there in 1138 a priest called Pedro Salomão65, carrying «simple words» (simplicia uerba), i.e. a missive whose contents are at that point integrally copied in the cartulary, this time in the continuity of the text, without any rubric or distinctive sign66. The missive, brief and undated, is addressed to the abbot of Saint-Ruf, William, and his community, by the first prior of the Holy Cross, Theotonius (1132-1152). He thanks them for having once so well received the visitors from the Holy Cross, and asks that through Pedro they send «what [they] did not have back then through [the deacon] Dominique67», i.e. the rule of Saint-Ruf. Without transition other than the Valete announcing the end of the letter, the narrative then resumes and gives details on the circumstances of Pedro Salomão’s stay in Saint-Ruf, and his return to Coimbra in possession of the precious rule. After that, we learn that he was later sent to Rome to settle disputes caused by the privilege granted a few years earlier by Innocent II. In support of this new episode, two more epistolae from the Pope to Bishop Bernard and (the now) King Afonso I are reproduced in the cartulary, are both highlighted in the manuscript by a marginal rubric and a slightly ornamented initial68, and both deal again with the papal injunction —mandamus atque precipimus, rogando mandamus— to respect the monastic exemption. Finally, Pedro Salomão returned to Saint-Ruf for another year, during which he read and copied for his community a variety of liturgical, patristic and disciplinary manuscripts.

19Almost without transition, the text focusses again, this time at length, on the disputes opposing the monastery of the Holy Cross to Bishop Bernard. The author takes particular care to note that, driven to desperation by the bishop’s vexations, the canons were about to send new letters to Rome:

  • 69 … apostolice dignitati nostro patrono litteris notificare curavimus et nostram querimoniam, et toci (...)

We settled to communicate by letters to our patron of apostolic dignity our complaints, and the damages suffered by the whole church. What we would have done, had not the upcoming visit of the Roman Cardinal Guido in the province been announced. And so we have ceased in our first undertaking, wishing to show him in person our prejudices and the truth about what was said of the bishop69.

  • 70 Pedro Salomão would return from Rome in 1144, carrying new correspondence, according to a letter fr (...)

20Indeed the text recounts how the disputes were settled under the arbitration of the Cardinal Legate —this was Guido’s third trip to the Iberian Peninsula, in 1143— and how the community decided to send again Pedro to Rome the following year70, in order to obtain a renewal of the exemption privilege in light of the latest settlements.

  • 71 These documents correspond to the first stage of the cartulary’s realization in 1155, but also to l (...)

21Then begins the last part of this long introduction to the cartulary, consisting of a series of ten papal privileges and letters exchanged between the Portuguese bishops, popes, King Afonso, and the Holy Cross community, about the monastery’s exemption, the pontifical and royal protection it enjoyed, and the successive confirmations of this privileged situation. The series starts with the confirmation of the exemption obtained from Pope Lucius II (1144-1145) by Pedro in April 1144, and the last document is Alexander III’s (1159-1181) privilege of confirmation of all the monastery’s possessions in August 116371. Each document is preceded by a rubric, all narrative elements now disappeared.

  • 72 LS, fos 9-10, no 1.B.x, pp. 91-93.
  • 73 LS, fos 10-10vo, no 1.B.xi, p. 94.

22In this last dossier, the importance given to letters in previous folios endures, as they still appear as constitutive elements showing the circumstances in which papal bulls were issued. Thus, the third document in the series —and sixth because it is repeated identically a few folios later— is a privilege from Adrian IV (1154-1159) given on 8 August 1157, in which the pope reiterates the monastery’s pontifical protection, and confirms its property and rights72. Following the privilege have been copied several other documents whose presence is explained by the link they have with it. The first is a charter dated July 1156 and issued by the bishop of Lisbon Gilbert (1147-1166), who confirms the donation of ecclesiastical jurisdiction on the castrum of Leiria by King Afonso to the Holy Cross monastery73. This charter echoes a mention present in the papal privilege, which listed, among the possessions of the monastery,

  • 74 Omnes videlicet ecclesias tam in castro Leirene quam in territorio ipsius castri sitas cum omnibus (...)

all the churches located both in the castrum of Leiria and on the territory of the same castrum, with everything that belongs to them, as contained in the charter of the already named dux [i.e. Afonso Henriques] and the confirmation of our venerable brother Gilbert, bishop of Lisbon74.

  • 75 This donation charter, dated April 1142, is copied later in the cartulary: LS, fos 28vo-29, no 12, (...)
  • 76 LS, fo 10vo, no 1.B.xii, pp. 94-95.
  • 77 LS, fo 12, no 1.B.xiv, p. 98.

23Now, after the bishops’ charter comes, not the royal donation75, but an epistola addressed by King Afonso to Pope Adrian, dated 1156-115776. The king announces that he has decided to be buried in the Holy Cross monastery, and asks the pope to take it under his protection, as did his predecessors before him. Finally he points out that he conceded the castrum of Leiria to the Holy Cross of Coimbra. Thus the letter seems to explain why reference is made to the royal donation of the castrum of Leiria in Adrian IV’s privilege. Finally, after the pontifical privilege is repeated on folios 10vo-11vo, comes another letter, addressed by Adrian IV to Afonso and asking him —rogamus, monemus et exhortamur […] injungimus— to favor the Holy Cross monastery77. With no year specified, it is unclear whether this letter preceded or followed the papal privilege; nevertheless it testifies to the Roman desire to promote the monastery.

  • 78 LS, fos 14-15, no 1.B.xviii, pp. 103-106.
  • 79 LS, fo 13vo, no 1.B.xvi, pp. 101-102.
  • 80 LS, fos 13vo-14, no 1.B.xvii, pp. 102-103.

24Two last epistolary insertions are prompted by the copy of Pope Alexander III’s confirmation of the possessions and rights of the Holy Cross monastery in Coimbra, given on 16 August 116378. Indeed, the papal privilege is preceded by two undated letters from Alexander III requesting the issuance of such a confirmation: the author of the first is the bishop of Coimbra Miguel79, while the second comes again from King Afonso80.

The Livro Preto of the cathedral of Coimbra

  • 81 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (Lisbon), Cabido da Sé de Coimbra, Livro Preto, ms. L06. Edition (...)

25Another example of Portuguese cartularies integrating letters is provided by the Livro Preto, the cartulary of the cathedral of Coimbra commissioned by Bishop Miguel Salomão (1162-1176) and continued into the early thirteenth century81. Among the 663 documents copied in the Livro Preto, the vast majority are strictly diplomatic records, to which we must add a few notitia, inventories, descriptions, and letters.

  • 82 María Luisa Pardo Rodríguez also refers to it in her chapter of the present volume.
  • 83 LP, fo 66vo, no 133, pp. 204-205. The missive was also published in the diplomatic collection of Al (...)
  • 84 Salutatio missa ab Imperatore domno Adefonso ad comitem Henrricum filium suum.

26The first letter82, chronologically and in the sequence of the cartulary, is a short missive sent by the king of Castile-León Alfonso VI (1165-1109), here called imperator, to his son-in-law Henry of Bourgogne, then Count of Portugal (1095-1112), about the possession of the villa of Gulpilhares disputed between the Bishop of Coimbra and a certain «lord Cyprian83». The absence of eschatocol apart from a final Valete allows to date the text only between 1095 and 1109, and it is introduced by a rubric designating the missive as salutatio84:

  • 85 Adefonsus, Dei gratia imperator, vobis, dilectissimo filio meo, comiti domno Henrico, in Domino, sa (...)

Alfonso, Emperor by the grace of God, to you, my dear son, Count and Lord Henry, salvation in the Lord. A complaint came up to me from the bishop of Coimbra, about the villa of Gulpilhares, which by testament (i.e. written document) is of his monastery of Vacariça, and which they are missing. And they tell me that I have given it myself to Lord Cyprian, but it does not come to my mind. And although I had given it, if in the testament it was to this monastery, I do not authorize, nor will authorize this donation. In your turn, inquire well for me about the cause of the see and the monasteries, and set the case. Take care85.

  • 86 The document is in fact copied twice: LP, nos 130 and 132.
  • 87 See LP, no 82, 13 November 1094: donation of the monastery of Vacariça to the see of Coimbra by Cou (...)

27The reason for the presence of that letter in the cartulary is not immediately obvious. It follows the copy of a «testament», in the sense of written deed, where reference is made to the donation in 1047 of the said villa of Gulpilhares by a certain Recemundo Maureliz to the monastery of Vacariça86, subjected since 1094 to the diocese of Coimbra87. It can therefore be conjectured that Henry must have solved the case in favor of the Church of Coimbra, canceling the donation to Lord Cyprian, which perhaps never even existed, given the confusion of the king to whom it «does not come to mind». However, the missive has no proper legal value: if it sounds like a writ, it is still a simple letter, written in quite a colloquial fashion, and whose contents do not refer to any legal action nor formal decision on the case. Should we then assume that this letter was, at the time of the cartulary’s compilation, the only witness to a case on which the manuscript’s commissioners absolutely wanted to keep some written record? If such a hypothesis could explain its presence, another one can also be proposed: the missive could have integrated the Livro Preto because of the prestige of its protagonists —the author is the royal grandfather of the contemporary ruler, Afonso Henriques, and the recipient is his father—, which converts it into, if not solemn and / or legal, an official document.

  • 88 These issues probably explain partly why the cartulary was made: see Morujão, 2008, pp. 9-11. See a (...)
  • 89 Relations between Portugal and Rome were also studied by Erdmann, 1935.
  • 90 LP, fos 216-218, no 567, pp. 753-760.

28It would not be the only example following this logic in the cartulary of the cathedral of Coimbra. Like many of the Iberian cartularies of the period, the Livro Preto reflected the institutional challenges and rivalries that the Church of Coimbra had to face in regard to its neighbors88. Documents evidencing the diocesan properties and rights are occasionally supplemented by others that illustrate the interactions between Roman authorities and Portuguese institutions, caused by the need to religiously organize the territories (re)conquered from Islam89. Thus, the Livro Preto includes a copy of the acts issued at the council of Coyanza (1055), a turning point in the evolution of Castilian-Leonese religious law towards the adoption of the Roman rite90.

  • 91 Dossier mentioned by Morujão, 2008, pp. 18-19. The dossier runs from folio 229 to 247vo (nos 592 to (...)
  • 92 The editors distinguish no category within this Roman corpus, and all documents are labelled as bul (...)

29This is also reflected by the presence, at the end of the cartulary, of a dossier particularly interesting for this study, since it is partly epistolary. From folio 229 were indeed copied fifty documents dealing with the institutional and administrative relationship —and conflicts— maintained by the Church of Coimbra with other Portuguese and more generally peninsular Churches, and the role played by Rome in it, over a period from 1088 to 114491. These documents include, in no particular order and with several duplicates, a majority of bulls issued by seven popes and letters from two cardinals —all of them addressed mainly to the successive bishops of Coimbra, but also to those of Porto, Braga, Compostela and Toledo, or to the ecclesiastical community in general—, counciliar acts, agreements between prelates of various dioceses, and diplomas, records and other texts related to the chapter and diocesan life of Coimbra. All of these deal with, and resolve, issues of territorial claims, jurisdiction, and ecclesiastical discipline. All of them, with the exception of a few papal bulls92 and letters from cardinals whose contents bear no regulatory value.

  • 93 LP, fo 235, no 612, p. 821.
  • 94 On this identification, see the remarks of Erdmann, Papsturkunden in Portugal, no 45, pp. 209-210.
  • 95 LP, fos 235vo-236, no 616, p. 825.

30Such is the case of a short letter sent from Rome in May 1144 by Cardinal Guido to the bishop of Coimbra Bernard (1128-1146), in response to a complaint of the latter against the bishop of Porto93. Guido writes that he read Bernard’s letter (litteras) and was saddened by the case, which he examined. He then announces that he asked Pope Lucius II (1144-1145) to send a letter (litteras) proclaiming the suspension of the offending bishop in the event he did not restore the disputed property to the Church of Coimbra. Guido also specifies that he transmits to Bernard a copy of the said letter via Petrus monacus (this is Pedro Salomão, whose multiple journeys to the service of his community were highlighted in the Livro Santo of the Holy Cross monastery evoked above94). Now this letter is precisely copied in the Livro Preto, on the verso of the same folio, in the form of a bull from Lucius II addressed to the bishop of Porto, Peter (1138-1145), and dated 5 May [1144]95.

  • 96 LP, fos 235-235vo, no 613, p. 822.
  • 97 LP, fo 235vo, no 615, p. 824; bull repeated identically on fo 240, no 626, p. 840.

31Between these two documents are copied two other letters, short and without decisive contents, sent this time by Roman pontiffs. The first, dated 22 December [1128-1129], was sent to the same bishop Bernard by Pope Honorius II (1124-1130). He writes that he has received his letter (litteras tuas), that he will be happy to meet him in Rome, and that he will only then address the issues raised by Bernard96. In the second letter, duplicated fifteen folios later and dated January 1110 by the cartulary’s editors, Pope Paschal II (1099-1118) congratulates Bishop Gonçalo (1109-1128) for his election to the see of Coimbra, and enjoins him to work diligently for the particularly troubled Church of Hispania. He also invites him to provide his assistance to Count Henry, and declares that he will deal with the matters related to the Church of Coimbra when Gonçalo visits him, stating finally that he did not deviate from the constitutions established by his predecessor Urban II (1088-1099)97.

  • 98 See LP, nos 594, 595, 607 and 637 to 641, dated from 1135 to 1143.
  • 99 Litterae sent from Coimbra to Rome, in addition to the documents cited above, are mentioned in the (...)
  • 100 De Colinbriensis ecclesia causa, tum te Omnipotens Deus ad nos venire permiserit, tibi ex affectu c (...)
  • 101 Voir LP, p. clxix. Urban II’s constitutio is also copied in this final dossier of the cartulary: LP(...)
  • 102 LP, fo 244vo, no 633, p. 855.

32As can be seen, the first two letters both refer to other litteras previously sent by Bernard to solicit the help of the pope. The purpose of the first —the latest in the chronological order— is known, since the usurpations reproached to Peter of Porto are mentioned in Cardinal Guido’s letter, then in Lucius II’s bull. By contrast, the petitiones mentioned in Honorius II’s letter remain mysterious: no posterior record of this pope appears in the cartulary, and the bulls of his successor Innocent II (1130-1143) are all too posterior to be explicitly in response to this case98. Otherwise useless, in the sense that they do not formally decide on anything, could these letters work as a disguised register, keeping track of the correspondence exchanged between Bishop Bernard and Rome? References to requests sent to the Roman Curia are many in other documents of the dossier99. One might therefore imagine that these missives were integrated into the cartulary in order to complete these proofs of correspondence. The third letter confirms only partially this hypothesis, as it does not mention any other correspondence. It certainly ends with the papal promise to handle Coimbra’s affairs: «On the matter of the Church of Coimbra, when God Almighty will have allowed you to come to us, we will respond with all the esteem that is due to you100.» Such a matter might have had to do, according to the last words of the letter, with Urban II’s constitutio issued on 15 October 1088, which conferred the pallium and the Hispanic primacy to the Church of Toledo, and gave it control over the dioceses whose former metropolis had not yet been reconquered101. In fact, another bull, addressed by Pascal II to the archbishop of Toledo between 1109 and 1113, raised the issue of the Church of Coimbra’s dependence, disputed by the Archbishop of Braga102. Could it be that our third letter was referring implicitly to a query, if not addressed by the newly elected bishop Gonçalo, at least lodged by his predecessor about that question? In any event, the correspondence inserted here would work as further evidence of the good relations maintained between the Church of Coimbra and a papacy always attentive, according to these letters, to address the issues submitted to its expertise.

Cartularies of the Toledan cathedral

  • 103 Biblioteca capitular de Toledo, Toledo (BCT), 42-20 (1190); BCT, 42-21 (first quarter of the 13th c (...)
  • 104 The non-diplomatic texts of these «cartularies» are presented by Miguel Franco, 2015.
  • 105 Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid (BNE), Vitr. ms. 15-5 et BNE, ms. 10040: the former manuscrip (...)
  • 106 Partial description in Hernández, Los cartularios de Toledo, p. xviii-xx; see also Feige, 1988 and (...)
  • 107 See Feige, 1991; Linehan, 1993, chap. x-xii; Henriet, 2004b.

33With the cartularies produced in Toledo between 1190 and the mid-thirteenth century, we turn now to quite a different kind of epistolary transmission. First it is to be noted that the expression «cartularies of Toledo» adopted by some scholars challenges the definition of what is a cartulary. Indeed the expression refers to actually diverse manuscripts: six of them103 are entitled Liber priuilegiorum —a recurring title in the world of cartularies— and contain a majority of diplomatic records, as well as other types of documents104. As for the two manuscripts designated «Notes on the primacy, nobility, and properties of the Church of Toledo» (Notule de primatu, nobilitate et dominio ecclesiae Toletanae)105, they gather a collection of papal bulls, but above all miscellanea of a more narrative character which occupy more than half of the folios106. This diversity makes sense when one considers the context in which these codices were composed: that of conflicts over the primacy of Toledo, which punctuated the late twelfth and first decades of the thirteenth centuries107. Such compilations have been built as dossiers gathering the evidence destined to support Toledo’s case.

  • 108 It is the opinion of Linehan, 1993, pp. 283-284; Miguel Franco, 2015, pp. 127-129, retains an earli (...)
  • 109 Text edited in Hernández, Los cartularios de Toledo, no 528, pp. 464-465.
  • 110 Feige, 1988, pp. 677-691, identified the provenance of these quotes. Note that this issue had alrea (...)
  • 111 Some of these quotes are altered so that they support the Toledan case. See the discussion by Feige(...)
  • 112 On Braulio of Zaragoza’s epistles, see the introduction of Epístolas. Braulio de Zaragoza, ed. by M (...)
  • 113 Thomas Deswarte is currently preparing an edition with introduction and commentary of Isidore of Se (...)

34This documentation includes a text, the Exceptio de dignitate Toletane ecclesie, composed perhaps in the twelfth century108 and transmitted in two versions —one shorter than the other— in three of the Toledan cartularies and in the two manuscripts of the Notule de primatu109. It comprises a list of quotes borrowed from writings from the early seventh to mid-eighth century110, all of them proving the primacy of Toledo, at least according to their compiler111. Now, the first two quotes are excerpts from letters written respectively by Braulio, bishop of Zaragoza (631-651)112, and Isidore, bishop of Seville (600-636)113. The manuscript’s author indicates that

  • 114 Braulio Cesaraugustanus episcopus uir magne religionis atque sciencie in exordio cuiusdam epistole (...)

Bishop Braulio of Zaragoza, a man of great faith and wisdom, in the exordium of a letter (epistola) sent to Eugene, bishop of the city in question, thus said: «To my lord Eugene, primate of the Spains, Braulio, bishop of Zaragoza, greetings»114.

  • 115 Feige, 1988, pp. 677-678; Rivera Recio, 1962, pp. 33-34.
  • 116 While awaiting for the new edition of Braulio’s epistles by Ruth Miguel Franco, in preparation, thi (...)

35Here we recognize one of the letters sent by Braulio to Metropolitan Eugene of Toledo (645-657), in response to issues of ecclesiastical discipline and liturgical conformity previously raised by the latter115, with the difference that the Toledan bishop was originally titled primatus episcoporum, and not primatus Hyspaniarum116. Only the address and greeting are mentioned, as no other element in the letter was useful to support the primacy of Toledo. The same argumentative logic prevails in the case of the Isidorian quote:

  • 117 Item, beatus Isidorus Hyspalensis ecclesie archiepiscopus quondam episcopum Cordubensem ad beatum A (...)

Similarly, the Blessed Isidore, archbishop of the Church of Seville, spoke in those terms to the Blessed Helladius, archbishop of Toledo and formerly bishop of Córdoba: «Since the power to judge bishops was granted to you, we sent to you this Cordoban brother of ours, who must be tried for being guilty of bodily sin, so that he be judged and deposed»117.

  • 118 Feige, 1988, pp. 678-679; Rivera Recio, 1962, pp. 34-35.
  • 119 While awaiting for Thomas Deswarte’s new edition (see above), Isidore’s letter can be consulted in (...)

36This second quote, presented as extracted from Isidore’s Epistula ad Helladium episcopum, is no more than the first one true to the wording of the original letter118. The latter certainly dealt with the sentence to be pronounced by Helladius, Metropolitan of Toledo (615-633), against a guilty bishop. However, this role of Helladius did not appear linked to the power given to him to «judge bishops», but more generally to his pastoral and synodical authority, the letter itself being addressed to Helladius «and all the bishops with him assembled119». In the version given by the Exceptio, the wording has been truncated and modified to emphasize more directly the authority of the Toledan pontiff over other Hispanic bishops.

Cartularies and the diplomatic letter

  • 120 Chastang, 2009, p. 120.
  • 121 A coincidence that allows us to find resonance between medieval and contemporary practices. If we a (...)

37Drawing on the levels of analysis distinguished by Pierre Chastang in the study of textual reinvestment in cartularies, we proposed in the previous pages hypotheses about the reasons of the presence of letters in such codices, and we examined their modalities of insertion. Let us now formulate a few concluding remarks about the «significance produced by the reinvestment, in a new intertextual context, of elements whose individual history predates their new usage120». We cannot dismiss the idea that chance might have played a role in the inclusion of this, legally speaking, «useless» documentation121 in the cartularies considered; but the letters they contain all acquire a diplomatic dimension through their insertion in the manuscript.

38In some instances, the «cartularized» letter holds a probative value that it did not originally have. This is the case, in the Toledan cartularies, of Braulio’s and Isidore’s letters, the purpose of which was diverted —and the wording adapted— in order to benefit the demonstration of Toledo’s primacy. This may also be the case of the letter addressed by Alfonso VI to his son-in-law Count Henry, copied in the Livro Preto as the only trace of the conflict that took place between the Church of Coimbra and Lord Cyprian.

  • 122 See Laurent Morelle’s remarks at the beginning of his chapter’s last argument in this volume.

39In other cases, the letter is present as a document testifying, not directly to rights, but to the circumstances in which another record, legally binding this time, was issued, or to the context in which an affair occurred122. The Vita Tellonis offers such examples, whether it be via the simple missive sent to Saint-Ruf with its absence of graphical or narrative emphasis, or via letters sent and received by more prestigious characters, and for this reason introduced by rubrics and/or by narrations highlighting them. Letters are pervasive in the long introduction to the Livro Santo, either in full copies or through the echoes relayed by the many mentions of litteras in the various documents constitutive of the dossier. They become a tool appropriated to stage the early life of the Holy Cross monastery. With this comes the dual fact that in the first part of the Vita Tellonis, they are inserted within a narrative that explains and contextualizes their presence; while in the second part, the reader must make sense of their inclusion by himself.

40The letters of the Livro Santo also play another role in addition to their value as pieces of evidence: they highlight the friendly relations maintained between Coimbra and Rome, and strengthen the diplomatic prestige resulting from papal privileges, stressing the importance of the dialogue which caused them. This dual status of both documentary evidence and testimony also characterizes the a priori non-diplomatic letters of the Livro Preto, and Pope John’s second epistola in the Liber Testamentorum of Oviedo —the latter is a testimony in the cartulary, before becoming evidence in its interpolated version in the Corpus Pelagianum.

  • 123 Guyotjeannin, Pycke, Tock, 1993, p. 104.

41In the frame of this volume’s discussion, the «cartularized» letter thus allows us to observe the diversity of the forms of diplomatization of the letter. Diplomatists know that in cases where the author is endowed with authority, a letter can transmit an order or notify a legal situation, and thereby become diplomatic because «credible […], in the legal sense of the term123». However, this reflection on the transmission of letters in cartularies leads to acknowledge of other means involved as well in this process of diplomatization. Cartularization can play this role, either by displacing the subjects of a letter, as it is the case with the Toledan cartularies, or by transcending the letters’ transient nature by means of their copy, as in the other cases studied here. The commissioner of a cartulary, its manufacturer, its scribe, all have also a role to play in the apprehension of this intricate object of study that is the «diplomatic letter».

Notes

1 I am grateful to María da Rosário Morujão, Ruth Miguel Franco and Amélie De las Heras for granting me easy access to their works, and Laurent Morelle for his help with the translation of some of the Latin excerpts discussed in this work.

2 The expression was coined by Bertrand, 2006. Although prior studies preceded it, indicative of a trend, we can consider as terminus a quo of a new history of cartularies the now classical collective volume by Guyotjeannin, Morelle, Parisse, 1993. It would be futile, and out of the frame of this chapter, to pretend and offer an exhaustive literature review; suffice it to indicate in the following notes some major works, and target studies focussing on Iberian cartularies.

3 See in particular Chastang, 2006a.

4 Ibid., pp. 24 and 28, borrowing the expression to Jacques Le Goff.

5 After the programmatic articles of the late Carlos Sáez Sánchez (Sáez Sánchez, 2003-2004, 2005), initiatives have slowed somewhat, before being taken up more recently, as evidenced by the volume edited by Rodríguez Díaz, García Martínez, 2011; by a recent conference held in Lisbon (11-12 June 2015) dedicated to «Cartularies in Medieval Europe: Texts and Contexts», during which many Iberian cartularies were discussed; or even by the weblog «Cartularios medievales» (<http://cartulariosmedievales.blogspot.com.au>) maintained by Alfonso Sánchez Mairena, as well as his book chapters (Sánchez Mairena, 2012a and 2012b). Iberian cartularies were also present in a recent collection of papers on the links created between power and memory in such manuscripts (Lamazou-Duplan, Ramírez Vaquero, 2013).

6 Rodríguez Díaz et alii, Liber Testamentorum Ecclesiae Ovetensis; Nascimento, Fernández Catón, Liber testamentorum Coenobii Laurbanensis; Ruiz Asencio, Ruiz Albi, Herrero Jiménez, Los becerros gótico y galicano de Valpuesta; Ramírez Vaquero, Herreros Lopetegui, Beroiz Lascano, El primer cartulario de los reyes de Navarra.

7 Azcárate, Escalona, 2001; Peterson, 2011.

8 Sáez Sánchez, 2001; Sáez Sánchez, Gutiérrez García-Muñoz, 2002; Id., 2003; Azcárate et alii, 2006; Peterson, 2009; Calleja-Puerta, 2013.

9 Henriet, Sirantoine, 2013.

10 See Bádenas Población, 2011. Also, Ruth Miguel Franco is currently preparing a study dedicated to the titles of the Toledan cartularies.

11 Bourgain, Hubert, 1993; Chastang, 2006b.

12 Alonso Álvarez, 2015. See also the article by Miguel Franco, 2017, on the Toledan cartulary-chronicle, Biblioteca capitular de Toledo, Toledo, ms. 42-20, dated 1190.

13 Henriet, Sirantoine, 2013.

14 Tock, 1993, on cartularies of the province of Rheims; more recently, Miguel Franco, 2015, again on the cartularies of the Toledan cathedral.

15 We think here of the Historia Compostellana, halfway between episcopal gesta (it narrates the glorious deeds of the bishop, then archbishop, Diego Gelmírez who headed the Church of Santiago of Compostela in the first half of the twelfth century) and documentary register since it includes 188 records incorporated in the narration. How to typologize such a piece of work? See Sirantoine, 2015.

16 See the works of Morelle, 1993; Id., 1996; continuing with the case of the Historia Compostellana, see De las Heras, 2018, on the transmission of letters in this text.

17 Constable, 1976, p. 17.

18 Guyotjeannin, 2008.

19 This is discussed further by María Luisa Rodríguez Pardo in this volume, with respect to royal documentation of the 9th-12th centuries. In the frame of the present chapter, salutationes appeared especially in cartularies transmitting early medieval records, such as the Tumbo A of the cathedral of Santiago of Compostela (Lucas Álvarez, La documentación del Tumbo A de la Catedral de Santiago de Compostela), or the Liber testamentorum Coenobii Laurbanensis (see the edition by Nascimento, Fernández Catón).

20 See Miguel Calleja’s contribution on the writs of Alfonso VII of Castile-León (1126-1157) in this volume.

21 Edition in González de Fauve, La orden premonstratense en España, t. II, no 500, p. 397.

22 Ibid.

23 To which they can also be sometimes considered as a counterpart, with the inclusion of the verb mandare or equivalent terms.

24 See on this point the remarks, in his classical Manuel de Diplomatique, of Giry, 1894, p. 662.

25 Edition in Lucas Álvarez, «Libro becerro del Monasterio de Valbanera», no 211, pp. 611-612.

26 A precisely archaeological study of the letters preserved in cartularies is out of the range of this study, especially since the originals have disappeared (and the letters’ excerpts transmitted in the Toledan cartularies borrowed to epistolary collections that preceded their production constitute yet another case).

27 See in this volume the chapters of María Luisa Pardo Rodríguez, María Josefa Sanz Fuentes and Miguel Calleja, who all refer to letters preserved thanks to their inclusion in cartularies.

28 See Chastang, 2009 and the three levels of analysis which he distinguishes to study textual reinvestment («remploi» in French), pp. 119-120.

29 The letters transmitted in this cartulary are also evoked in the chapter that María Josefa Sanz Fuentes has contributed to the present volume.

30 Liber Testamentorum Ecclesiae Ovetensis, Archivo Catedralicio (Oviedo).

31 Cartulary edited by Valdés Gallego, El Liber Testamentorum Ovetensis. Accompanying a facsimile of the cartulary, a volume of studies and transcript was also dedicated to the Liber, with contributions from Rodríguez Díaz et alii, Liber Testamentorum Ecclesiae Ovetensis [LT].

32 On Pelagius’ activities at the head of his diocese and his role as promoter and ideologue of his see, see Fernández Vallina, 1995, and the various studies of Raquel Alonso Álvarez, 2007-2008, 2010 and 2011.

33 See in particular Ead., 2015, on Pelagius’ endeavours to combine and write the historical narratives of the cartulary.

34 Modern criticism readily called Pelagius a «forger», and the analysis of the textual manipulations he performed in the Liber was the subject of a study by Fernández Conde, 1971. Only recently did scholars rehabilitate Pelagius, such as Fernández Vallina, 1995, who studied Pelagius’ written work in the perspective of an archaeological examination of medieval texts, and a reflection on the notions of forgery and authenticity.

35 Yarza, 1995.

36 Henriet, Sirantoine, 2013.

37 LT, fos 5voB-6roB, pp. 471-472.

38 See a summary of the discussion in Deswarte, 2004.

39 These anachronisms are studied in particular in Fernández Conde, 1971, pp. 125-129 and Fernández Vallina, 1995, pp. 360 et 369-371.

40 Especially, the anachronistic eschatocol of these letters, as it appears reproduced in the Liber, seems destined to give them the appearence of more solemn privileges, at odds with the designation epistola given in the rubrics. The formulaic datum used in the manuscript did not appear before the mid-eleventh century in Roman documents; the same goes for the rota that accompanies the first letter, and the visual Bene Valete adorning the second.

41 On those forged acts: Fernández Conde, 1971, pp. 130-137 and Fernández Vallina, 1995, pp. 359-363.

42 No original manuscript of the Corpus Pelagianum is preserved, but several versions of it are known in a series of manuscripts, the oldest of which is dated from the thirteenth century (Biblioteca Nacional Española [Madrid], ms. 1513).

43 Jérez, 2008, proposed a convincing hypothesis about the composition process of this compilation.

44 Detailed contents of each manuscript of the Corpus in ibid., in particular reconstruction of the potentially original manuscript on pp. 82-87.

45 The Corpus’ interpolations are listed in Fernández Vallina, 1995, pp. 341-348.

46 On the strategy of documentary insertion in the Corpus, see Sirantoine, 2015.

47 Chronicle of Sampiro, ed. by Pérez de Urbel, pp. 284-289.

48 On those inventions of Pelagius, see Fernández Vallina, 1995, pp. 359-363.

49 Chronicle of Sampiro, ed. by Pérez de Urbel, pp. 289-293.

50 Ibid., pp. 293-305.

51 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (Lisbon), Cónegos Regulares de Santo Agostinho, Mosteiro de Santa Cruz de Coimbra, Livro Santo, ms. L100. Edition by Ventura, Faria [cited LS] with presentation of the cartulary on pp. 36-40 and in Gomes, 2007, pp. 297-353.

52 On the other cartulary (Livro de D. João Teotónio) produced at the Holy Cross monastery in the 12th c.: ibid., pp. 353-390.

53 LS, fo 17, no 2, pp. 107-108.

54 Magnum quidem et nimis utile bonum fore videtur ut sicut in precedenti opere ostendimus qualiter monasterium Sancte Crucis in suburbio Colimbrie a Tellone ejusdem civitatis prudentissimo et venerabili archidiacono sit fundatum et in Sante Romane Ecclesie protectione susceptum ita et in hoc opere quoddam facere memoriale omnium hereditatum quas idem monasterium inpresentiarum possidet quod inventarius nominetur (LS, fo 17, no 2, p. 107).

55 See Gomes, 2007, pp. 305-307.

56 LS, fos 1-16. On the Vita Tellonis and other hagiographic texts produced at the Holy Cross monastery, including the Vita Sancti Martini Sauriensis also inserted in the cartulary, hence the name Livro Santo given to him: Hagiografia de Santa Cruz de Coimbra, ed. by Nascimento. Note that Nascimento considers as belonging to this vita all the texts constituting the first 16 folios of the Livro Santo, including those related to events posterior to Tello's death in 1136. The cartulary’s editors, Leontina Ventura and Ana Santiago Faria, made other choices and split those texts into two groups: see LS, Vida de don Telo, no 1.A, pp. 69-80, and Notícia de fundação, autonomia eclesiástica e especiaies privilégios do Mosteiro de Santa Cruz, no 1.B, pp. 80-107.

57 On Tello, see Gomes, 2007, pp. 121-142.

58 Who can be identified as Pedro Alfarde, canon of the Holy Cross monastery and prior from 1184-1190, according to a passage in another hagiographic text of the monastery, the Vita Theotonii: see Hagiografia de Santa Cruz de Coimbra, ed. by Nascimento, p. 167 and n. 58. On the connection between the authorship of the Vita Tellonis and the potential manufacturers of the Livro Santo: Gomes, 2007, pp. 344-437.

59 LS, fos 3-4, no 1.A.iii, pp. 75-76.

60 This peculiarity of the Vita Tellonis has been stressed in Hagiografia de Santa Cruz de Coimbra, ed. by Nascimento, pp. 10-12, the editor speaking of a «registo em forma hagiográfica».

61 LS, fo 4, nos 1.A.v et vi, p. 77.

62 Nec satis beato videbatur Innocentio, innocentie tociusque pie sanctitatis magistro, a pontificali consurgere solio et manu sancta privilegium ipsum nomine confirmare proprio, nisi infanti destinaret per Tellonem et episcopo, litteras simul cum populo pro commendatione domus, et archidiaconi dilectione, maximeque Guidonis diaconi cardinalis sanctorum Cosme et Damiani diligenti erga nos laborioso ardore. Unde memoriam eorum cotidie in orationibus nostris facientes, domini pape specialiter, Guidonis nobiscum, et cum ceteris benefactoris nostris facimus (LS, fo 4, no 1.A.iv, pp. 76-77).

63 Sed qualiter tocius pietatis vir perfectus ipsum adloquatur infantem audite (LS, fo 4, p. 77).

64 Ab hinc quoque episcopi simul cum civibus cauteriatam ammonitionem avertite (ibid.).

65 Hagiografia de Santa Cruz de Coimbra, ed. by Nascimento, p. 40, n. 33.

66 LS, fo 6, no 1.B.ii, p. 82.

67 Quod nondum habuimus per Dominicum (ibid.).

68 LS, fos 6-6vo, nos 1.B.iv and v, pp. 83-84.

69 … apostolice dignitati nostro patrono litteris notificare curavimus et nostram querimoniam, et tocius ecclesie dispendium. Quod et fecissemus nisi Guido cardinalis romanus in provincia futurus denuntiaretur. Itaque ab incepto cessavimus volentes ei ore nostro injurias nostras, et ea que de episcopo protestabantur, pro certo exponere (LS, fos 6vo-7, no 1.B.vii, p. 85).

70 Pedro Salomão would return from Rome in 1144, carrying new correspondence, according to a letter from Cardinal Guido dated May 1144 and conserved in the Livro Preto of the cathedral of Coimbra, see below.

71 These documents correspond to the first stage of the cartulary’s realization in 1155, but also to later additions in the following decades: see Gomes, 2007, p. 305, n. 203, and p. 348.

72 LS, fos 9-10, no 1.B.x, pp. 91-93.

73 LS, fos 10-10vo, no 1.B.xi, p. 94.

74 Omnes videlicet ecclesias tam in castro Leirene quam in territorio ipsius castri sitas cum omnibus ad eas pertinentibus, sicuti in carta jam dicti ducis et in confirmatione venerabilis fratris nostri Giliberti Ulixbonensis episcopi continetur (LS, fo 9, no 1.B.x, p. 92).

75 This donation charter, dated April 1142, is copied later in the cartulary: LS, fos 28vo-29, no 12, pp. 127-129.

76 LS, fo 10vo, no 1.B.xii, pp. 94-95.

77 LS, fo 12, no 1.B.xiv, p. 98.

78 LS, fos 14-15, no 1.B.xviii, pp. 103-106.

79 LS, fo 13vo, no 1.B.xvi, pp. 101-102.

80 LS, fos 13vo-14, no 1.B.xvii, pp. 102-103.

81 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (Lisbon), Cabido da Sé de Coimbra, Livro Preto, ms. L06. Edition by Rodrigues, Costa [cited LP]. For a presentation of the cartulary, and its context of production and contents, see Morujão, 2008.

82 María Luisa Pardo Rodríguez also refers to it in her chapter of the present volume.

83 LP, fo 66vo, no 133, pp. 204-205. The missive was also published in the diplomatic collection of Alfonso VI edited by Gambra, Alfonso VI, t. II, no 196.

84 Salutatio missa ab Imperatore domno Adefonso ad comitem Henrricum filium suum.

85 Adefonsus, Dei gratia imperator, vobis, dilectissimo filio meo, comiti domno Henrico, in Domino, salutem. Venit ad me querela de ipso episcopo de Colimbria, de villa Volpeliares, que est sub testamento de suo monasterio Vaccariza, quam habent minus. Et dicunt michi quia ego dedi illam ad domnum Ciprianum sed non venit michi in mente. Et quamvis ego eam dedisset, si in testamento erat de illo monasterio, ego nec autorigo nec autorgabo eam. Sed vos, quantum mihi bene queritis causam de illa sede et de illos monasterios, inderenzate illas. Valete (Gambra, Alfonso VI, t. II, nº 196, pp. 494-495).

86 The document is in fact copied twice: LP, nos 130 and 132.

87 See LP, no 82, 13 November 1094: donation of the monastery of Vacariça to the see of Coimbra by Count Raymond of Burgundy and his wife Urraca, daughter of Alfonso VI.

88 These issues probably explain partly why the cartulary was made: see Morujão, 2008, pp. 9-11. See also Costa’s presentation of the political and ecclesiastical context surrounding the creation of the cartulary in LP, pp. cxvi-clxxxv.

89 Relations between Portugal and Rome were also studied by Erdmann, 1935.

90 LP, fos 216-218, no 567, pp. 753-760.

91 Dossier mentioned by Morujão, 2008, pp. 18-19. The dossier runs from folio 229 to 247vo (nos 592 to 643 in LP, pp. 795-867). It comes last in the original version of the cartulary, the remaining folios transmitting essentially donations subsequent to its first phase of production, which Maria do Rosário Morujão dates from the first years of the 1170s: Morujão, 2008, pp. 16-17.

92 The editors distinguish no category within this Roman corpus, and all documents are labelled as bulls; the manuscript shows no rubrics.

93 LP, fo 235, no 612, p. 821.

94 On this identification, see the remarks of Erdmann, Papsturkunden in Portugal, no 45, pp. 209-210.

95 LP, fos 235vo-236, no 616, p. 825.

96 LP, fos 235-235vo, no 613, p. 822.

97 LP, fo 235vo, no 615, p. 824; bull repeated identically on fo 240, no 626, p. 840.

98 See LP, nos 594, 595, 607 and 637 to 641, dated from 1135 to 1143.

99 Litterae sent from Coimbra to Rome, in addition to the documents cited above, are mentioned in the following documents, for example:LP, nos 598, 622, 624, 638. Others also mention petitiones.

100 De Colinbriensis ecclesia causa, tum te Omnipotens Deus ad nos venire permiserit, tibi ex affectu caritatis debito respondebimus (LP, fo 235vo, no 615, p. 824).

101 Voir LP, p. clxix. Urban II’s constitutio is also copied in this final dossier of the cartulary: LP, fos 237-237vo, no 619, pp. 829-831.

102 LP, fo 244vo, no 633, p. 855.

103 Biblioteca capitular de Toledo, Toledo (BCT), 42-20 (1190); BCT, 42-21 (first quarter of the 13th c.); BCT, 42-22 (first half of the 13th c.); Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid (AHN), 996B (first quarter of the 13th c.); AHN, 987B (ca 1257); BCT, 42-23a (ca 1257).

104 The non-diplomatic texts of these «cartularies» are presented by Miguel Franco, 2015.

105 Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid (BNE), Vitr. ms. 15-5 et BNE, ms. 10040: the former manuscript is dated 1252, the latter is a copy made in the fourteenth century.

106 Partial description in Hernández, Los cartularios de Toledo, p. xviii-xx; see also Feige, 1988 and Linehan, 1993, in part. pp. 328-332; Peter Linehan also became interested in the manuscript’s illuminations (pp. 362-363).

107 See Feige, 1991; Linehan, 1993, chap. x-xii; Henriet, 2004b.

108 It is the opinion of Linehan, 1993, pp. 283-284; Miguel Franco, 2015, pp. 127-129, retains an earlier date, corresponding to the efforts of Bernard of Sédirac, archbishop of Toledo from 1086, to restore the prestige of the Toledan see.

109 Text edited in Hernández, Los cartularios de Toledo, no 528, pp. 464-465.

110 Feige, 1988, pp. 677-691, identified the provenance of these quotes. Note that this issue had already been examined by Rivera Recio, 1962, pp. 33-38, though he took into consideration only the short version of the Exceptio, comprising less quotes.

111 Some of these quotes are altered so that they support the Toledan case. See the discussion by Feige, 1988.

112 On Braulio of Zaragoza’s epistles, see the introduction of Epístolas. Braulio de Zaragoza, ed. by Miguel Franco.

113 Thomas Deswarte is currently preparing an edition with introduction and commentary of Isidore of Seville’s letters.

114 Braulio Cesaraugustanus episcopus uir magne religionis atque sciencie in exordio cuiusdam epistole sue quam beato Eugenio memorate urbis episcopo transmittit, sic dicit : «Domino meo Eugenio Hyspaniarum primati, Braulio Cesaraugustanus episcopus salutem» (Hernández, Los cartularios de Toledo, no 528, p. 464).

115 Feige, 1988, pp. 677-678; Rivera Recio, 1962, pp. 33-34.

116 While awaiting for the new edition of Braulio’s epistles by Ruth Miguel Franco, in preparation, this letter can be consulted in the edition by Paulo Alberto of Eugene of Toledo, Opera, pp. 400-403: Domino singvlariter meo Evgenio primati episcoporum, Bravlio servvs invtilis sanctorvm Dei.

117 Item, beatus Isidorus Hyspalensis ecclesie archiepiscopus quondam episcopum Cordubensem ad beatum Alladium Toletanum archiepiscopum dirigit dicens : «Quia uobis concessa est potestas iudicandi episcopos, hunc fratrem nostrum Cordubensem in corporali peccato lapsum uobis mittimus iudicandum ut iudicetur et deponatur» (Hernández, Los cartularios de Toledo, no 528, p. 464).

118 Feige, 1988, pp. 678-679; Rivera Recio, 1962, pp. 34-35.

119 While awaiting for Thomas Deswarte’s new edition (see above), Isidore’s letter can be consulted in Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Epistolae, t. III: Epistolae Merowingici et Karolini aevi (1), ed. by Dümmler, Gundlach, Arndt, p. 661: Dominis meis et Dei servis, Elladio caeterisque, qui cum eo sunt coadunati episcopi, Esidorus. […] Et quia vobis solicitudo pastoralis incumbit vestroque iuditio delinquentium errore discutiendos censura divina disposuit […] vestram sanctitatem deposcimus, ut idem lapsus sancto cetui vestro praesentatus, agnito a vobis confessionis elogio, sinodali sententia a gradu sacerdotii deponatur.

120 Chastang, 2009, p. 120.

121 A coincidence that allows us to find resonance between medieval and contemporary practices. If we accept that a letter would have been copied in a cartulary because it had been preserved by accident among the archives of an institution, it would be concluding to the same kind of logic as Lucas Manuel Álvarez applied when he included in the diplomatic collection of the Asturian kings the letter sent by Alfonso III to the clergy of Tours in 906 «for the sole reason that it ha[d] been repeatedly studied and used» (Lucas Álvarez, «Libro becerro del Monasterio de Valbanera», pp. 149-150). On that matter, see my remarks in this volume’s introduction.

122 See Laurent Morelle’s remarks at the beginning of his chapter’s last argument in this volume.

123 Guyotjeannin, Pycke, Tock, 1993, p. 104.

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