A cartulary or chartulary (; Latin: ''cartularium'' or ''chartularium''), also called ''pancarta'' or ''codex diplomaticus'', is a medieval manuscript volume or roll (''
rotulus
A ''rotulus'' (plural ''rotuli'') or ''rotula'' (pl. ''rotulae'') is often referred to as a "vertical roll," is a long and narrow strip of writing material, historically papyrus or parchment, that is wound around a wooden axle or rod. Rotuli are ...
'') containing transcriptions of original documents relating to the foundation, privileges, and
legal rights
Some philosophers distinguish two types of rights, natural rights and legal rights.
* Natural rights are those that are not dependent on the laws or customs of any particular culture or government, and so are ''universal'', ''fundamental'' and ...
of ecclesiastical establishments,
municipal corporations
A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including (but not necessarily limited to) cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. The term can also be used to describe municipally owne ...
, industrial associations, institutions of learning, or families. The term is sometimes also applied to collections of original documents bound in one volume or attached to one another so as to form a roll, as well as to custodians of such collections.
Definitions
Michael Clanchy defines a cartulary as "a collection of title deeds copied into a register for greater security".
A cartulary may take the form of a book or a ''
codex''. Documents, chronicles or other kinds of handwritten texts were compiled, transcribed or copied into the cartulary.
In the introduction to the book ''Les Cartulaires'', it is argued that in the contemporary diplomatic world it was common to provide a strict definition as the organized, selective, or exhaustive transcription of diplomatic records, made by the owner of them or by the producer of the archive where the documents are preserved.
In the ''Dictionary of Archival Terminology'' a cartulary is defined as "a register, usually in volume form, of copies of charters, title deeds, grants of privileges and other documents of significance belonging to a person, family or institution". In 1938, the French historian, Emile Lesne, wrote: "Every Cartulary is the testimony of the statement of the Archives in a Church at the time when it was compiled".
Related terms in other languages are: ''cartularium'' (Latin); ''Kopiar'', ''Kopialbuch'' (
German), ''Chartular'' (Oes.); ''cartolario, cartulario, cartario'' (
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
); ''cartulario'' (
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
).
In medieval
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
, a type of cartulary was common from the early 11th century that combined a record of gifts to the monastery with a short narrative. These works are known as ''
pancartes''.
Development and contents
The allusion of
Gregory of Tours to ''chartarum tomi'' in the 6th century is commonly taken to refer to cartularies. The oldest surviving cartularies, however, originated in the
10th century. Those from the 10th to the 13th centuries are very numerous.
Cartularies frequently contain historical texts, known as cartulary
chronicles, which may focus on the history of the monastery whose legal documents it accompanies, or may be a more general history of the world. This link between legal and
historical writings has to be understood in the context of the importance of past events for establishing
legal precedence.
Sometimes the
copyist of the cartulary reproduced the original documents with literal exactness. On the other hand, some copyists took liberties with the text, including modifying the phraseology, modernizing proper names of persons and places, and even changing the substance, so as to extend the scope of the privileges or immunities granted in the document. The value of a cartulary as a historical document depends not only on how faithfully it reproduces the substance of the original, but also, if edited, on the clues it contains to the motivation for those changes. These questions are generally the subject of scrutiny under well-known canons of
historical criticism.
Publication and surveys
Many cartularies of
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
monasteries and churches have been published, more or less completely. A listing of all known medieval cartularies of the
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...
, edited by Godfrey Davis, was published in 1958, and republished in a heavily revised and extended edition in 2010: the revised edition contains entries for about 2,000 cartularies, including those of both ecclesiastical establishments and secular corporations, dating from the 11th to 16th centuries, with details of dates,
provenance, current location, and (where appropriate) publication. The ''Catalogue général des cartulaires des archives départementales'' (Paris, 1847) and the ''Inventaire des cartulaires'' etc. (Paris, 1878–9) were the chief sources of information regarding the cartularies of medieval France. There may be more recent developments in cataloguing.
List of cartularies
*
Cartularies of Valpuesta
The cartularies of Valpuesta are two medieval Spanish cartularies which belonged to a monastery in the locality of Valpuesta in what is now the province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain. The cartularies are called the ''Gótico'' and the ''Gal ...
, two medieval cartularies from the north of Spain.
* ''
Hemming's Cartulary'', two cartularies bound together, the ''Liber Wigorniensis'', made in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
around the year 1000, and a second compiled by
Hemming about a hundred years later. It is now in the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
.
* Cartulary of Windsheim, O.E.S.A. made in
Windsheim in Germany between 1421 and 1462.
*
Supetar cartulary, a twelfth-century cartulary of the monastery of St Peter in Poljice, near
Split
Split(s) or The Split may refer to:
Places
* Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia
* Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay
* Split Island, Falkland Islands
* Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua
Arts, entertai ...
in
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
* Cartulario de Óvila, of the monastery
Santa María de Óvila[Anales de la Universidad de Madrid: Letras – Volume 2 – Page 2 Universidad Complutense de Madrid – 1933 "Il Cartulario de Óvila es un códice encuadernado modernamente y escrito a línea tirada y con clara y elegante letra gótica en el transcurso del siglo xm. Los títulos e iniciales de adorno son de tinta roja. Como en otros cartularios de la misma..."]
* ''
Liber feudorum maior'', a twelfth-century cartulary of the
Crown of Aragon
The Crown of Aragon ( , ) an, Corona d'Aragón ; ca, Corona d'Aragó, , , ; es, Corona de Aragón ; la, Corona Aragonum . was a composite monarchy ruled by one king, originated by the dynastic union of the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of ...
* ''
Liber feudorum formae minoris'', an early thirteenth-century continuation of the ''Liber feudorum maior''
* ''
Liber instrumentorum memorialium'', an early thirteenth-century cartulary of the
Lords of Montpellier
* ''
Liber instrumentorum vicecomitalium'', also called the ''Trencavel Cartulary'' and the ''Foix Cartulary'', a thirteenth-century French collection
* ''
Liber feudorum Ceritaniae
The ''Liber feudorum Ceritaniae'' is, as its Latin title indicates, a book (''liber'', in fact a chartulary) registering the fiefs (''feudi'') within the counties of Cerdagne (''Ceritania''), Roussillon and Conflent, and the feudal obligations of ...
'', a thirteenth-century cartulary of the
County of Cerdanya
* The ''
Tropenell Cartulary
The ''Tropenell Cartulary'' is an English medieval manuscript cartulary compiled for Thomas Tropenell (''c.'' 1405 – 1488), a Wiltshire landowner, in the 15th century.
History
A cartulary is a medieval manuscript, usually taking the form of a ...
'', from the west of England estates of
Thomas Tropenell, 15th century
* ''Chartularium Sithiense'' or
Abbey of Saint Bertin's cartulary, written in Latin and whose first part is attributed to Folquin (or Saint Folquin, died 14 December 855 in Esquelbeques)
* The Register of St Osmund, a 13th-century cartulary belonging to
Salisbury Cathedral.
* ''
Textus Roffensis
__NOTOC__
The ''Textus Roffensis'' (Latin for "The Tome of Rochester"), fully titled the ''Textus de Ecclesia Roffensi per Ernulphum episcopum'' ("The Tome of the Church of Rochester up to Bishop Ernulf") and sometimes also known as the Anna ...
'' (), the first part is a collection of primarily secular documents written in
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
, whilst the second part is the cartulary of
Rochester Cathedral
Rochester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an English church of Norman architecture in Rochester, Medway, Rochester, Kent.
The church is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rochester in the Church o ...
written in Latin.
Chartoularios
The late Roman/Byzantine ''
chartoularios'' was an administrative and fiscal official. In the
Greek Orthodox Church, the corresponding position was called ''
chartophylax
A ''chartophylax'' ( el, χαρτοφύλαξ, from χάρτα, "document" and φύλαξ, "guard, keeper"), sometimes also referred to as a ''chartoularios'', was an ecclesiastical officer in charge of official documents and records in the Greek O ...
''. This title was also given to an ancient officer in the
Roman Church
Holy Roman Church, Roman Church, Church of Rome or Church in Rome may refer to:
* The Diocese of Rome or the Holy See
* The Latin Church
* Churches of Rome (buildings)
In historical contexts ''Roman Church'' may also refer to:
* The Catholic Chur ...
, who had the care of charters and papers relating to public affairs. The chartulary presided in ecclesiastical judgments, in lieu of the Pope.
Notes
Sources
*
*
*
External links
Códices Diplomáticos HispánicosCartularios MedievalesCartulary of Windsheim, O.E.S.A. Codice diplomatico della Lombardia Medievale (CDLM){{authority control
Ecclesiastical titles
Medieval charters and cartularies
Notaries