Wendy Davies

Sale, price and valuation in Galicia and Castile–León in the tenth century

The number of sale transactions recorded by northern Spanish charters of the tenth century is very striking, especially in the 930s to 960s. A record of price paid was a consistent element of such documents, although words used to express price varied from silver solidi to goats, shirts and grain. Valuations, in solidi and in other units of account such as cattle, were often stated when objects were used as payment. While it looks as if some silver was really used in deals in urban Leon and its hinterland, using pieces of silver called argenzos, argenteos etc., elsewhere this was rare. Comparing the transactions in the three very different monastic collections of Celanova in the north–west, Sahagun in the central meseta and Cardena in the foothills of the sierras in the north–east, regional difference is also striking. Sahagun is notable for the volume and early date of its sales and for increasing use of silver–based expressions of price and value. Round Celanova, by contrast, although there were also many sales, people used several modes of valuation simultaneously, but metal–based notions very rarely. Round Cardena, close to urban Burgos, far fewer sales are recorded, and they come later in the century, but silver–based notions of value were the only ones used. This latter sub–urban context seems to have been much less commercially active than that of Leon and Sahagun, with exchange by gift and countergift a more prominent characteristic.

Judges and judging: truth and justice in northern Iberia on the eve of the millennium

This is a study of the functions of judges in courts in northern Iberia in the later ninth and tenth centuries; of their identities as individuals; and of the language of justice in the records of court proceedings. Judges ordered what was to happen next in the conduct of a case, made primary investigations, reviewed evidence and made decisions. At least 180 named individuals were involved in judging in this period, usually in panels, although more, unnamed, judges also participated in the process. The records are characterised by a rhetoric of truth and justice designed to effect closure. ☆ First delivered as the Reuter Lecture, University of Southampton, June 2009. I was more than usually conscious of the responsibility of living up to the honour of delivering this lecture: Tim Reuter was a very good friend, for more than 30 years, and I hope that what follows would both have interested him and caused him to reflect. The following abbreviations are used in this paper: C1, C2, etc.: Colección documental del monasterio de San Pedro de Cardeña, ed. G. Martínez Díez (Cardeña, 1998); Cel1, Cel2, etc.: O Tombo de Celanova. Estudio introductorio, edición e índices (ss. ix–xii), ed. J.M. Andrade Cernadas, with M. Díaz Tie and F.J. Pérez Rodríguez, 2 vols (Santiago de Compostela, 1995); Li1, Lii259, Liii512, etc.: Colección documental del archivo de la catedral de León (775–1230), I (775–952), ed. E. Sáez; II (953–85), ed. E. Sáez and C. Sáez; III (986–1031), ed. J.M. Ruiz Asencio (León, 1987, 1990, 1987); OD1, OD2, etc.: Colección documental del monasterio de Santa María de Otero de las Dueñas, I, ed. J.A. Fernández Flórez and M. Herrero de la Fuente (León, 1999); PMH DC 1, 2, etc: Portugaliae monumenta historica a saeculo octavo post Christum usque ad quintumdecimum. Diplomata et chartae, I, ed. A. Herculano de Carvalho e Araujo and J.J. da Silva Mendes Leal (Lisbon, 1867–73); S1, S2, etc.: Colección diplomática del monasterio de Sahagún (857-1230), I (siglos ix y x), ed. J.M. Mínguez Fernández (León, 1976); Sam1, Sam 2, etc.: El Tumbo de San Julián de Samos (siglos VII –XII), ed. M. Lucas Álvarez (Santiago de Compostela, 1986); Sob1, Sob2, etc.: Tumbos del monasterio de Sobrado de los Monjes, ed. P. Loscertales de García de Valde-avellano, 2 vols (Madrid, 1976); V1, V2, etc.: Cartulario de Valpuesta, ed. M. Desamparados Perez Soler (Valencia, 1970).

People and places in dispute in ninth-century Brittany

The records of dispute and dispute settlement from northern Europe, although few by comparison with those of the South, include an unusually large set of useful material in the collection of charters relating to the monastery of Redon in eastern Brittany. Redon, on the River Vilaine, 65 km south-west of Rennes, was founded in 832 and soon gained the patronage of the Carolingian emperor Louis and of his representative in Brittany, Nominoe. It received many small grants of property in its neighbourhood in the decades following the foundation, and records of the grants, along with other documents, were copied in the eleventh century into the Cartulaire de Redon . This cartulary contains 283 charters of the ninth and early tenth centuries; and a further sixty-two charters, which may not have been included in the medieval cartulary, are known from early modern transcripts. Three-quarters of these charters relate to the forty years following the monasterys foundation and constitute – for the ninth century – an unusually large number of documents to deal with a small region. The lands with which the charters are concerned lie between Rennes, Nantes and Vannes, but most of the properties fall within 40 km of Redon itself (fig. 2). Many of the grants were of small areas (in the order of 10–25 hectares), and the donors, vendors and plaintiffs of the records were peasant farmers: most of the individuals mentioned worked the land themselves and confined their business to their own village communities. The collection, then, is largely a collection of private, rather than government, acts and is particularly valuable in allowing insight into the workings and relationships of peasant communities.

Disputes, their conduct and their settlement in the village communities of eastern Brittany in the ninth century

There were formal and informal means for the settlement of disputes within the village communities of ninth‐century eastern Brittany, although both depended essentially on local knowledge of local history and on confidence in the good faith of those with the knowledge. Reference was not made to written law, nor sets of customs, nor principles; the answer to all problems was seen to lie in the past, and all problems were assumed to have an answer. Where the procedure was formal and the meeting presided over by some official, presidents do not appear to have determined the outcome; judgment was made and due settlement assessed by panels of ‘suitable’ local men. Peasant communities sometimes became involved in the disputes of high politics, through the property interests of more substantial landowners. In these cases the means of arriving at a judgment and the procedure of expressing it often differed: though local knowledge might be cited, cases were usually heard by the ruler, who then both judged and dete...

Property and Power in the Early Middle Ages: Contents

List of maps Preface Abbreviations Introduction 1. The ideology of sharing: apostolic community and ecclesiastical property in the early middle ages David Ganz 2. Teutsind, Witlaic and the history of Merovingian precaria Ian Wood 3. Eternal light and earthly needs: practical aspects of the development of Frankish immunities Paul Fouracre 4. The wary widow Janet Nelson 5. Lordship and justice in the early English kingdom: Oswaldslow revisited Patrick Wormald 6. Adding insult to injury: power, property, and immunities in early medieval Wales Wendy Davies 7. Property transactions and social relations between rulers, bishops and nobles in early eleventh-century Saxony: the evidence of the Vita Meinwerci Timothy Reuter 8. Monastic exemptions in tenth- and eleventh-century Byzantium Rosemary Morris 9. Property ownership and signorial power in twelfth-century Tuscany Chris Wickham 10. Conclusion: property and power in early medieval Europe Glossary.

Property and Power in the Early Middle Ages: Frontmatter

List of maps Preface Abbreviations Introduction 1. The ideology of sharing: apostolic community and ecclesiastical property in the early middle ages David Ganz 2. Teutsind, Witlaic and the history of Merovingian precaria Ian Wood 3. Eternal light and earthly needs: practical aspects of the development of Frankish immunities Paul Fouracre 4. The wary widow Janet Nelson 5. Lordship and justice in the early English kingdom: Oswaldslow revisited Patrick Wormald 6. Adding insult to injury: power, property, and immunities in early medieval Wales Wendy Davies 7. Property transactions and social relations between rulers, bishops and nobles in early eleventh-century Saxony: the evidence of the Vita Meinwerci Timothy Reuter 8. Monastic exemptions in tenth- and eleventh-century Byzantium Rosemary Morris 9. Property ownership and signorial power in twelfth-century Tuscany Chris Wickham 10. Conclusion: property and power in early medieval Europe Glossary.