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

Author(s)

Karen Torres da Rosa

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2017-05-24

Examining board members

Marcelo Candido da Silva; Adrien Bayard; André Luis Pereira Miatello; Flavia Aparecida Amaral Ferreira Muniz

• Advisor: Marcelo Candido da Silva

Abstract

This dissertation 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 are analyzed, all those which survived to the present day, plus the formula 17, book II from the Formulary of Marculf. All these testaments vary both in time and in space. At first, this analysis can help us visualize the similarities between the secular and the episcopal type of testaments. Therefore, we can understand these legal practices in the period as well as the organization of the groups. 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 how they helped the fulfillment of the aristocratic last wills. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/26762-4 - Strategies for transferring goods in Merovingian wills (from the sixth to the eighth centuries)
• Grantee: Karen Torres da Rosa
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master