Strategies for transferring goods in Merovingian wills (from the sixth to the eighth centuries)

• Grant number: 13/26762-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): April 01, 2014
• Effective date (End): July 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo Cândido da Silva
• Grantee: Karen Torres da Rosa
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 15/13326-7 - The Formulary of Marculf and strategies for transferring goods in the Merovingian period, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

This research project aims to analyze how testamentary documents from Merovingian Gaul reflect strategies for transferring goods in the Merovingian kingdom from sixth to eighth centuries. These strategies are actions planned by testers to define what will happen to their goods after their death. The transfer of assets is an important practice of social life. To study it, 12 wills from the period will be analyzed, all those which survived to the present day, plus some formulas from the Formulary of Marculf. All these testaments vary both in time and in space. At first, this analysis can help us visualize more than one social group from that period, since they are all related to the episcopate and the aristocracy. Therefore, there are two types of testaments: the episcopal type and the secular one. When we notice the differences and similarities of the strategies for transferring goods in both type of testaments, we can understand these legal practices in the period as well as the organization of those two groups. Thus, the analysis of this documentation and the aid of historiography are important to note the variations of the wills over time and space and understand the specifics of the Episcopal wills.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

ROSA, Karen Torres da. Strategies for transferring goods in Merovingian wills (from the sixth to the eighth centuries). 2017. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) São Paulo.