A charter of debated authenticity records the foundation by Ansemund and his wife Ansleubana of a female monastery dedicated to *Andrew (the Apostle, S00288) at Vienne (south-east Gaul), where the couple will be buried; it refers also to an older foundation at the city dedicated to *Peter (the Apostle, S00036). Written in Latin in Gaul, possibly in Vienne, 558/61.
E08412
Documentary texts - Charter or diploma
Documentary texts - Donation document
Gallia Christiana, XVI, Instrumenta, I
Domnae filiae Remillae, vocabulo Eugeniae, Ansemundus et uxor dilecta mea Ansleubana [...] res nostras Deo tibique tradidimus, ut monasterium quod Deo vovimus ad sepulturam nostram inde construeres in honore S. Andreae apostoli, quod nos jam feceramus in honore S. Petri in Bello Campo, foras portam civitatis, et ut intra de facultate nostra, vel foras, ossa sanctorum Dei requiescerent. Damus autem ad hoc opus integrum cortile hereditatis nostrae, non longe a loco qui dicitur Martis, totum quod infra vel foras civitatem hereditario jure possidemus, et quidquid nobis obvenerit legibus, ut sanctis feminis ibi monasterium constituas, et ex ordine vivant quo S. Leonianus sancta monasteria urbis nostrae instituit, ubi soror nostra Eubona abbatissa praeest [...] Ego Servilius, jubente domino meo Ansemundo et domina Ansleubana, scripsi et roboravi, anno nono regante domno Hlothario.
'To our(?) daughter Lady Remilla, called Eugenia: Ansemundus and my beloved wife Ansleubana... We grant to God and to yourself our properties, so that you might construct a monastery in honour of Saint Andrew the Apostle, where we have vowed to God our own burial, (next to?) that which we have already built in honour of Saint Peter in Bello Campo, outside the gate of the city, from our property(?) both within and without the city, where the bones of the saints of God rest. Therefore we give to you for this work the entirety of a court from our inheritance, not far from the place which is called Martis, (together with?) all that we possess both within and without the city by hereditary right, and whatever should have come to us lawfully, so that you might establish there a monastery for holy women, living according to the rule which the holy Leonianus established for the monasteries of our city, and there our sister Eubona is to preside as abbess... I Servilius, upon the order of my lord Ansemundus and my lady Anselubana, have written and confirmed this, in the ninth year of the reign of Lord Chlothar (I).'
Text: Hauréau 1865, Instrumenta, col. 1.
Translation: B. Savill.
Cult building - unspecified
Cult building - monastic
Non Liturgical ActivityBequests, donations, gifts and offerings
Construction of cult buildings
RelicsBodily relic - bones and teeth
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Family
Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Ecclesiastics - abbots
Aristocrats
Source
This charter now survives only via antiquarian copies of the 17th and 18th centuries; for an overview of the problems with its date, and more recent arguments that it may in fact be a later forgery (of the 9th c. or later), see Prévot 2014, 315.Discussion
The Ansemund of this charter is probably identifiable (or - if a forgery - designed to be identifiable) with the Burgundian duke of that name who is otherwise known from the correspondence of Avitus of Vienne and, in our database, the Martyrdom of Sigismund (E08266).Bibliography
EditionB. Hauréau, Gallia Christiana in provincias ecclesiasticas distributa. Tomum XVI, ubi de provincia Viennensi agitur (Paris, 1865).
Further reading
P. Amory, 'The Textual Transmission of the donatio Ansemundi,' Francia, 20 (1993), 1-47.
A. Prévot, ed., Topographie chrétienne des cités de la Gaule des origines au milieu du VIIIe siècle. XVI. Quarante ans d'enquête (1972-2012). 1. Images nouvelles des villes de la Gaule (Paris, 2014).
B. Schilling, 'Ansemundus dux, das Ende des Burgunderreichs und der Senat von Vienne. Zu gefälschten Gründungsurkunde des Andreasklosters (Vienne),' Archiv für Diplomatik, 26 (2000), 1-47.
Benjamin Savill
27/02/2023
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00036 | Peter, the Apostle | Petrus | Certain | S00288 | Andrew, the Apostle | Andreas | Certain |
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