Reconstructing formularies: the charters of the episcopal chancery of Porto in the Middle Ages

Abstract

This study aims to reconstruct the formularies of a specific type of documents, namely the charters of confirmation of rectory produced in the episcopal chancery of Porto in the Middle Ages. In order to achieve this goal we study the non-essential formulas found in the protocol, text and eschatocol of each one of the 80 collected charters, as well as the forms of validation used in these documents. The joint study of the dictamen and the validatio thus allow the reconstruction of the modus faciendi of the chancery, and its evolution, with regard to the production of these types of confirmation. We concluded that there were, in fact, "formulary rules" that only exceptionally have been broken. And for being exceptions, these documents deserve special attention and their study proved that the changes appeared only in specific situations. To evaluate the originality of the formulary of the confirmations of rectory made in this Episcopal chancery we preceded a comparative study of the same type of charters produced in other Episcopal chanceries, i.e. those of Coimbra, Lamego and Zaragoza.