The formularies of medieval portuguese testaments through the study of a Monastic Archive

Abstract

This paper focuses on testaments, donations, and postmortem donations preserved in the archive of the monastery of S. Pedro de Pedroso (a Benedictine coenobium of the Porto diocese) in the 13th century. To this end, we collected and analysed the documentation of the previously established typologies belonging to thismonastery, which are currently kept in the National Archive of Torre do Tombo. The first goal is to reflect on the number of documents found for each typology and relate it to their chronological distribution. Then, to analyse the formularies of all these different types of documents (namely the non-essential formulas, such as invocation, notification, sanction, corroboration, and dating) and their validation forms (concretely the notary's subscription, the testes, and the witnesses). In addition to this analysis, the vocables, verbal forms, and /or expressions that state the nature of the legal act were gathered, and a list was made of some of the conditions defined in the text, also in order to compare testaments to donations and to postmortem donations. Through this case study, we aim to identify elements that can contribute to a broader study of Portuguesemedieval testaments and other documents of last wills kept in the archives of ecclesiastical institutions, with a view to a long term study which remains to be completed.