Ceremony, charters and social memory: property transfer ritual in early medieval Catalonia
Jonathan Jarrett
Work on the use of documents in Middle Ages has now accepted that written record-keeping Europe did not collapse with Roman rule, to be replaced only by orality and memory, but continued throughout period, albeit greater or lesser extents from place place. Nonetheless, much remains unclear about how were actually used understood following collapse, far reflected continuity past. Using numerous early medieval charters modern Catalonia, this article argues that, instead registration public archives as under Rome, here validated social consensus their contents, created repeated recitation texts. This could even create new documents. The was an innovative replacement older institutions record intended enable continuing document use, it blurs categories both literacy change; land charter maintained despite discontinuity irrelevance many other practices. Both users agents these processes, ways can instruct us institutional survival times change.
Social History|White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds)