This is the introduction to the last will3 of a canon of the important Collegiate of Santa Maria de Guimarães,4 diocese of Braga, in Portugal, drafted in 1329. If testaments are a quite common type of document among the medieval parchments of this institution, the description of the circumstances in which this one, in particular, was granted caught our attention. In fact, it is only after this introduction that the text of the last will itself begins. some remarks on last wills at guimarães in the 13thand14th centuries 536 Sabham todos que en presença de mim Domingos Stevez tabeliom de Guimarães e das testemonhas que adeante son scritas en a rua de Santa Maria nas casas que forom de Martim Anes Barrosas hu morava mestre Fernando a estas cousas eu sobredicto tabeliom chamado e rogado Martim Annes coonigo de Guimarães tinha en na sua mão per escrito hũa manda que dizia que fizera mestre Fernando que jazia doente. E o dicto Martim Annes perdante mim tabeliom fez pregunta ao dicto mestre Fernando per esta guisa: ‘Meestre Fernando, vedes aqui o tabeliom? Outorgades esta manda que aqui tendes feita e escrita?’. E o dicto mestre Fernando respondeu e disse per esta guisa per duas vezes: ‘Concedo, concedo’. E o dicto Martim Annes disse contra o dicto mestre Fernando per esta guisa: ‘Mestre Fernando, dizede-o per linguagem ca vos nom entende o tabeliom per latim.’. Eodicto mestre Fernando disse e respondeu per esta guisa: ‘Ay mao dia naçi. Mando, mando.’. E o dicto Martim Annes dise: ‘Tabeliom, per aquela guisa que o dicto mestre Fernando ora outorgou esta manda com o trelado dela dade-no-la sub voso sinal scripto’.2 2 ‘Let you all know that in the presence of me, Domingos Stevez, Notary Public of Guimarães, and of the witnesses who are written below, in Rua de Sancta Maria, in the houses that once belonged to Martim Annes Barrosas, where Master Fernando used to live, I, the aforesaid Notary Public, was called and requested to be here. Martim Annes, Canon of Guimarães, had in his hand a “manda” which it was said that Master Fernando, who was lying ill, had made. And the aforesaid Martim Annes asked the said Master Fernando in this way: “Master Fernando, do you see the notary here [?] Will you grant this order that you have here drawn up and written [?]”. And the said Master Fernando answered and said in this way twice: “Concedo, concedo”. And the aforesaid Martim Annes said to the aforesaid Master Fernando in this way: ‘Master Fernando, say it in language [≈ Portuguese], because the Notary Public doesn’t understand in Latin’. And the aforesaid Master Fernando said and answered in this way: ‘Born in a bad day. I do, I do’. And the aforementioned Martim Annes said: ‘Notary, in the same way that the said Master Fernando has established this “manda” with a copy of it, give it to us under your [notarial] written sign’. 3 Lisboa, Torre do Tombo, Colegiada de Santa Maria de Guimarães, Docs.Particulares, maço 24, nº 24. Taking into account the reference to the notarial written sign, it’s astonishing that the document ends without the notary’s sign being affixed, even though it is referred to after the list of witnesses: E eu Domingos Estevez tabaliom de Guimarães que me esta manda derom per escrito e a aqui escrevi e meu sinal hi pugi que tal he. 4 About the Collegiate of Santa Maria de Guimarães up to 1250, see Ramos 1991. For the period of the late Middle Ages see Melo 2020 and Marques 1988, pp. 493−608.
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