maria joão oliveira e silva After adopting a Benedictine observance, established in Portugal around 1080, the monastery achieved a certain status within the group of northern Portuguese Cluniac monasteries. An example of this importance was the granting of a couto charter by the first king of Portugal, Afonso Henriques, on August 3, 1128,4 in favour of the monastery. According to a study carried out on Pedroso’s patrimony in the 13th century, “the expansion of its initial patrimony was done through the purchase of numerous goods, but mainly through the donations made by the monastery’s patrons and faithful, often to demonstrate [their] piety and ardour of devotion, but also as a way of obtaining forgiveness or payment for benefits received”.5 This same study divides the donations analysed into three categories: “simple donations (but for which there is no consideration for the donor); postmortemdonations (concessions that only take effect for the monastery after the donor’s death) and donations with charges (i.e., which entail obligations for the institution receiving them)”.6 This categorization, which is correct from a diplomatic point of view, made us want to understand better the distinctions between these documents, that is, between donations (simple or with charges) and postmortemdonations, but also to know whether thesepostmortemdonations are, in fact, donations or whether they should be considered as testaments. To do this, we turn first to the definitions given in the Vocabulaire International de la Diplomatique,7 according to which: 261 3 A hypothesis defended, among others, by José Mattoso because the Pedroso monastery is located south of the Douro, a region occupied by Muslims between 897–1017 and 1026– 1034, which makes it more logical to “place the foundation between the years 1017–1026” (Mattoso 2002, p. 31). 4 Documentos medievais portugueses. Documentos Régios (1958), nº 93, pp. 116-117. 5 Almeida 2016, p. 47, my translation. 6 Almeida 2016, pp. 76–77, my translation. The numbers presented are as follows for the period between 1212 and 1307: 24 simple donations (50% of the total), 15 postmortem (15%), and nine with charges (19%) (Almeida 2016, p. 77). 7 We used the online version of theVocabulaire international de la diplomatique 1997: https:// www.cei.lmu.de/VID/#VID_TOC_15 Definition of terminology
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