Papeles tocantes al havito de Christo de Portugal: um códice português na Biblioteca Nacional de España

Abstract

Spanish libraries and archives contain extensive documentation relating to the Portuguese Military Orders, as a result, among others, of the union of the two crowns between 1581 and 1640. This paper will focus on a particular codex deposited in the Spanish National Library. It compiles a set of documents related to the Order of Christ, both hand-written and printed, which were assembled in the same codex. They were copied in the seventeenth century, but many date back to earlier times. We will analyse their content, in an attempt to associate them with the historical context to which they are connected. We also seek to relate them to general matters of the Military Orders, and to the affairs of the Order of Christ, in particular.