Charters Earlier than 800 from French Collections

Abstract

The lion’s share of the early royal charters — Merovingian in volumes 1314, Carolingian in 15-16 — comes from the Archives nationales, which obtained all of its early charters, private as well as royal, from the Monastery of St.-Denis. These traces of the cult of saints are astonishing and furnish precious evidence for early hands; nevertheless, the center of gravity of volumes 1319 rests with the charters of the early Frankish kings. Thirty-eight of them were issued by Merovingians, including no fewer than sixteen judgments. Another thirty-eight charters are Carolingian and reach to the eve of Charlemagne’s emperorship. Several private charters drawn up in ecclesiastical establishments are written by a cleric-scribe called lector . No such terminology occurs in royal diplomas. The Merovingian charters of ChLA begin one step beyond the expectations of Gregory’s audience.

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