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Details
DEED, in Latin, manuscript on vellum, Spain, Sant Sebastià del Sull, 26 October 965
An exceptionally early document – more than a thousand and fifty years old – by a named scribe, by which Guisclamon, Ponç, and Bergonna, as executors of the deceased Argeric, donate part of a vineyard to the monastery of Sant Sebastià.
c.70×290mm, unruled, written with 10 lines of Caroline minuscule script, the opening initial with simple foliate ornament, 10 lines high, the dorse with a long 17th(?)-century summary in Catalan and ‘Nr. 9’ (small losses at the upper and lower edges, barely touching one or two words of text, somewhat worn but still entirely legible).
Provenance:
(1) Written by the priest Godmares, and dated VII kalends of November in the 12th year of the reign of ‘Luthario rege filio Lodovico’ (i.e. Lothar III, son of Louis IV, thus: 26 October 965), in favour of the Benedictine monastery of Sant Sebastià del Sull, at Saldes, Catalonia, which later became a priory of:
(2) Sant Llorenç del Munt, near Bagà, to which its archive passed, until dissolved in 1608; from there the documents passed through various other repositories and were eventually dispersed: to the Archive of the Crown of Aragon in Barcelona, in 1845, to the Biblioteca de Catalunya, the Abbey of Montserrat, the British Library; and elsewhere; many having been owned by:
(3) Joaquim Areny de Plandolit (cf. lot 437), who transcribed the present one c.1900, and wrote ‘S. Sebastian mon. / 965’ on the dorse.
(4) Swann Galleries, New York, 6 November 1986, lot 30.
(5) Bernard Rosenthal, his ‘I/280’; sold in November 1989 to:
(6) Schøyen Collection, MS 590/49.
Script:
The writing of this document is characterised by its ‘g’ with a open lower bowl, the ‘r’ that descends below the other minims, occasional use of majuscule ‘R’ (‘nove(m)beR’, ‘GodmaRes’, ‘supRa’), ‘d’ sometimes with a cross-stroke through the ascender, and a strange ‘ct’ ligature in which the join occurs at mid-height instead of at the top. The spelling of ‘scripxi’ doubtless reflects local Catalan pronunciation.
Bibliography:
Mark Mersiowsky, ‘Katalanische Urkunden in privaten Sammlungen: Originale des 10. und 11. Jahrhunderts aus Sant Llorenç del Munt und Sant Llorenç prop Bagà aus dem Besitz des Joaquim Areny de Plandolit’, Archiv für Diplomatik, Schriftgeschichte, Siegel- und Wappenkunde, 49, 2003, pp.49–80; reprinted in Catalan translation in Faventia 27, 2005, pp.57–81.
An exceptionally early document – more than a thousand and fifty years old – by a named scribe, by which Guisclamon, Ponç, and Bergonna, as executors of the deceased Argeric, donate part of a vineyard to the monastery of Sant Sebastià.
c.70×290mm, unruled, written with 10 lines of Caroline minuscule script, the opening initial with simple foliate ornament, 10 lines high, the dorse with a long 17th(?)-century summary in Catalan and ‘Nr. 9’ (small losses at the upper and lower edges, barely touching one or two words of text, somewhat worn but still entirely legible).
Provenance:
(1) Written by the priest Godmares, and dated VII kalends of November in the 12th year of the reign of ‘Luthario rege filio Lodovico’ (i.e. Lothar III, son of Louis IV, thus: 26 October 965), in favour of the Benedictine monastery of Sant Sebastià del Sull, at Saldes, Catalonia, which later became a priory of:
(2) Sant Llorenç del Munt, near Bagà, to which its archive passed, until dissolved in 1608; from there the documents passed through various other repositories and were eventually dispersed: to the Archive of the Crown of Aragon in Barcelona, in 1845, to the Biblioteca de Catalunya, the Abbey of Montserrat, the British Library; and elsewhere; many having been owned by:
(3) Joaquim Areny de Plandolit (cf. lot 437), who transcribed the present one c.1900, and wrote ‘S. Sebastian mon. / 965’ on the dorse.
(4) Swann Galleries, New York, 6 November 1986, lot 30.
(5) Bernard Rosenthal, his ‘I/280’; sold in November 1989 to:
(6) Schøyen Collection, MS 590/49.
Script:
The writing of this document is characterised by its ‘g’ with a open lower bowl, the ‘r’ that descends below the other minims, occasional use of majuscule ‘R’ (‘nove(m)beR’, ‘GodmaRes’, ‘supRa’), ‘d’ sometimes with a cross-stroke through the ascender, and a strange ‘ct’ ligature in which the join occurs at mid-height instead of at the top. The spelling of ‘scripxi’ doubtless reflects local Catalan pronunciation.
Bibliography:
Mark Mersiowsky, ‘Katalanische Urkunden in privaten Sammlungen: Originale des 10. und 11. Jahrhunderts aus Sant Llorenç del Munt und Sant Llorenç prop Bagà aus dem Besitz des Joaquim Areny de Plandolit’, Archiv für Diplomatik, Schriftgeschichte, Siegel- und Wappenkunde, 49, 2003, pp.49–80; reprinted in Catalan translation in Faventia 27, 2005, pp.57–81.
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