The Formulary of Tours (north-west Gaul) includes a template for a charter of donation to the monastery where the body of *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050) is buried. Written in Latin at Tours, possibly before c. 700.
E08352
Documentary texts - Donation document
Documentary texts - Charter or diploma
The Formulary of Tours, 1(b) - excerpt
Item alio modo
Si aliquid de rebus nostris locis sanctorum uel in substantia pauperum conferimus, hoc nobis procul dubio in eternam beatitudinem retribuere confidimus. Ego quidem de tanta misericordia et pietate Domini confisus per hanc epistolam donationis dono donatumque in perpetuo esse uolo ad basilicam sancti Martini, ubi ipse precioso corpore requiescit, uel omni congregatione ibidem consistenti, et uenerabilis uir ille abbas preesse uidetur, uilla iuris mei nuncupante illa, sitam in pago illo, in condita illa, cum terris, aedificiis, accolabus, mancipiis, libertis, uineis, siluis, pratis, pascuis, aquis aquarumue decursibus, mobilibus et inmobilibus, cum omnibus appendiciis suisque adiecentiis, sicut a me presenti tempore uidetur esse possessum, totum et ad integram de iure meo in uestra uel sancti Martini iure proprietario trado atque transfundo [...]
'Another document of this kind
If we grant anything from our property to the places of the saints or for the support of the poor, we trust without doubt that this will be repaid in eternal blessing. Therefore I, out of great mercy, and confiding in the piety of the Lord, through this document grant and wish to be granted forever to the basilica of Saint Martin, where his precious body rests, and to all the community who are in that same place, and to the venerable man A, who is seen to preside there as abbot, a uilla belonging to me called B, situated in the pagus C, in the condita D, with its lands, buildings, tenants, slaves, freedmen, vineyards, woods, fields, pastures, waters and watercourses, moveables and immoveables, with all their appendages and appurtenances, which I am thus seen to possess at the present time, and I grant it and transfer it wholly and fully from my ownership into the proprietary right of yourselves and Saint Martin (...)'
Text: Zeumer 1886, 135.
Translation B. Savill.
Cult building - monastic
Burial site of a saint - unspecified
Non Liturgical ActivityBequests, donations, gifts and offerings
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - abbots
Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Slaves/ servants
Source
The Formulary of Tours is one of several formularies (collections of template documents for scribes) surviving from early medieval Gaul. Its earliest manuscript is datable to c. 795/816. The original collection was almost certainly compiled at the monastery of Saint-Martin de Tours. Various dates have been proposed for its compilation, ranging across the sixth and eighth centuries: according to Alice Rio, the 'arguments are all so tenuous as to be almost worthless,' and the original date of the formulary cannot be accurately determined. Moreover, individual items collected within the formulary may be much older than the formulary itself (for full discussion see Rio 2009, 112-17).For further Gallic evidence of this kind, see the Formulary of Marculf (E06231, E06232, E06233, E08351).
Discussion
This template provides a valuable insight into how numerous (now-lost) private deeds of property donation to the shrine of Martin in early medieval Tours must have looked, and reveals how the community of Saint-Martin would have played a role in the drafting and production of such documents.Bibliography
Edition:Zeumer, K., ed., Formulae Turonenses, in: Formulae Merowingici et Karolini aevi (Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Leges V; Hannover, 1886), 128-65.
Further reading:
Depreux, P., 'La tradition manuscrite des "Formules de Tours" et la diffusion des modèles d’actes aux VIIIe et IXe siècles,' Annales de Bretagne et des Pays de l'Ouest, 111-3 (2004), 55-71.
Rio, A., Legal Practice and the Written Word in the Early Middle Ages: Frankish Formulae, c. 500-1000 (Cambridge, 2009).
Benjamin Savill
01/10/2022
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00050 | Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397 | Martinus | Certain |
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