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The ''Liber instrumentorum vicecomitalium'' (
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
for "Book of the Instruments of the Viscounts"), sometimes called the Trencavel Cartulary (''CT'') or Cartulaire de Foix, is a
high medieval The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history between and ; it was preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended according to historiographical convention ...
cartulary A cartulary or chartulary (; Latin: ''cartularium'' or ''chartularium''), also called ''pancarta'' or ''codex diplomaticus'', is a medieval manuscript volume or roll ('' rotulus'') containing transcriptions of original documents relating to the fo ...
commissioned by the
Trencavel The Trencavel family was an important French noble family in Languedoc between the 10th and 13th centuries. The name "Trencavel" began as a nickname and later became the family's surname. The name may derive from the Occitan words for "Nutcrac ...
family. It preserves either 585Kosto, ''Making Agreements'', 149.Evergates, 20. or 616–7Kosto, "The ''Liber feudorum maior''," 2.
charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...
s, the earliest of which dates to 1028 and the latest to 1214. The charters preserve a record of important feudal customs relating to the lands of the Trencavel, namely
Albi Albi (; ) is a commune in France, commune in southern France. It is the prefecture of the Tarn (department), Tarn Departments of France, department, on the river Tarn (river), Tarn, 85 km northeast of Toulouse. Its inhabitants are called ...
,
Agde Agde (; ) is a commune in the southern French department of Hérault. It is the Mediterranean port of the Canal du Midi. It is situated on an ancient basalt volcano, hence the name "Black Pearl of the Mediterranée". Location Agde is locate ...
,
Béziers Béziers (; ) is a city in southern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Hérault Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region. Every August Béziers ho ...
,
Carcassonne Carcassonne is a French defensive wall, fortified city in the Departments of France, department of Aude, Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania. It is the prefectures in France, prefecture of the department. ...
,
Nîmes Nîmes ( , ; ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Gard Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of Southern France. Located between the Med ...
, and
Razès Razès (; ; ) is a historical area in southwestern France, in today's Aude ''département''. Several communes of the ''département'' include ''Razès'' in their name: * Bellegarde-du-Razès * Belvèze-du-Razès Belvèze-du-Razès (; ) is ...
, all of which—save Carcassonne, which was a
county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
—were
viscounties A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. The status and any domain held by a viscount is a viscounty. In the case of French viscounts, the title is so ...
, hence the cartulary's name. It is preserved in a twelfth-century manuscript, now kept with the Société Archéologique de Montpellier, where it is MS 10. The compilation of the ''Liber'' began probably between 1186 and 1188, under the direction of
Roger II Trencavel Roger II Trencavel (died March 1194) was the Viscount of Carcassonne, Béziers, Razès, and Albi from 1167 or 1171 until his death. Until 1177 he used the title proconsul, usually as ''proconsul de Bitteris'' (of Béziers), but he abandoned the usa ...
. It was completed in two stages and occupies 248 folios. The initial work was done by two scribes in a clear but highly abbreviate "proto-gothic documentary script", with a few decorated initials.Graham-Leigh, 15. In 1206 a few charters from the 1190s and the first years of the new century as well as some older documents from 1176–85 that were omitted in the initial compilation were added by a different scribe, using a smaller, rounder script. The final addition to the charter was a record of the surrender of Bernard Ato VI Trencavel to
Simon de Montfort Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, 1st Earl of Chester ( – 4 August 1265), also known as Simon V de Montfort, was an English nobleman of French origin and a member of the English peerage, who led the baronial opposition to the rule of ...
in 1214. The earliest eleventh-century charters generally concern Albi, the first Trencavel viscounty, but the majority of charters date to the mid–late twelfth century. Of the charters 321 (55%) are oaths of fealty, 79 are "grants, recognitions, sales, mortgages" of fiefs, and 57 are '' convenientiae'' (accords). A small proportion of the oaths reference other ''convenientiae'', but it is clear from the proportions of documents in the cartulary that "the power of the Trencavels rested on the oath." Its organisation implies its use as an argument for Trencavel power. For example, it contains the supposed will of Roger the Old, the founder of the house.Graham-Leigh, 159. Its contents are geographically organised, arranged so as to present Trencavel lordship as regional and territorial. This form of organisation is mirrored in the contemporary ''
Liber feudorum maior The ''Liber feudorum maior'' (or ''LFM'', medieval Latin for "great book of fiefs"), originally called the ''Liber domini regis'' ("book of the lord king"), is a late twelfth-century Illuminated manuscript, illuminated cartulary of the Crown of A ...
'' (and its companion piece, the ''
Liber feudorum Ceritaniae The ''Liber feudorum Ceritaniae'' is, as its Medieval Latin, Latin title indicates, a book (''liber'', in fact a chartulary) registering the fiefs (''feudi'') within the counties of County of Cerdagne, Cerdagne (''Ceritania''), County of Roussillon ...
'') of
Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...
and the ''
Liber instrumentorum memorialium The ''Liber instrumentorum memorialium'' is the surviving cartulary of the Lords of Montpellier, the Guilhems (Guillems), and an important source for their history. It was compiled in the early thirteenth century, under the patronage of William VI ...
'' of the Guilhems of Montpellier, with which it is often compared. The Trencavel Cartulary contains no documents concerning the church, secular or monastic, and does not appear to have been used on a regular basis by its commissioners. It was only periodically augmented, and seems more to have been a monument to Trencavel power.


Editions

*Dovetto, Joseph. 1997. ''Cartulaire des Trencavel: analyse détaillée des 617 actes, 957–1214''. Centre de recherches et d'information historiques des conférenciers de la Cité. Carcassonne, 1977. B000WXR47M.


References

;Sources *Cheyette, Frederic L. 1976. "The Castles of the Trencavels: A Preliminary Aerial Survey." ''Order and Innovation in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honor of Joseph R. Strayer'',
William Chester Jordan William Chester Jordan (born April 7, 1948) is an American medievalist who serves as the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University; he is a recipient of the Haskins Medal for his work concerning the Great Famine of 1315–131 ...
, Bruce McNab, and Teofilo F. Ruiz, edd. (Princeton), 255–72. *Cheyette, Fredric L. 1988. "The 'Sale' of Carcassonne to the Counts of Barcelona (1067–1070) and the Rise of the Trencavels." ''
Speculum The term speculum, Latin for "mirror", and its plural specula, may refer to: * ''Speculum'' (journal), a journal of medieval studies published by the Medieval Academy of America * Speculum (medical), a medical tool used for examining body cavities ...
'', 63(4), 826–864. *Cheyette, Fredric L. 2001. ''Ermengard of Narbonne and the World of the Troubadours''. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. . *Débax, Hélène. 1993. "Le cartulaire des Trencavel (''Liber instrumentorum vicecomitalium'')." ''Les cartulaires: Actes de la table ronde organisée par l'École nationale des chartes et le G.D.R. 121 du C.N.R.S. (Paris, 5–7 décembre 1991)'',
Olivier Guyotjeannin Olivier Guyotjeannin (born 13 March 1959, Suresnes) is a French medievalist and diplomatist. Career Olivier Guyotjeannin graduated as archivist-paleographer from the École Nationale des Chartes in 1981 with a thesis entitled ''La seigneurie ...
, Laurent Morelle, and Michel Parisse, eds. Mémoires et documents de l'École des chartes, 39 (Paris: École des Chartes), 291–99. *Débax, Hélène. 2003. ''La féodalité languedocienne, XIe-XIIe siècles: Serments, hommages et fiefs dans le Languedoc des Trencavel''. Toulouse: Presses universitaires du Mirail. . *Graham-Leigh, Elaine. 2005. ''The Southern French Nobility and the Albigensian Crusade''. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. . *Evergates, Theodore. 2003. Littere Baronum'': The Earliest Cartulary of the Counts of Champagne''.
Medieval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until ) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes the q ...
. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003. *Kosto, Adam J. 2001. ''Making Agreements in Medieval Catalonia: Power, Order, and the Written Word, 1000–1200''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . *Kosto, Adam J. 2001. "The ''Liber feudorum maior'' of the Counts of Barcelona: The Cartulary as an Expression of Power." ''
Journal of Medieval History The ''Journal of Medieval History'' is a major international academic journal devoted to all aspects of the history of Europe in the Middle Ages. Each issue contains 4 or 5 original articles on European history, including the British Isles, North ...
'', 27(1), 1–22. ;Notes {{DEFAULTSORT:Liber Instrumentorum Vicecomitalium Medieval charters and cartularies