In as early as the 1970s, G. Battelli was drawing attention to the influence of the papal chancellery on the various European chancelleries, which of course derived from this body holding responsibility for the documentary production of the Vatican’s communications to the reigning monarchs. At the end of the 1990s, José Marques presented a first study on the influence of papal bulls on Portuguese documentation, which sought to bring together the scattered information available at the time. However, we believe more detailed analysis and broader reflection based on the features that characterise the external apparatus of certain documents may help make perceptible the circumstances in which these chancellery practices developed within the framework of seeking to convey an idea of power and authority that, in the case of royal chancelleries, and especially in the early phases of nationality, required asserting. Thus, more important than simply determining the circumstances, or in what specific ways this pontifical influence emerged in Portuguese royal documents, a return to this problematic requires reflection across several issues, which may then point to some paths that allow for a better understanding of the uses of medieval chancelleries in Portugal through to the mid-thirteenth century.

About the author
Associate Senior Professor at the Faculty of Arts, the University of Oporto, an integrated researcher at the R&D Unit CITCEM (Transdisciplinary Research Centre “Culture, Space, Memory”), a collaborator with CEHR (Centre for Religious History Studies, the Catholic University of Portugal), Vice President of the International Commission of Academic Diplomacy in the Portuguese Academy of History and a member of the Portuguese Society of Medieval Studies (SPEM). She was Scientific Coordinator of CITCEM between November 2011 and May 2017, and responsible for the Strategic Project (funded by the COMPETE Program) from 2013 to May 2017. She holds a PhD in Medieval History from the Faculty of Arts, the University of Oporto in 1999, with the dissertation “The Archiepiscopal Chancellery of Braga 1071-1245”, and received tenure at the same Faculty in 2007. Her teaching activity has been focused essentially on curricular units of Palaeography and Diplomatics as well as on the Medieval History of Portugal and she has furthermore supervised dissertations and theses (Master’s and Doctoral) within the scope of these fields.

As a researcher, she has participated in various national and international projects related to Medieval Diplomatics and medieval church history in Portugal.