32 Wood points out that “the overwhelming majority of surviving medieval English wills are written in Latin, although English was beginning to be used for these documents by the end of the fourteenth century” (Wood 2023, p. 2.). 33 Guimarães, Arquivo Municipal Alfredo Pimenta, Colegiada de Santa Maria da Oliveira de Guimarães, Pergaminhos, nº 8−3−2−25 3º doc. 34 1319.11.09 Lisboa, Torre do Tombo, Colegiada de Santa Maria da Oliveira de Guimarães, Docs. Particulares, m. 22, nº 07. maria cristina cunha difficulty in changing an ancient writing practice,32 one which was then beginning to undergo an evolution to match the spoken language to the written one. It is therefore not surprising that in the 14thcentury, the wills analyzed were almost all written in Portuguese. The only exception is the will of Lourenço Eanes, dated 1396, who was a canon of the see of Braga,33 perhaps because it was written by a notary public of that city, and indeed for a member of the chapter of the most important cathedral in the country. Containing a formula that represents the religiosity of the testators, 8 of the 20 wills from this century have the invocation in Latin, even when Portuguese had already been fully established as the language in which notarial acts were composed. Although the set of wills under study belongs to the archive of the Guimarães Collegiate church, only a relatively small percentage (19 wills) were made by canons of the Collegiate church. The number of testators who did not indicate their belonging to the institution was much higher (64); some of them were linked to members of the Collegiate community by family ties or dependence. Also surprising was the number of women testators(41),who were often closely linked to the Church of Santa Maria de Guimarães or to a particular canon. As they were not widows (or at least did not present themselves as such), one might presume that the will was written in the presence of husband and/or children. But that does not seem to be the case; most of the documents do not indicate the status of the woman, an exception being Maria Martins in 1319, since the testament refers to her husband’s and children’s authorization.34 This instance may indicate that she was the sole owner of the property and could therefore dispose of it although with her husband’s consent.35 545
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