Liber instrumentorum vicecomitalium
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The ''Liber instrumentorum vicecomitalium'' (
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
for "Book of the Instruments of the Viscounts"), sometimes called the Trencavel Cartulary (''CT'') or Cartulaire de Foix, is a
high medieval The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended around AD 1500 ...
cartulary A cartulary or chartulary (; Latin: ''cartularium'' or ''chartularium''), also called ''pancarta'' or ''codex diplomaticus'', is a medieval manuscript volume or roll (''rotulus'') containing transcriptions of original documents relating to the fo ...
commissioned by the Trencavel family. It preserves either 585Kosto, ''Making Agreements'', 149.Evergates, 20. or 616–7Kosto, "The ''Liber feudorum maior''," 2.
charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...
s, the earliest of which dates to 1028 and the latest to 1214. The charters preserve a record of important feudal customs relating to the lands of the Trencavel, namely
Albi Albi (; oc, Albi ) is a commune in southern France. It is the prefecture of the Tarn department, on the river Tarn, 85 km northeast of Toulouse. Its inhabitants are called ''Albigensians'' (french: Albigeois, Albigeoise(s), oc, albigĂ ...
,
Agde Agde (; ) is a commune in the HĂ©rault department in Southern France. It is the Mediterranean port of the Canal du Midi. Location Agde is located on the HĂ©rault river, from the Mediterranean Sea, and from Paris. The Canal du Midi con ...
,
Béziers Béziers (; oc, Besièrs) is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Hérault Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of Southern France. Every August Béziers hos ...
,
Carcassonne Carcassonne (, also , , ; ; la, Carcaso) is a French fortified city in the department of Aude, in the region of Occitanie. It is the prefecture of the department. Inhabited since the Neolithic, Carcassonne is located in the plain of the ...
,
Nîmes Nîmes ( , ; oc, Nimes ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the prefecture of the Gard department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. Located between the Mediterranean Sea and Cévennes, the commune of Nîmes has an estimated population of 148,5 ...
, and
Razès Razès (; oc, Rasés; ca, Rasès) is a historical area in southwestern France, in today's Aude ''département''. Several communes An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of ...
, all of which—save Carcassonne, which was a
county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
—were viscounties, hence the cartulary's name. It is preserved in a twelfth-century manuscript, now kept with the SociĂ©tĂ© ArchĂ©ologique de Montpellier, where it is MS 10. The compilation of the ''Liber'' began probably between 1186 and 1188, under the direction of Roger II Trencavel. It was completed in two stages and occupies 248 folios. The initial work was done by two scribes in a clear but highly abbreviate "proto-gothic documentary script", with a few decorated initials.Graham-Leigh, 15. In 1206 a few charters from the 1190s and the first years of the new century as well as some older documents from 1176–85 that were omitted in the initial compilation were added by a different scribe, using a smaller, rounder script. The final addition to the charter was a record of the surrender of Bernard Ato VI Trencavel to Simon de Montfort in 1214. The earliest eleventh-century charters generally concern Albi, the first Trencavel viscounty, but the majority of charters date to the mid–late twelfth century. Of the charters 321 (55%) are oaths of fealty, 79 are "grants, recognitions, sales, mortgages" of fiefs, and 57 are '' convenientiae'' (accords). A small proportion of the oaths reference other ''convenientiae'', but it is clear from the proportions of documents in the cartulary that "the power of the Trencavels rested on the oath." Its organisation implies its use as an argument for Trencavel power. For example, it contains the supposed will of Roger the Old, the founder of the house.Graham-Leigh, 159. Its contents are geographically organised, arranged so as to present Trencavel lordship as regional and territorial. This form of organisation is mirrored in the contemporary ''
Liber feudorum maior The ''Liber feudorum maior'' (or ''LFM'', medieval Latin for "great book of fiefs"), originally called the ''Liber domini regis'' ("book of the lord king"), is a late twelfth-century Illuminated manuscript, illuminated cartulary of the Crown of A ...
'' (and its companion piece, the '' Liber feudorum Ceritaniae'') of
Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...
and the ''
Liber instrumentorum memorialium The ''Liber instrumentorum memorialium'' is the surviving cartulary of the Lords of Montpellier, the Guilhems (Guillems), and an important source for their history. It was compiled in the early thirteenth century, under the patronage of William VI ...
'' of the Guilhems of Montpellier, with which it is often compared. The Trencavel Cartulary contains no documents concerning the church, secular or monastic, and does not appear to have been used on a regular basis by its commissioners. It was only periodically augmented, and seems more to have been a monument to Trencavel power.


Editions

*Dovetto, Joseph. 1997. ''Cartulaire des Trencavel: analyse dĂ©taillĂ©e des 617 actes, 957–1214''. Centre de recherches et d'information historiques des confĂ©renciers de la CitĂ©. Carcassonne, 1977. B000WXR47M.


References

;Sources *Cheyette, Frederic L. 1976. "The Castles of the Trencavels: A Preliminary Aerial Survey." ''Order and Innovation in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honor of Joseph R. Strayer'',
William Chester Jordan William Chester Jordan (born April 7, 1948) is an American medievalist, in which field he is a Haskins Medal winner. He is currently the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University. He is also a former Director of the Program i ...
, Bruce McNab, and Teofilo F. Ruiz, edd. (Princeton), 255–72. *Cheyette, Fredric L. 1988. "The 'Sale' of Carcassonne to the Counts of Barcelona (1067–1070) and the Rise of the Trencavels." '' Speculum'', 63(4), 826–864. *Cheyette, Fredric L. 2001. ''Ermengard of Narbonne and the World of the Troubadours''. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. . *DĂ©bax, HĂ©lène. 1993. "Le cartulaire des Trencavel (''Liber instrumentorum vicecomitalium'')." ''Les cartulaires: Actes de la table ronde organisĂ©e par l'École nationale des chartes et le G.D.R. 121 du C.N.R.S. (Paris, 5–7 dĂ©cembre 1991)'',
Olivier Guyotjeannin Olivier Guyotjeannin (born 13 March 1959, Suresnes) is a French medievalist and diplomatist. Career Olivier Guyotjeannin graduated as archivist-paleographer from the École Nationale des Chartes in 1981 with a thesis entitled ''La seigneurie ...
, Laurent Morelle, and Michel Parisse, eds. MĂ©moires et documents de l'École des chartes, 39 (Paris: École des Chartes), 291–99. *DĂ©bax, HĂ©lène. 2003. ''La fĂ©odalitĂ© languedocienne, XIe-XIIe siècles: Serments, hommages et fiefs dans le Languedoc des Trencavel''. Toulouse: Presses universitaires du Mirail. . *Graham-Leigh, Elaine. 2005. ''The Southern French Nobility and the Albigensian Crusade''. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. . *Evergates, Theodore. 2003. Littere Baronum'': The Earliest Cartulary of the Counts of Champagne''.
Medieval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until c. 1980) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes ...
. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003. *Kosto, Adam J. 2001. ''Making Agreements in Medieval Catalonia: Power, Order, and the Written Word, 1000–1200''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . *Kosto, Adam J. 2001. "The ''Liber feudorum maior'' of the Counts of Barcelona: The Cartulary as an Expression of Power." ''
Journal of Medieval History The ''Journal of Medieval History'' is a major international academic journal devoted to all aspects of the history of Europe in the Middle Ages. Each issue contains 4 or 5 original articles on European history, including the British Isles, North A ...
'', 27(1), 1–22. ;Notes {{DEFAULTSORT:Liber Instrumentorum Vicecomitalium Medieval charters and cartularies