A chirograph of 1151, from the Arxiu de la Corona d'Aragó, Barcelona

Customarily, a chirograph is a medieval charter which was created in duplicate to distribute to various parties to an act. It is rare that two halves of an original chirograph survive. It is rarer still that two surviving halves would be found not to be identical. The following chirograph pair raises interesting questions over the nature of testamentary donation and its relation to other forms of instantaneous gift, as well as challenging our assumption about the necessity of identical copies of legal acts in a medieval notarial culture.

[click for high-resolution image]

excerpted from Nathaniel L. Taylor, "The Will and Society in Medieval Catalonia and Languedoc, 800-1200"
(Diss., Harvard Univ., 1995), appendix D, nos. 12A - 12B, pp. 429-30.

A.

31 July 1151. Testament (contemporaneous with donatio reservato usufructu, below). Guillem, a priest, makes his will, donating his body to the Templars with his allods in the parish of Sant Esteve de Granollers, although his brothers are to have possession of the lands and render a fourth of the expletis. There is an explicit clause reserving the revocability of these terms.

A. ACA, Perg. Ramon Berenguer IV, no. 239. Original. Chirograph, top portion. Divided along letters: “ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTVXZ.” For the second part of this chirograph (which did not divide two identical charters), see the following act.

In Christi nomine, ego Guillelmo presbitero facio meum testamentum et eligo manumissores amicis meis id sunt Miro Iohanni et Petro Geraldo presbitero et Gerado Petro ut isti fiant testes sicut ego subtus facio scribere.

In primis dimito meum corpus ad milicie templum Iherosolimis, et insuper dono et concedo meas hereditates et meos directos de alodio francho que ego abeo vel abere debeo in villa Gualamers et in eius terminis sicut venit per ienitorum meorum et per ullas voces sicut ego abeo in parroechia Sancti Stephani Granollarii in omnibus locis, in tale conventu ut teneant et abeant ad laboracione fratres meos Raimundo et Bernardo et filiis de Rosel equaliter mente, et reddant ad milicie prescripta quartam de omnibus expletis quod ibi Deus dederit fideliter omni tempore. Et retineo ad meum opus ad meam voluntatem «unam peciam terre» qui vocant Clapers cum ipsas mansiones Sancte Marie ubi abito. Et dimitto meam honorem vel tenedone vel hereditates que ego abeo per paterna vel materna voce per Sancte Marie Rivipollensi et per Sancti Petri sede Vici et Sancti Petri cenobii Barchinone inter meos fratres et nepotos suprascriptos ut abeant equaliter mente. Et si opus michi est per ullas necessitatem omnia honore superius scripta qualicumque hora voluerit recuperare abeo licencia sine illa contrarietate hominis vel femina.

Actum est hoc .ii. kalendas augusti anno .xiiii. regnante Ledovico rege iuniore.

Sig+num Guillelmi, qui istum testamentum facio et firmo. Sig+num Miro Iohannis. Sig+num Pere Gerat. Sig+num Gerat Pere. Sig+num Raimundo. Sig+num Bernardo. Sig+num Guillelmo.
Guillelmus presbiter qui hoc scripsit cum litteras suprapositas in .viii. linea die et anno quo +++ supra.

ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTVXZ {top half}

B.

31 July 1151. Donatio reservato usufructu (contemporaneous with testament, above). Guillem, a priest, makes the same gift to the Templars as in document A. Here, however, the act is couched as a simple donation, not as a testament.

A. ACA, Perg. Ramon Berenguer IV, no. 240. Original. Chirograph, bottom portion. Divided along letters “ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTVXZ.” For the first part of this chirograph (which did not divide two identical charters), see the previous act.

ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTVXZ {bottom half}

In nomine Domini. Ego Guillelmo presbitero dono et concedo ad domino Deo et ad milicie templum Iherosolimis omnem meum alodium franchum totum ab integrum cum meos directos de domos qui intus sunt, in tale conventu ut teneant et abeant fratres meos Raimundo et Bernardo et nepotes meos filiis Rosel et proienie eorum, et reddant ad milicie suprascriptum «omni tempore» quartum de omnibus expletis quod ibi Deus dederit pro redempcionem anime mee et parentorum meorum fideliter mente. Et est in comitatu Ausone in parroechia Sancti Stephani Granollarii in villa Gualamers, et in terminis eius. Si quis hoc frangere voluerit in duplo componat.

Actum est hoc .ii. kal augusti anno .xiiii. regnante Ledovico rege iuniore.

Sig+num Guillelmo presbitero qui hoc donum facio et firmo. Sig+num Raimundo. Sig+num Bernardo. Sig+num Guillelmo. Sig+num Miro Iohannis. Sig+num Petri Geralli. Sig+num Gerat Pere.

Et faciant meos fratres omnibus censis et serviciis qui debent exire de honore suprascripta.

Guillelmus presbiter qui hoc scripsit die et anno quo +++ supra.

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