IEM-FCT Projects
IEM as a host entity
Beauty and the meaning of color in Portuguese medieval illuminated manuscripts
PTDC/EAT-EAT/104930/2008
Proponent Institution: Fundação da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia
Participants Instituttions: FCSH/NOVA; Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica (IBET); Instituto de Ciências e Tecnologias Agrárias e Agro-Alimentares – Porto (ICETA-Porto/UP)
Associeted research units: Centro de Informática e Tecnologias de Informação (CITI/FCT/UNL); Instituto de Estudos Medievais (IEM/FCSH/UNL)
Lead Researcher: Maria João Melo
Research Team: Adelaide Miranda, Ana Alexandra Matias, Ana Lemos, Ana Luísa Claro, Ana Teresa Serra, António Eduardo Baptista, Catarina Pereira Miguel, Inês Abreu dos Santos, João Pedro Lopes, Mafalda Sarraguça, Maria da Conceição Casanova, Nuno Correia, Rita Carvalho, Rita Castro, Teresa Romão and Tânia Muralha
Duration: 2009-2011
Medieval illuminated manuscripts are among the most valuable artistic objects in Europe’s cultural heritage. Portuguese codices date back to the formation of Portugal as a kingdom and bear witness to medieval ideas, religion and politics. Santa Cruz de Coimbra, São Mamede do Lorvão and Santa Maria de Alcobaça are important in the context of the royal political strategy, which involved the creation of monasteries to maintain peace and social order.
In this project we propose to explore issues related to the social significance of color in Portuguese medieval illuminations, executed during the 12th century and the first quarter of the 13th century in the monasteries of Alcobaça, Lorvão and Santa Cruz. The use and production of color in Portuguese medieval illumination was as much a consequence of the technology available as it was a cultural and artistic choice; by defining the specificities of its use and production, we think we can contribute to determining the legacy of the influences of the Arab, Jewish and Christian cultures that coexisted in Romanesque Portugal.
This subject will be dealt with from the point of view of art history and molecular sciences, capable of characterizing the scriptoria and their evolution during the 12th century and the first quarter of the 13th century. We will begin by quantifying the dominant colors and their combinations in the national funds, namely in the Alcobaça, Arouca, Lorvão and Santa Cruz manuscripts. We will then make a comparison with other international funds. Quantification will be carried out through digital analysis of the areas of color. Given that the degradation process of an ink affects our perception of color, its characterization at a molecular level is fundamental in order to avoid misinterpretations as to the meaning and distribution of color in manuscripts. Binders, the invisible component of color, can also have a fundamental influence on its perception and play a key role in color changes over time. Particular attention will be paid to their complete characterization through the use of immunoenzymatic techniques that allow the detection of specific antibodies/antigens, for example the ELISA assay.
We intend to prepare a book describing the most important findings and results of our research. The possibility of creating a website on which the results can be disseminated will also be considered. We will explore new ways of disseminating our findings to the general public, and particularly to children, helping to raise awareness of the art of medieval illumination through the use of new interactive technologies. We intend to develop an interactive system that is attractive, intuitive and simple to use, which will recreate the physical objects that were used in real life in the production of medieval illuminations. This installation will simulate the creative process, covering various aspects, from the sources of materials and production methods to the application of color and image construction. We will also show the historical and social context of that time and reveal the meanings of the colors used and the images painted. This interactive installation could easily be used in cultural sites, enriching an exhibition, or in institutions where books are preserved.
FRONTOWNS – Think big on small frontier towns: Alto Alentejo and Alta Extremadura leonesa (13th – 16th centuries)
PTDC/HAR-HIS/3024/2020
Research Unit: IEM-NOVA FCSH
Associated Research Units: CHAM-NOVA FCSH; IHC-NOVA FCSH
Participant Institutions: Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon (FL/ULisboa); INESC TEC – Institute of Systems Engineering and Computers, Technology and Science: Universidad de Extremadura (UEX); École des hautes études hispaniques et ibériques / Casa de Velázquez (EHEHI/ CVZ)
Associated Institutions: Castelo de Vide Municipal Council, Ayuntamiento de Cáceres
Lead Researcher: Adelaide Millán da Costa
Assistant Lead Researcher: Gonçalo Melo da Silva
Research Team: Adelaide Millán da Costa (LR); Gonçalo Melo da Silva (Co-LR); Ana Santos Leitão; Ana Filipa Roldão; António Castro Coelho; Daniel Alves; Elena de Ortueta Hilberath; Florencio-Javier García Mogollón; Inês Lourenço Olaia; Joana Vieira Paulino; João Nisa; José Fabián Cuesta Gómez; Julian Clemente Ramos; Leonel Caseiro Morgado; Luis Clemente-Quijada; Luísa Trindade; Pau Soto; Pedro Pinto; Sara Prata
Consultant: Jean-Luc Fray
Duration: 2021-2024
This project develops through two overlapping approaches. The first seeks to identify the role played by small towns in articulating the borderlands between Portugal and Castile, and in relation to more distant areas, exploring all the bonds and flows that these peoples established, enabled or prevented whether due to the geographic, material, political or mental conditions prevailing. In order to visualise and leverage the results, we make recourse to an already existing geo-referencing database (Mercator-e), incorporating new layers in accordance with the variables of connectivity studied.
The second analytical perspective focuses on studying and reconstructing the urban environments of these two towns, Castelo de Vide and Cáceres. This facet deploys usage of modelling and 3D animation with the objective of observing how the flows and bonds reflect in the urban contexts of these two towns: reconstituting the markets, exchanges, socialisation, decision-making, representation, as well as the routes and paths and their relationships with residential areas.
The bonds of society establish the essence of this project given the broad trajectory of joint work between the participant universities and regional towns.
Books, rituals and spaces in a Cistercian nunnery. Living, praying and reading in Lorvão Abbey, 13th – 16th centuries
PTDC/ART-HIS/0739/2020
Research Unit: IEM-NOVA FCSH
Participant Institutions: LAQV REQUIMTE, NOVA FCT; Laboratório Hércules, University of Évora; CESEM NOVA FCSH
Associated Institutions: CEHR-UCP; Torre do Tombo
Lead Researcher: Catarina Fernandes Barreira
Assistant Lead Researcher: Conceição Casanova
Research Team: Catarina Fernandes Barreira (LR), Conceição Casanova (Co-LR), Catarina Pereira Miguel, Alberto Medina de Seiça, Ana Tourais, Catarina Pinheiro, Catarina Tibúrcio, Diana Martins, Isabel Pombo Cardoso, Gonçalo Melo da Silva, João Luís Inglês Fontes, Jonathan Wilson, Luís Filipe Oliveira, Luís Miguel Rêpas, Maria da Conceição Oliveira, Maria Filomena Andrade, Mário Farelo, Mercedes Pérez Vidal, Miguel Metelo de Seixas, Paula Cardoso, Paulo Catarino Lopes, Rui Araújo, Silvia Scardina e Zuelma Chaves
Consultants: Manuel Pedro Ferreira, Maria do Rosário Morujão and Teresa Quilhó
Duration: 2021-2024
The project objectives involve the interdisciplinary study of the illuminated liturgical codices that made up part of the library collection of Lorvão Abbey, the first female Cistercian establishment in Portugal, thereby contributing to integrating national monastic studies into gender studies for the period ranging from the early 13th century through to the late 16th century with a corpus made up of around three dozen codices.
We seek to analyse this corpus, on the one hand, in material terms, thus characteristics of the codices ranging from their illuminated decoration, the pigments/inks and parchments applied, through to the binding materials and methods, extending to a survey of their conservation and any additions/alterations experienced, thus contributing to the history of the book and conservation; on the other hand, in terms of the liturgies and contents, characterising their uses and types of circulation in the monastery as well as the role of the nuns in commissioning and establishing/conserving this library. This interdisciplinary study will generate findings capable of contributing towards substantiating hypotheses as regards the characterisation of scriptorium or scriptoria as the origins of the codices and their particularities as well as understanding whether the liturgy practiced in Lorvão during its nunnery period displays identity features and/or submitted to the prevailing unanimous Cistercian liturgy.
IEM as a host entity (concluded)
CISTERHOR – Cistercian horizons. Studying and characterising a medieval scriptorium and its production: Alcobaça. Local identities and liturgical uniformity in dialogue
PTDC/ART-HIS/29522/2017
Research Unit: IEM-NOVA FCSH
Participant Institutions: LAQV REQUIMTE, NOVA FCT; Laboratório Hércules, University of Évora
Associated Institutions: CEHR-UCP; National Library of Portugal; DGPC/Mosteiro de Alcobaça
Lead Researcher: Catarina Fernandes Barreira
Assistant Lead Researcher: Conceição Casanova
Research Team: Catarina Fernandes Barreira (LR), Conceição Casanova (Co-LR), Ana Lemos, Catarina Pereira Miguel, Catarina Tibúrcio, Gonçalo Melo da Silva, João Luís Inglês Fontes, Jonathan Wilson, Luís Miguel Rêpas, Maria da Conceição Oliveira, Maria Filomena Andrade, Paula Cardoso, Paulo Catarino Lopes, Rita Araújo, Rita Castro and Zuelma Chaves.
Consultants: José Francisco Meirinhos and Teresa Maria Gonçalves Quilhó Marques dos Santos
Duration: 2018-2021
In recent years, the study of Cistercian scriptoria has produced new knowledge and perspectives: this project seeks to discuss and place the Portuguese case within the European historiographic framework through the study of the scriptorium of the Monastery of Alcobaça between the late 12th century and the 16th century. The objectives include the study and dating of the illuminated liturgical manuscripts from the Alcobaça scriptorium, a corpus made up of 50 codices. This interdisciplinary approach seeks, on the one hand, to study the manuscripts and their materiality (characteristics of the illuminated decoration, study of the pigments and binding structures) and, simultaneously, to study the liturgical contents (in articulation with the Cistercian orientations and the influence of the local context) between the late 12th and early 16th centuries.
The choice of this type of manuscript stems from its purpose: they were the most important documents produced by monastic scriptoria, essential to the daily celebrating of mass and that organised the lives of religious communities. In Alcobaça, a significant number of these manuscripts survived to the contrary of other abbeys, which opens up new perspectives in terms of the scope for dating them with greater precision and consequently characterising the evolution in the production materials and techniques for scriptorium codex over the course of four centuries.
This seeks to extend the broader case study in terms of the broader context of European Cistercian cultural production and answer new questions: what was the role of Alcobaça in the global European context? Was the liturgy practiced in Alcobaça identity based or did it follow the Cistercian model? Is there any artistic identity to Alcobaça in terms of its illuminated production and the ornamentation of these religious manuscripts within the aesthetics and materiality of the French context, especially its mother-house, Claraval? Are the original Alcobaça bindings specific to this location or do they display common features with other abbeys? How do these codices evolve in terms of their content and materiality? What influences permeate this scriptorium? The responses to these questions shall enable new insights into the illuminated manuscripts produced or acquired by Alcobaça.
The LR and team members, with experience in the production of knowledge for academia and its dissemination and the transfer of knowledge to non-specialist publics, deploy the competences necessary to the implementation of this project. This highlights the priority attributed to networking and participation in Cistercian study networks over recent years. The results will be published in specialist international journals, with peer review, and presented at national and international conferences and as well as in an open access database. The working plan includes an exhibition, the publication of a book and an international congress. The knowledge transfer strategies count on the direct participation of two fundamental institutions, BNP and the Monastery of Alcobaça.
FALCO – Hypothesising Human-Animal Relations in Medieval Portugal
EXPL/HAR-HIS/1135/2021
Research Unit: IEM-NOVA FCSH
Participant Institutions: Salvaterra de Magos Municipal Council –Royal Falconry; the Archaeo-science Laboratory – General Directorate of Cultural Heritage
Lead Researcher: Tiago Viúla de Faria
Assistant Lead Researcher: Rémy Cordonnier
Research Team: Tiago Viúla de Faria (LR), Rémy Cordonnier (Co-LR), Alice Tavares, Ana Paiva Morais, Ana Sirgado, André Silva, Carlos Pimenta, Diana Martins, Fabio Barberini, Filipa Soares, Filipe Alves Moreira, Hélder Carvalhal, Joana Ramôa, Sónia Gomes.
Consultants: Aleks Pluskowski, Baudouin Van den Abeele, José Manuel Fradejas
Duration: 2022
The core premise of the FALCO Project is to enable multidisciplinary research into the relationship between human beings and other species in medieval Portugal through exploring the historical bonds with a specific animal group, birds of prey.
Including the “falconidae” and “accipitridae” families, birds of prey derive from various different species. Project researchers and consultants are specialists on key issues in the study of birds of prey and medieval society. The group shall specifically analyse the various facets of these connections. This takes into account the known primary sources, employing both established and developmental methodological approaches in order to determine both the potential and the limitations of certain types of historical records in accordance with the approaches deployed.
On completion of the project, and as a result of research activities and scientific debate, we seek to obtain a solid methodological basis for research (wide reaching and interdisciplinary) on the human-animal relationships in the Middle Ages, transversally conceived into themes and disciplines.
Contact: falco@fcsh.unl.pt
IMAGO
Research Unit: IEM-NOVA FCSH
Associated research units: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris; École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris; Museo de Pontevedra
Lead Researchers: José Custódio Vieira da Silva and Maria Adelaide da Conceição Miranda
Research Team: Luís Manuel Correia de Sousa, Joana Ramôa, Ana Lemos and Ragnilde Boe
Duration: 2005-2009
The IMAGO project aims to create a center for medieval iconography, based on systematic research according to a previously defined plan. The lack of such a center in Portugal is admittedly a major gap in the field of art history. Its main purpose is to centralize, study and disseminate medieval iconography.
This center should also stimulate research in the area of medieval art and place our country in its rightful place in the international scientific community.
This project is part of the activities of the Institute of Medieval Studies, where images are considered to be a product of social memory and are studied according to their content and meaning, in a cultural system that is also dealt with by other disciplines, such as History and Literature. It is in this sense that its operation will be based on interdisciplinary work, which is fundamental for analyzing the thematic dimension of images and their cultural interpretation.
The first phase will consist of drawing up a descriptive thesaurus of all the images, starting with the illuminated manuscripts and tomb sculpture.
The registration of the different works will form part of a database, which is intended to be systematic and exhaustive and to allow all the relevant information to be cross-referenced. Once the images have been selected and surveyed, they will be catalogued and digitized in order to create a corpus of iconography. The research will consist of two different tasks: firstly, collecting all available images from libraries and archives (published material or online, CD-Rom), and secondly, recording the material under study. At the same time, historical, literary, philosophical and religious sources of the image will be collected in order to interpret it in the wider field of medieval civilization.
In order to overcome the difficulties that may arise with regard to the copyright of the images, protocols will be established with other cultural institutions.
Finally, the researchers will disseminate the results of the project on CD-Rom, on the website of the Institute of Medieval Studies, and through monographs and other publications.
INVENTARQ – Family Archive Inventory Project, 15th-19th centuries: on managing and establishing lost memories. Rethinking the pre-modern archive
EXPL/EPH-HIS/0178/2013
Research Unit: IEM-FCSH/NOVA
Associated Research Units: CHAM, IHC, IICT
Participant Institutions: Casa de Velazquez, Laboratório I.T.E.M. (“Identités, territoires, expressions, mobilités”, Univ. de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour)
Lead Researcher: Maria de Lurdes Rosa
Research Team: Ana Canas; Ana Cortez de Lobão; Anne Goulet; Filipa Lopes: Filippo De Vivo; Joseph Morsel; Margarida Leme; Maria de Lurdes Rosa; Maria Isabel Ventura; Maria João Andrade Sousa; Maria José Mexia Bigotte Chorão; Miguel Metelo de Seixas; Olivier Guyotjeannin; Patrícia Marques; Paulo Jorge Fernandes; Pedro Pinto; Randolph Head; Rita Nóvoa; Saul Gomes; Véronique Lamazou-Duplan
Duration: 2013-2015
Objectives and forecast results:
1 – Historically study the context of production and usage of inventories by noble family households (history of families – history of archives – history of inventories);
2 – Describe in diplomatic and archive terms their contents and place these descriptions online;
3 – Foster the study, reflection and publication of a set of studies on the nature of these inventories, from the historical-anthropological, archival and epistemological perspectives as regards their historiographic and archival usages.
In order to ensure the presentation and availability of the data, safeguarding the heritage of the inventories studied, and advancing with analytical studies from an interdisciplinary perspective, the following products are forecast: online database for access to the archive descriptions and the inventories studies (with recourse to ICA-AtoM software and the digitalisation of some inventories); a scientific conference and in depth research workshop (9 February 2015); documental exhibition (to take place from 28 January to 26 March 2016), with the publication of its catalogue.
JUSCOM – Meet the judge (Justice and communities in a transitional period: 1481-1580)
PTDC/EPH-HIS/4323/2012
Research Unit: IEM-NOVA FCSH
Associated Research Unit: CEG
Lead Researcher: Adelaide Millán da Costa
Research Team: António Manuel Hespanha, Fernando Pinto da Rocha, Filipa Roldão, Jorge Trindade, José Subtil, Luís Miguel Duarte, Maria Helena da Cruz Coelho, Mário Farelo, Marta Gonçalves, Nuno Camarinhas and Vitor Rocio
Research fellows: Diogo Nuno Machado Pinto Faria and Nuno Filipe Moura Rodrigues
Duration: 2013-2014
This project aims to dismantle the process by which the crown systematically and permanently instituted the appointment of literate judges for the most important municipalities in the kingdom of Portugal. In order to do so, it identifies a period of time, roughly corresponding to the 16th century, which has so far been omitted from research. The reasons for this absence are related to the divisions between medievalists and modernists who end up establishing time barriers in their studies, neglecting the key periods. And, of course, the gradual evolution of the legal order and the functioning of institutions throughout the Ancien Régime does not fit in with artificial historiographical cuts.
In these circumstances, the project is innovative because it brings together specialists from the Medieval and Modern periods, not to join forces in a long-duration research project (without abandoning their respective chronologies, at the very least applying a similar analysis grid) but to share research into a short period, a century, which is considered a “no man’s land” in terms of the evolution of the crown’s judicial apparatus. The project is also benefiting from the help of geographers specializing in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), with the aim of making it possible to track, in graphic terms, the existence of some spatial logic or specific times in the progress of the appointment of judges from abroad.
LITTERA – Edition, update and preservation of Portuguese medieval literary heritage
PTDC/ELT/69985/2006
Research Unit: IEM-NOVA FCSH
Lead Researcher: Graça Videira Lopes
Research Team: Nuno Júdice, Maria do Rosário Paixão, Manuel Pedro Ferreira
Duration: 2006-2011
The literary heritage of the Portuguese Middle Ages that has come down to us includes a number of texts which, due to their quality and originality, represent one of the highlights of Portuguese literature and culture. Disappeared or forgotten for several centuries and only gradually rediscovered from the mid-19th century onwards, some of these texts have not yet been the subject of a complete unified edition and integrated study. The aim of this project is therefore to set about editing, protecting and updating this medieval literary and cultural heritage in a coherent, coordinated and scientifically consistent way, in its two main areas: poetry and narrative prose. Given the extent of the possible corpus, the project envisages several phases. Thus, in a first phase, the project will initially focus on the songs of troubadours and minstrels. What follows is a brief summary of the activities relating to this first phase.
In fact, despite the remarkable work of its first editors (Carolina Michaëlis, José Joaquim Nunes and Rodrigues Lapa), to which the monographic or anthological work of numerous subsequent specialists, both in Portugal and Galicia, has been progressively added, the fact remains that there is still no integrated critical edition of the 1680 or so troubadour songs that have come down to us.
One of the aims of this project will therefore be to put this edition into practice, taking particular account of the new technical means of dissemination, namely digital formats and the internet, providing not only an up-to-date critical reading of all the songs (with paper and digital editions) but also access to their original manuscript versions (as well as developed vocabulary and onomastic indexes).
This part of the project also includes, in this first phase, access to the musical dimension of the songs, both in terms of their original music (when it reached us) and by surveying all the recordings that have been made of them so far (using counterfactuals or autonomous music). All the material will also be made available or listed online (in the latter case, when it cannot be made available for rights reasons).
STEMMA – From song to writing – material production and paths in Galician-Portuguese lyrics
PTDC/LLT-EGL/30984/2017
Research Unit: IEM-NOVA FCSH
Participant Institutions: LAQV REQUIMTE, NOVA FCT; National Library of Portugal
Lead Researcher: Graça Videira Lopes
Assistant Lead Researcher: Maria João Melo
Research Team: Graça Videira Lopes (LR), Maria João Melo (Co-LR), Manuel Pedro Ferreira, José António Souto Cabo, Maria Ana Ramos, Ana Raquel Baião Roque, Paula Sofia Nabais, Tatiana Ferreira Vitorino.
Duration: 2018-2021
The written witness accounts of medieval Galician-Portuguese lyrics that have survived to present times are only five in number: three songbooks– the Cancioneiro da Ajuda/ Songbook of Aid (A), a richly illuminated but unfinished medieval codex and two 16th century Italian copies (B and V) of a great medieval songbook – and two fragments, the Vindel scroll (N) and the Sharrer scroll (T), both a single parchment sheet. The historical and cultural importance of this legacy (of the songs of troubadours) contrasts sharply with the gaps existing as regards almost every aspect of the production, transmission and the subsequent paths of these manuscripts.
Through an innovative and multidisciplinary approach, the objective of this project is thus to begin filling these gaps in a study that jointly deploys:
- as regards A, molecular analysis of the illuminations and writing inks, complemented by the same type of analysis carried out on similar Iberian manuscripts (such as the Cantigas de Santa Maria) within the objective of elucidating on key but still unknown aspects of this codex, including its dating, conditions and probable place of production and its subsequent ownership;
- in relation to the Italian copies, internal analysis (gathering all the markers present in these copies that may provide information on the original manuscript), as well as external analysis (systematic research in archives and libraries, particularly focusing on the Angelo Colocci collection and also a person playing a decisive role in this question, Miguel da Silva, Bishop of Viseu, a previous and partially unstudied collection).
In the final project phase, and based on the data collected in stages 1 and 2, we expect to better understand the parameters of the transfer of Iberian troubadour song to writing (actors, dates, locations), such as the unknown subsequent life of these manuscripts (including those disappeared), especially the role played by important figures in Portuguese and European Renaissance humanism within the scope of the Stemma project.
The candidacy of these precious and highly fragile manuscripts to the UNESCO “Memory of the World” program, an application for submission by the National Library of Portugal by the end of 2019, with scientific support from this team further strengthens our objectives.
With a team that brings together researchers highly specialised in the laboratory analysis of illuminated manuscripts (especially molecular analysis of colour and pigments) and some of the leading researchers from the fields of medieval literature and art, in a team led by LR and co-LR with established experience of working together, this project is set to obtain these objectives and dynamically raising the profile of this extremely rich shared heritage.
Finally, we would like to highlight that a study of this type, particularly as regards analysis of A, holds no parallel with any other thus far undertaken both at the European and the world levels. To this end, the data collected on the colours in A (and that shall be shared through an open-access database) shall also represent a fundamental tool for all researchers approaching medieval art.
REGNUM REGIS – The inquiries of 1220 and the genesis of the documentary memory of the Portuguese medieval kingdom
Before the numbering of 1527-1532, the minutes of the General Inquiries of the 13th and 14th centuries are the most complete and exhaustive sources for the inventory of communities, goods and powers in Portugal north of the Mondego, as various regional and thematic studies based on the most important of these inquiries, those of 1220, 1258 and 1288, have shown.
The aim of this project is to carry out a critical edition of the first, those of 1220, since all of them have been published or are in the process of being published, but they are incomplete and therefore in need of urgent textual revision. In fact, the edition available today of the minutes of the General Inquiries of 1220, published, under the direction of Alexandre Herculano, in the Portugaliae Monumenta Historica – Inquisitiones, did not take into account all the available manuscripts, nor does it meet the current needs of editing a text whose consultation and use has proved fundamental for a complete knowledge of medieval Portugal in the 13th century.
In fact, the edition to be produced will not only seek to provide all researchers and cultural and educational agents with a critical and complete text of the minutes of the Inquiries of 1220, both in printed and computerized form, but it also proposes to present indexes that provide a complete and comprehensive set of information and materials that can be compiled and used in the further study of the minutes of all the Inquiries of the 13th and 14th centuries, since their editions do not include a similar treatment and presentation of the text.
In this sense, the proposed publication will ultimately provide the basis for a more rigorous, mappable and quantifiable clarification of the issues raised by the General Inquiries of the 200s and 300s, while at the same time shedding light on a wide range of issues that are decisive for our knowledge of Portuguese history, such as settlement patterns, demographic behavior, property regimes, the elements that ordered the occupation of the territory (castles, temples, the exercise of justice (communal, manorial, royal), taxation models, social differentiation, the marks of rural and urban daily life, toponymy and anthroponymy systems and the value of writing, records and archives in the defence of political and social rights and duties, as well as a better understanding of the functioning of the strategies of local and regional affirmation of royal power, as well as the tensions between centralization, manorialism and feudality.
Objectives: To establish the critical Latin text of the minutes of the General Inquiries of 1220. Prepare the respective edition. Design and complete a database based on the information available in the edition of the minutes of the Inquiries. Draw up a glossary of the text. Organize and establish the respective toponymic and institutional indexes. Promote the availability of all these materials on CD ROM and on the Internet. Hold a national meeting to reflect on the testimonies of the Inquiries of 1220. To organize, at the end of the project, an international conference dedicated to the comparative historical analysis of the royal production of the first regional documentary memoirs produced in the various medieval Christian kingdoms of the 13th century.
IEM as a participant entity with a specific role
iForal – Portuguese medieval charters: a historical and linguistic perspective in the digital era
Research Units: Centre of History (CH/FL/ULisboa), Centre of Linguistics, University of Lisbon (CL/FUL/ULisboa)
Lead Researchers: Filipa Roldão (CH/FL/ULisboa), Co-LR Joana Serafim (CL/FUL/ULisboa)
IEM-NOVA FCSH Researchers: Adelaide Millán Costa, Amélia Aguiar Andrade, Maria João Branco
Duration: 01-01-2021 – ongoing
Throughout the 12th and 13th centuries, the construction of the kingdom of Portugal focused on defining the territorial boundaries, setting down power structures and the socioeconomic stability of their inhabitants, involved the written contractualization of long term juridical relationships. Kings and nobles, lay and ecclesiastic entities, established their relationships with their communities in writing and thereby defining the norms of socialisation among inhabitants, including their rights and duties: these written documents were charters.
Approaching the charters signed by the royal power, termed forais breves (brief charters), this project seeks to reinterpret the nature of these documents (the circumstances around their signing and textual transmission) and its function within the broad scope of the relationship between the councils and the royal administration. To this end, this project stems from a core idea: interdisciplinarity. History and Linguistics provide the research with the conceptual and methodological tools and the Digital Humanities the necessary instrumental tools to enable the results and render effective their research and dissemination. The major instrumental project objective is to establish a corpus of Portuguese medieval charters, critically edited and in an electronic format to foster historical-linguistic reflection. This corpus will incorporate all of the Portuguese royal charters granted through to 1279, their copies and the vernacular translations produced through to the end of the 15th century. To this end, we deploy innovative methodologies, based on semi-automatic tools for task optimisation before making the project results available through open access.
However, what are the justifications for studying Portuguese medieval charters? For what reason is there financing for this project in 2020? Firstly, there is an eminently scientific rationale: the study of historical charters has been overlooked in favour of the new charters issued in the 16th century (the Manueline Reform), formally and materially more attractive to historians; the existing studies are either overly dispersed among publishers lacking the capacity for their promotion or requiring scientific validation as having been written not by historians but above all by local intellectuals. In either case, there is no joint perspective considering the entirety of these royal charters. This project aims to overcome that lack.
Secondly, there are reasons of a societal nature: as the 21st century advances, local communities and the public authorities (councils, archives, museums and schools) continue to commemorate the date of signing of their oldest charters, updating the collective memory and identity. The interest in the local charter is easily explained: in them, the communities encounter the longest standing forms of collective organisation of their predecessors and their relationships with the established powers, especially the king, on issues of a political and fiscal nature, on justice and economic activities; furthermore, these documents provide insights into the relationships with the natural resources available to the community and their exploitation and as well as the landscape and its topography still today recognisable to the community.
Convinced that this project reflects scientifically viable and necessary research, the LR and Co-LR submitted this application with a team featuring the best national specialists in the fields of Medieval History (cities, royal power, written culture), in Linguistics (philology, history of language and textual criticism) and IT applied to the Humanities, researchers and renowned international consultants that shall ensure the fundamental comparison with other historiographies, and in addition to a team of junior researchers who shall accompany this process as advanced training. The proponent institution and the participant Institutions, located from the North to the South of Portugal, and the University of Lausanne provide guarantees of the scientific robustness and management capacity of this project, which extends already well-established and cemented partnerships. The project study object represents a fine example of this.
The study of medieval charters by the LR and Co-LR began in 2005 and already counts on various different publications and international public presentations, as well as community knowledge dissemination activities. In their already long careers, the LR and Co-LR are, respectively, specialists in the fields of History and Linguistics, leading the way in methodologies and reflections on Portuguese medieval charters that this project serves to deepen and develop in the service of both science and the various different communities. This project fosters the safeguarding of one of the oldest examples of the written legacy of the local and city powers as well as those of the Portuguese kingdom and, with this memory, we will provide the best response to some of the major United Nations objectives for 2030, such as knowledge about justice, legal defence, equity, and the economic and ecological sustainability of peoples.
IGAEDIS – The historical village of Idanha-a-Velha: city, territory and population in ancient times (1st century BC. 12th century AD)
PTDC/HAR-ARQ/6273/2020
Research Unit: IEM-NOVA FCSH
Participant Institutions: Idanha-a-Nova Municipal Council; University of Coimbra and NOVA University
Lead Researchers: Pedro C. Carvalho and Catarina Tente
Research Team: Tomás Cordero Ruiz, Brais X. Currás, Ricardo Costeira da Silva, Adolfo Fernández, Patrícia Dias, José Cristóvão, Gabriel de Souza, Sofia Tereso, João Pedro Tereso, José Ruivo, Vera Pereira, Lídia Fernandes, Armando Redentor, Catarina Meira, Bruno Franco Moreno, Paulo Almeida Fernandes and Saul Gomes
Duration: 2017 – active
The IGAEDIS – The historical village of Idanha-a-Velha: city, territory and population in ancient times (1st century BC. – 12th century AD), project was one of three archaeological projects to receive financing in the last call for tenders in all scientific domains of the FCT (2020 Call for SR&TD Project Grants). The project results from a partnership between the University of Coimbra, NOVA University, Idanha-a-Nova Municipal Council and the Centro Regional Directorate of Culture. The now financed project is led by Pedro C. Carvalho of CEIS 20/UC and by Catarina Tente of IEM /NOVA FCSH and brings together a multidisciplinary and international team from different national and international institutional backgrounds. The team shall collectively strive to deepen the study of the historical Idanha-a-Velha village (Idanha-a-Nova Council), that was formerly a capital city (Roman), capital of a diocese (Suevi-Visigoth) and also a key strategic settlement for the Templars. The Historical Village, a National Monument, where today around 50 people life, was perhaps the most important location in current Portuguese inland regions, between the Tagus and the Douro, throughout almost 1,200 years. The village hosts important monuments of this historical legacy.
The project seeks to expand the scale of intervention of a preceding project (2016-2019) and holds the following objectives: 1) characterise the urban evolution of the classical city and its territories in a diachronic approach (from the 1st century BC to the 12th century); 2) understanding patterns of production and consumption in the city and its hinterland; 3) studying the historical populations residing here. Methodologically, the study of the classical city is leveraged by the archaeological excavation plan undertaken in the areas constituting key public spaces and shall enable particular cultural/commercial contacts and the production and consumption of goods, both foodstuffs and other daily objects. The long term study of the territory focuses on the settlement strategies and the exploitation of resources and carried out in a systematic and integrated approach, making recourse to SIG analysis, remote detection and prospecting.
The study of historical populations involves analysis of the remains recovered from necropolis, including the anthropological study of the osteological remains as well as chemical analysis to ascertain dietary and mobility patterns in addition to extracting and sequencing of the DNA.
Another strength derives from the dissemination and the social returns of this knowledge. This requires involving the local population, especially the schools, in this heritage that belongs to them, contributing to strengthening their identity and social cohesion.
MedCrafts – Regulation of masters in Portugal in the late Middle Ages: 14th and 15th centuries
PTDC/HAR-HIS/31427/2017
Research Units: LAb2PT- University of Minho (project coordination); CITCEM-Faculty of Arts and Humanities of University of Porto; CHSC-Faculty of Arts and Humanities of University of Coimbra; IEM-NOVA FCSH; CH-School of Arts and Humanities -ULisboa.; CIDEHUS-University of Évora
Lead researchers: IR Arnaldo Sousa Melo (LAB2PT-University of Minho), Co-IR Joana Sequeira (CITCEM-FLUP)
IEM-NOVA FCSH researchers: Amélia Aguiar Andrade, Mário Farelo, Gonçalo Melo da Silva, Ana Cláudia Silveira, Mário Viana and Diana Martins
Duration: 01-10-2018 to 30-09-2022
This project seeks to study the regulations of craftsmen’s activities in the late Middle Ages, specifically the 14th and 15th centuries, through the analysis of the various Portuguese towns, from different regions, within a comparative perspective. The project seeks to nurture an integrated vision on the regulation systems and social practices, placing them in their respective social, economic, juridical and political contexts, especially focusing on the relationships between craftsmen and the public authorities. Through analysis of these regulations, the control records and the social practices, we aim to grasp and characterise the reality of the artisanal activities in medieval Portugal. The focus on the regulations and the controls would seem to be the best departure point for studying the realities prevailing among craftsmen. Through the study of the regulation and control of this group, we aim to access other aspects of artisanal activities, especially their organisation, the structures of production, their spatial integration the the political role of the craftsmen. The project brings together six research units from the same number of universities and their respective Medieval History experts, junior and senior researchers, including doctoral and master’s students.
Website
IEM as a participant entity with a specific role (concluded)
Beauty and the meaning of color in Portuguese medieval illuminated manuscripts
PTDC/EAT-EAT/104930/2008
Proponent Institution: Fundação da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia
Participants Instituttions: FCSH/NOVA; Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica (IBET); Instituto de Ciências e Tecnologias Agrárias e Agro-Alimentares – Porto (ICETA-Porto/UP)
Associeted research units: Centro de Informática e Tecnologias de Informação (CITI/FCT/UNL); Instituto de Estudos Medievais (IEM/FCSH/UNL)
Lead Researcher: Maria João Melo
Research Team: Adelaide Miranda, Ana Alexandra Matias, Ana Lemos, Ana Luísa Claro, Ana Teresa Serra, António Eduardo Baptista, Catarina Pereira Miguel, Inês Abreu dos Santos, João Pedro Lopes, Mafalda Sarraguça, Maria da Conceição Casanova, Nuno Correia, Rita Carvalho, Rita Castro, Teresa Romão and Tânia Muralha
Duration: 2009-2011
Medieval illuminated manuscripts are among the most valuable artistic objects in Europe’s cultural heritage. Portuguese codices date back to the formation of Portugal as a kingdom and bear witness to medieval ideas, religion and politics. Santa Cruz de Coimbra, São Mamede do Lorvão and Santa Maria de Alcobaça are important in the context of the royal political strategy, which involved the creation of monasteries to maintain peace and social order.
In this project we propose to explore issues related to the social significance of color in Portuguese medieval illuminations, executed during the 12th century and the first quarter of the 13th century in the monasteries of Alcobaça, Lorvão and Santa Cruz. The use and production of color in Portuguese medieval illumination was as much a consequence of the technology available as it was a cultural and artistic choice; by defining the specificities of its use and production, we think we can contribute to determining the legacy of the influences of the Arab, Jewish and Christian cultures that coexisted in Romanesque Portugal.
This subject will be dealt with from the point of view of art history and molecular sciences, capable of characterizing the scriptoria and their evolution during the 12th century and the first quarter of the 13th century. We will begin by quantifying the dominant colors and their combinations in the national funds, namely in the Alcobaça, Arouca, Lorvão and Santa Cruz manuscripts. We will then make a comparison with other international funds. Quantification will be carried out through digital analysis of the areas of color. Given that the degradation process of an ink affects our perception of color, its characterization at a molecular level is fundamental in order to avoid misinterpretations as to the meaning and distribution of color in manuscripts. Binders, the invisible component of color, can also have a fundamental influence on its perception and play a key role in color changes over time. Particular attention will be paid to their complete characterization through the use of immunoenzymatic techniques that allow the detection of specific antibodies/antigens, for example the ELISA assay.
We intend to prepare a book describing the most important findings and results of our research. The possibility of creating a website on which the results can be disseminated will also be considered. We will explore new ways of disseminating our findings to the general public, and particularly to children, helping to raise awareness of the art of medieval illumination through the use of new interactive technologies. We intend to develop an interactive system that is attractive, intuitive and simple to use, which will recreate the physical objects that were used in real life in the production of medieval illuminations. This installation will simulate the creative process, covering various aspects, from the sources of materials and production methods to the application of color and image construction. We will also show the historical and social context of that time and reveal the meanings of the colors used and the images painted. This interactive installation could easily be used in cultural sites, enriching an exhibition, or in institutions where books are preserved.
DEGRUPE – The european dimension of a group of power: ecclesiastics and the political state building of the iberian monarchies (13th-15th centuries)
Unit Research: CIDEHUS
Associated Research Units: IEM-FCSH/NOVA, Universidade Católica de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra, Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, Universidade Complutense de Madrid, Universidade de Salamanca, Universidade de Lleida
Lead Researcher: Hermínia Vilar
Research Team: Maria João Branco, Ana Jorge, Maria Helena Coelho, Amélia Álvaro de Campos, Rosário Morujão, Anísio Saraiva, Armando Carvalho Homem, Cristina Cunha, Hermenegildo Fernandes, André Leitão, Hugo Crespo, Óscar Villaroel González, José Luis Martin Martin e Flocel Sabaté
Research Fellow: Francisco Díaz
This project seeks, firstly, to reflect on the role and importance of the clergy, especially the secular clergy, in creating a space for mobility and the circulation of cultural and political models that extended to the whole of European Christianity and, secondly, to delve into the comparative aspects of their contribution to the construction of the peninsular monarchies: Portugal, Castile and Aragon.
To this end, we set ourselves 5 basic objectives:
1 – reconstitution of the universes of clerics linked to the royal chapels of the kingdoms under analysis, to the exercise of administrative positions with the monarchs or on their behalf, namely with the papal power;
2 – definition and analysis of the peninsular and European mobility circuits of the Portuguese and Castilian episcopal clergy, taking into account the university training circuits, the holding of benefices in different parts of Christendom and the holding of offices
in the ecclesiastical or political structure;
3 – understanding the social and cultural profile of clerics linked to the political structure, understanding the types of trajectories and the articulation between the ecclesiastical path and the political path between the 13th and 15th centuries and from a comparative perspective between the different peninsular spaces;
4 – to deepen knowledge of the forms of influence and intervention of the clergy in the context of the formation of the peninsular monarchies in the defined time frame;
5 – to articulate the research to be carried out with the work already developed in the context of the GDRE – At the Foudations of the Modern European State: the Legacy of the medieval clergy.
These five objectives are based on the central notion of the importance of the clergy as a key element in the constitution and definition of the peninsular monarchies, at multiple levels, from influence in the legal field and the construction of political legitimacy, to the exercise of administrative positions and external representation and spiritual support.
It is also based on the assumption that this influence needs to be read taking into account not only the local or national importance and influence of the ecclesiastics, but also their inclusion in networks that went beyond the political borders of the kingdom and extended, with greater or lesser depth, to different areas of Christendom. In this context, we will try to understand the weight of these networks in defining mobility paths and career models.
Lastly, the justification for this project is also based on the need to study, from a comparative perspective, the processes of formation of the peninsular monarchies and the role of the clergy, which, despite the existing studies mentioned below in the section on the state of the art, still leave open, among other aspects, the identification of protagonists, the definition of trajectories, the importance and role of the clergy, the role of the clergy and the role of the clergy.
the importance and functions of the royal chapel, the conclusions and readings that can be drawn from a comparative analysis that goes beyond the political borders of a kingdom.
Achieving the above objectives will involve analyzing and consulting a variety of documents, especially royal documents, which will allow us to identify the universes mentioned above. Added to this is the documentation from the diocesan funds, the volume and size of which will require a heuristic guided by clear objectives and aimed at identifying protagonists and reconstructing careers.
In addition, the compulsion of papal documentation will, in many cases, make it possible to complete the knowledge of mobility routes throughout Christendom.
In methodological terms, the sometimes case-by-case or individual approach proposed will allow comparative and more global readings to be established on the role and influence of the clergy in the peninsular monarchies. Likewise, the aim is to gain a better understanding of the privileged levels of intervention, from the royal chapel to the administrative apparatus and the agents responsible for this influence, especially through studies of the importance and breadth of the networks that criss-crossed the ecclesiastical space of European Christendom. As this theme is part of a historiographical tradition present in specific historiographical contexts, as indicated in the literature review, and as this project is linked to a European research group, we must take into account the remarkable variety of existing approaches. These approaches, in some cases casuistic, but in others provide lines of interpretation and analysis that will be taken into account and which are reflected in the profile of the scientific consultants chosen. With specific regard to the constitution of the team, it seeks to bring together not only some researchers who already have recognized work in the area(s) under analysis, but also young researchers who are in the process of training and whose work is secondary to particular aspects of this analysis.
Hebrew illumination in Portugal during the 15th century
PTDC/EAT-HAT/119488/2010
Research Unit: Instituto de História da Arte da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa
Associated Research Unit: IEM-FCSH/NOVA
Lead Researcher: Luís Urbano Oliveira Afonso
Research Team: Paulo Jorge Soares Mendes Pinto, Paulo Jorge Farmhouse Simões Alberto, Susana Rute de Oliveira Soares Bastos Mateus, Maria Adelaide da Conceição Miranda, Catarina Alexandra Martins Fernandes Barreira, Maria Alice da Silveira Tavares
Research fellows: Tiago Moita and Luís Ribeiro
Duration: 2012-2015
IEM as a host entity
Beauty and the meaning of color in Portuguese medieval illuminated manuscripts
PTDC/EAT-EAT/104930/2008
Proponent Institution: Fundação da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia
Participants Instituttions: FCSH/NOVA; Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica (IBET); Instituto de Ciências e Tecnologias Agrárias e Agro-Alimentares – Porto (ICETA-Porto/UP)
Associeted research units: Centro de Informática e Tecnologias de Informação (CITI/FCT/UNL); Instituto de Estudos Medievais (IEM/FCSH/UNL)
Lead Researcher: Maria João Melo
Research Team: Adelaide Miranda, Ana Alexandra Matias, Ana Lemos, Ana Luísa Claro, Ana Teresa Serra, António Eduardo Baptista, Catarina Pereira Miguel, Inês Abreu dos Santos, João Pedro Lopes, Mafalda Sarraguça, Maria da Conceição Casanova, Nuno Correia, Rita Carvalho, Rita Castro, Teresa Romão and Tânia Muralha
Duration: 2009-2011
Medieval illuminated manuscripts are among the most valuable artistic objects in Europe’s cultural heritage. Portuguese codices date back to the formation of Portugal as a kingdom and bear witness to medieval ideas, religion and politics. Santa Cruz de Coimbra, São Mamede do Lorvão and Santa Maria de Alcobaça are important in the context of the royal political strategy, which involved the creation of monasteries to maintain peace and social order.
In this project we propose to explore issues related to the social significance of color in Portuguese medieval illuminations, executed during the 12th century and the first quarter of the 13th century in the monasteries of Alcobaça, Lorvão and Santa Cruz. The use and production of color in Portuguese medieval illumination was as much a consequence of the technology available as it was a cultural and artistic choice; by defining the specificities of its use and production, we think we can contribute to determining the legacy of the influences of the Arab, Jewish and Christian cultures that coexisted in Romanesque Portugal.
This subject will be dealt with from the point of view of art history and molecular sciences, capable of characterizing the scriptoria and their evolution during the 12th century and the first quarter of the 13th century. We will begin by quantifying the dominant colors and their combinations in the national funds, namely in the Alcobaça, Arouca, Lorvão and Santa Cruz manuscripts. We will then make a comparison with other international funds. Quantification will be carried out through digital analysis of the areas of color. Given that the degradation process of an ink affects our perception of color, its characterization at a molecular level is fundamental in order to avoid misinterpretations as to the meaning and distribution of color in manuscripts. Binders, the invisible component of color, can also have a fundamental influence on its perception and play a key role in color changes over time. Particular attention will be paid to their complete characterization through the use of immunoenzymatic techniques that allow the detection of specific antibodies/antigens, for example the ELISA assay.
We intend to prepare a book describing the most important findings and results of our research. The possibility of creating a website on which the results can be disseminated will also be considered. We will explore new ways of disseminating our findings to the general public, and particularly to children, helping to raise awareness of the art of medieval illumination through the use of new interactive technologies. We intend to develop an interactive system that is attractive, intuitive and simple to use, which will recreate the physical objects that were used in real life in the production of medieval illuminations. This installation will simulate the creative process, covering various aspects, from the sources of materials and production methods to the application of color and image construction. We will also show the historical and social context of that time and reveal the meanings of the colors used and the images painted. This interactive installation could easily be used in cultural sites, enriching an exhibition, or in institutions where books are preserved.
FRONTOWNS – Think big on small frontier towns: Alto Alentejo and Alta Extremadura leonesa (13th – 16th centuries)
PTDC/HAR-HIS/3024/2020
Research Unit: IEM-NOVA FCSH
Associated Research Units: CHAM-NOVA FCSH; IHC-NOVA FCSH
Participant Institutions: Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon (FL/ULisboa); INESC TEC – Institute of Systems Engineering and Computers, Technology and Science: Universidad de Extremadura (UEX); École des hautes études hispaniques et ibériques / Casa de Velázquez (EHEHI/ CVZ)
Associated Institutions: Castelo de Vide Municipal Council, Ayuntamiento de Cáceres
Lead Researcher: Adelaide Millán da Costa
Assistant Lead Researcher: Gonçalo Melo da Silva
Research Team: Adelaide Millán da Costa (LR); Gonçalo Melo da Silva (Co-LR); Ana Santos Leitão; Ana Filipa Roldão; António Castro Coelho; Daniel Alves; Elena de Ortueta Hilberath; Florencio-Javier García Mogollón; Inês Lourenço Olaia; Joana Vieira Paulino; João Nisa; José Fabián Cuesta Gómez; Julian Clemente Ramos; Leonel Caseiro Morgado; Luis Clemente-Quijada; Luísa Trindade; Pau Soto; Pedro Pinto; Sara Prata
Consultant: Jean-Luc Fray
Duration: 2021-2024
This project develops through two overlapping approaches. The first seeks to identify the role played by small towns in articulating the borderlands between Portugal and Castile, and in relation to more distant areas, exploring all the bonds and flows that these peoples established, enabled or prevented whether due to the geographic, material, political or mental conditions prevailing. In order to visualise and leverage the results, we make recourse to an already existing geo-referencing database (Mercator-e), incorporating new layers in accordance with the variables of connectivity studied.
The second analytical perspective focuses on studying and reconstructing the urban environments of these two towns, Castelo de Vide and Cáceres. This facet deploys usage of modelling and 3D animation with the objective of observing how the flows and bonds reflect in the urban contexts of these two towns: reconstituting the markets, exchanges, socialisation, decision-making, representation, as well as the routes and paths and their relationships with residential areas.
The bonds of society establish the essence of this project given the broad trajectory of joint work between the participant universities and regional towns.
Books, rituals and spaces in a Cistercian nunnery. Living, praying and reading in Lorvão Abbey, 13th – 16th centuries
PTDC/ART-HIS/0739/2020
Research Unit: IEM-NOVA FCSH
Participant Institutions: LAQV REQUIMTE, NOVA FCT; Laboratório Hércules, University of Évora; CESEM NOVA FCSH
Associated Institutions: CEHR-UCP; Torre do Tombo
Lead Researcher: Catarina Fernandes Barreira
Assistant Lead Researcher: Conceição Casanova
Research Team: Catarina Fernandes Barreira (LR), Conceição Casanova (Co-LR), Catarina Pereira Miguel, Alberto Medina de Seiça, Ana Tourais, Catarina Pinheiro, Catarina Tibúrcio, Diana Martins, Isabel Pombo Cardoso, Gonçalo Melo da Silva, João Luís Inglês Fontes, Jonathan Wilson, Luís Filipe Oliveira, Luís Miguel Rêpas, Maria da Conceição Oliveira, Maria Filomena Andrade, Mário Farelo, Mercedes Pérez Vidal, Miguel Metelo de Seixas, Paula Cardoso, Paulo Catarino Lopes, Rui Araújo, Silvia Scardina e Zuelma Chaves
Consultants: Manuel Pedro Ferreira, Maria do Rosário Morujão and Teresa Quilhó
Duration: 2021-2024
The project objectives involve the interdisciplinary study of the illuminated liturgical codices that made up part of the library collection of Lorvão Abbey, the first female Cistercian establishment in Portugal, thereby contributing to integrating national monastic studies into gender studies for the period ranging from the early 13th century through to the late 16th century with a corpus made up of around three dozen codices.
We seek to analyse this corpus, on the one hand, in material terms, thus characteristics of the codices ranging from their illuminated decoration, the pigments/inks and parchments applied, through to the binding materials and methods, extending to a survey of their conservation and any additions/alterations experienced, thus contributing to the history of the book and conservation; on the other hand, in terms of the liturgies and contents, characterising their uses and types of circulation in the monastery as well as the role of the nuns in commissioning and establishing/conserving this library. This interdisciplinary study will generate findings capable of contributing towards substantiating hypotheses as regards the characterisation of scriptorium or scriptoria as the origins of the codices and their particularities as well as understanding whether the liturgy practiced in Lorvão during its nunnery period displays identity features and/or submitted to the prevailing unanimous Cistercian liturgy.
IEM as a host entity (concluded)
CISTERHOR – Cistercian horizons. Studying and characterising a medieval scriptorium and its production: Alcobaça. Local identities and liturgical uniformity in dialogue
PTDC/ART-HIS/29522/2017
Research Unit: IEM-NOVA FCSH
Participant Institutions: LAQV REQUIMTE, NOVA FCT; Laboratório Hércules, University of Évora
Associated Institutions: CEHR-UCP; National Library of Portugal; DGPC/Mosteiro de Alcobaça
Lead Researcher: Catarina Fernandes Barreira
Assistant Lead Researcher: Conceição Casanova
Research Team: Catarina Fernandes Barreira (LR), Conceição Casanova (Co-LR), Ana Lemos, Catarina Pereira Miguel, Catarina Tibúrcio, Gonçalo Melo da Silva, João Luís Inglês Fontes, Jonathan Wilson, Luís Miguel Rêpas, Maria da Conceição Oliveira, Maria Filomena Andrade, Paula Cardoso, Paulo Catarino Lopes, Rita Araújo, Rita Castro and Zuelma Chaves.
Consultants: José Francisco Meirinhos and Teresa Maria Gonçalves Quilhó Marques dos Santos
Duration: 2018-2021
In recent years, the study of Cistercian scriptoria has produced new knowledge and perspectives: this project seeks to discuss and place the Portuguese case within the European historiographic framework through the study of the scriptorium of the Monastery of Alcobaça between the late 12th century and the 16th century. The objectives include the study and dating of the illuminated liturgical manuscripts from the Alcobaça scriptorium, a corpus made up of 50 codices. This interdisciplinary approach seeks, on the one hand, to study the manuscripts and their materiality (characteristics of the illuminated decoration, study of the pigments and binding structures) and, simultaneously, to study the liturgical contents (in articulation with the Cistercian orientations and the influence of the local context) between the late 12th and early 16th centuries.
The choice of this type of manuscript stems from its purpose: they were the most important documents produced by monastic scriptoria, essential to the daily celebrating of mass and that organised the lives of religious communities. In Alcobaça, a significant number of these manuscripts survived to the contrary of other abbeys, which opens up new perspectives in terms of the scope for dating them with greater precision and consequently characterising the evolution in the production materials and techniques for scriptorium codex over the course of four centuries.
This seeks to extend the broader case study in terms of the broader context of European Cistercian cultural production and answer new questions: what was the role of Alcobaça in the global European context? Was the liturgy practiced in Alcobaça identity based or did it follow the Cistercian model? Is there any artistic identity to Alcobaça in terms of its illuminated production and the ornamentation of these religious manuscripts within the aesthetics and materiality of the French context, especially its mother-house, Claraval? Are the original Alcobaça bindings specific to this location or do they display common features with other abbeys? How do these codices evolve in terms of their content and materiality? What influences permeate this scriptorium? The responses to these questions shall enable new insights into the illuminated manuscripts produced or acquired by Alcobaça.
The LR and team members, with experience in the production of knowledge for academia and its dissemination and the transfer of knowledge to non-specialist publics, deploy the competences necessary to the implementation of this project. This highlights the priority attributed to networking and participation in Cistercian study networks over recent years. The results will be published in specialist international journals, with peer review, and presented at national and international conferences and as well as in an open access database. The working plan includes an exhibition, the publication of a book and an international congress. The knowledge transfer strategies count on the direct participation of two fundamental institutions, BNP and the Monastery of Alcobaça.
FALCO – Hypothesising Human-Animal Relations in Medieval Portugal
EXPL/HAR-HIS/1135/2021
Research Unit: IEM-NOVA FCSH
Participant Institutions: Salvaterra de Magos Municipal Council –Royal Falconry; the Archaeo-science Laboratory – General Directorate of Cultural Heritage
Lead Researcher: Tiago Viúla de Faria
Assistant Lead Researcher: Rémy Cordonnier
Research Team: Tiago Viúla de Faria (LR), Rémy Cordonnier (Co-LR), Alice Tavares, Ana Paiva Morais, Ana Sirgado, André Silva, Carlos Pimenta, Diana Martins, Fabio Barberini, Filipa Soares, Filipe Alves Moreira, Hélder Carvalhal, Joana Ramôa, Sónia Gomes.
Consultants: Aleks Pluskowski, Baudouin Van den Abeele, José Manuel Fradejas
Duration: 2022
The core premise of the FALCO Project is to enable multidisciplinary research into the relationship between human beings and other species in medieval Portugal through exploring the historical bonds with a specific animal group, birds of prey.
Including the “falconidae” and “accipitridae” families, birds of prey derive from various different species. Project researchers and consultants are specialists on key issues in the study of birds of prey and medieval society. The group shall specifically analyse the various facets of these connections. This takes into account the known primary sources, employing both established and developmental methodological approaches in order to determine both the potential and the limitations of certain types of historical records in accordance with the approaches deployed.
On completion of the project, and as a result of research activities and scientific debate, we seek to obtain a solid methodological basis for research (wide reaching and interdisciplinary) on the human-animal relationships in the Middle Ages, transversally conceived into themes and disciplines.
Contact: falco@fcsh.unl.pt
IMAGO
Research Unit: IEM-NOVA FCSH
Associated research units: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris; École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris; Museo de Pontevedra
Lead Researchers: José Custódio Vieira da Silva and Maria Adelaide da Conceição Miranda
Research Team: Luís Manuel Correia de Sousa, Joana Ramôa, Ana Lemos and Ragnilde Boe
Duration: 2005-2009
The IMAGO project aims to create a center for medieval iconography, based on systematic research according to a previously defined plan. The lack of such a center in Portugal is admittedly a major gap in the field of art history. Its main purpose is to centralize, study and disseminate medieval iconography.
This center should also stimulate research in the area of medieval art and place our country in its rightful place in the international scientific community.
This project is part of the activities of the Institute of Medieval Studies, where images are considered to be a product of social memory and are studied according to their content and meaning, in a cultural system that is also dealt with by other disciplines, such as History and Literature. It is in this sense that its operation will be based on interdisciplinary work, which is fundamental for analyzing the thematic dimension of images and their cultural interpretation.
The first phase will consist of drawing up a descriptive thesaurus of all the images, starting with the illuminated manuscripts and tomb sculpture.
The registration of the different works will form part of a database, which is intended to be systematic and exhaustive and to allow all the relevant information to be cross-referenced. Once the images have been selected and surveyed, they will be catalogued and digitized in order to create a corpus of iconography. The research will consist of two different tasks: firstly, collecting all available images from libraries and archives (published material or online, CD-Rom), and secondly, recording the material under study. At the same time, historical, literary, philosophical and religious sources of the image will be collected in order to interpret it in the wider field of medieval civilization.
In order to overcome the difficulties that may arise with regard to the copyright of the images, protocols will be established with other cultural institutions.
Finally, the researchers will disseminate the results of the project on CD-Rom, on the website of the Institute of Medieval Studies, and through monographs and other publications.
INVENTARQ – Family Archive Inventory Project, 15th-19th centuries: on managing and establishing lost memories. Rethinking the pre-modern archive
EXPL/EPH-HIS/0178/2013
Research Unit: IEM-FCSH/NOVA
Associated Research Units: CHAM, IHC, IICT
Participant Institutions: Casa de Velazquez, Laboratório I.T.E.M. (“Identités, territoires, expressions, mobilités”, Univ. de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour)
Lead Researcher: Maria de Lurdes Rosa
Research Team: Ana Canas; Ana Cortez de Lobão; Anne Goulet; Filipa Lopes: Filippo De Vivo; Joseph Morsel; Margarida Leme; Maria de Lurdes Rosa; Maria Isabel Ventura; Maria João Andrade Sousa; Maria José Mexia Bigotte Chorão; Miguel Metelo de Seixas; Olivier Guyotjeannin; Patrícia Marques; Paulo Jorge Fernandes; Pedro Pinto; Randolph Head; Rita Nóvoa; Saul Gomes; Véronique Lamazou-Duplan
Duration: 2013-2015
Objectives and forecast results:
1 – Historically study the context of production and usage of inventories by noble family households (history of families – history of archives – history of inventories);
2 – Describe in diplomatic and archive terms their contents and place these descriptions online;
3 – Foster the study, reflection and publication of a set of studies on the nature of these inventories, from the historical-anthropological, archival and epistemological perspectives as regards their historiographic and archival usages.
In order to ensure the presentation and availability of the data, safeguarding the heritage of the inventories studied, and advancing with analytical studies from an interdisciplinary perspective, the following products are forecast: online database for access to the archive descriptions and the inventories studies (with recourse to ICA-AtoM software and the digitalisation of some inventories); a scientific conference and in depth research workshop (9 February 2015); documental exhibition (to take place from 28 January to 26 March 2016), with the publication of its catalogue.
JUSCOM – Meet the judge (Justice and communities in a transitional period: 1481-1580)
PTDC/EPH-HIS/4323/2012
Research Unit: IEM-NOVA FCSH
Associated Research Unit: CEG
Lead Researcher: Adelaide Millán da Costa
Research Team: António Manuel Hespanha, Fernando Pinto da Rocha, Filipa Roldão, Jorge Trindade, José Subtil, Luís Miguel Duarte, Maria Helena da Cruz Coelho, Mário Farelo, Marta Gonçalves, Nuno Camarinhas and Vitor Rocio
Research fellows: Diogo Nuno Machado Pinto Faria and Nuno Filipe Moura Rodrigues
Duration: 2013-2014
This project aims to dismantle the process by which the crown systematically and permanently instituted the appointment of literate judges for the most important municipalities in the kingdom of Portugal. In order to do so, it identifies a period of time, roughly corresponding to the 16th century, which has so far been omitted from research. The reasons for this absence are related to the divisions between medievalists and modernists who end up establishing time barriers in their studies, neglecting the key periods. And, of course, the gradual evolution of the legal order and the functioning of institutions throughout the Ancien Régime does not fit in with artificial historiographical cuts.
In these circumstances, the project is innovative because it brings together specialists from the Medieval and Modern periods, not to join forces in a long-duration research project (without abandoning their respective chronologies, at the very least applying a similar analysis grid) but to share research into a short period, a century, which is considered a “no man’s land” in terms of the evolution of the crown’s judicial apparatus. The project is also benefiting from the help of geographers specializing in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), with the aim of making it possible to track, in graphic terms, the existence of some spatial logic or specific times in the progress of the appointment of judges from abroad.
LITTERA – Edition, update and preservation of Portuguese medieval literary heritage
PTDC/ELT/69985/2006
Research Unit: IEM-NOVA FCSH
Lead Researcher: Graça Videira Lopes
Research Team: Nuno Júdice, Maria do Rosário Paixão, Manuel Pedro Ferreira
Duration: 2006-2011
The literary heritage of the Portuguese Middle Ages that has come down to us includes a number of texts which, due to their quality and originality, represent one of the highlights of Portuguese literature and culture. Disappeared or forgotten for several centuries and only gradually rediscovered from the mid-19th century onwards, some of these texts have not yet been the subject of a complete unified edition and integrated study. The aim of this project is therefore to set about editing, protecting and updating this medieval literary and cultural heritage in a coherent, coordinated and scientifically consistent way, in its two main areas: poetry and narrative prose. Given the extent of the possible corpus, the project envisages several phases. Thus, in a first phase, the project will initially focus on the songs of troubadours and minstrels. What follows is a brief summary of the activities relating to this first phase.
In fact, despite the remarkable work of its first editors (Carolina Michaëlis, José Joaquim Nunes and Rodrigues Lapa), to which the monographic or anthological work of numerous subsequent specialists, both in Portugal and Galicia, has been progressively added, the fact remains that there is still no integrated critical edition of the 1680 or so troubadour songs that have come down to us.
One of the aims of this project will therefore be to put this edition into practice, taking particular account of the new technical means of dissemination, namely digital formats and the internet, providing not only an up-to-date critical reading of all the songs (with paper and digital editions) but also access to their original manuscript versions (as well as developed vocabulary and onomastic indexes).
This part of the project also includes, in this first phase, access to the musical dimension of the songs, both in terms of their original music (when it reached us) and by surveying all the recordings that have been made of them so far (using counterfactuals or autonomous music). All the material will also be made available or listed online (in the latter case, when it cannot be made available for rights reasons).
STEMMA – From song to writing – material production and paths in Galician-Portuguese lyrics
PTDC/LLT-EGL/30984/2017
Research Unit: IEM-NOVA FCSH
Participant Institutions: LAQV REQUIMTE, NOVA FCT; National Library of Portugal
Lead Researcher: Graça Videira Lopes
Assistant Lead Researcher: Maria João Melo
Research Team: Graça Videira Lopes (LR), Maria João Melo (Co-LR), Manuel Pedro Ferreira, José António Souto Cabo, Maria Ana Ramos, Ana Raquel Baião Roque, Paula Sofia Nabais, Tatiana Ferreira Vitorino.
Duration: 2018-2021
The written witness accounts of medieval Galician-Portuguese lyrics that have survived to present times are only five in number: three songbooks– the Cancioneiro da Ajuda/ Songbook of Aid (A), a richly illuminated but unfinished medieval codex and two 16th century Italian copies (B and V) of a great medieval songbook – and two fragments, the Vindel scroll (N) and the Sharrer scroll (T), both a single parchment sheet. The historical and cultural importance of this legacy (of the songs of troubadours) contrasts sharply with the gaps existing as regards almost every aspect of the production, transmission and the subsequent paths of these manuscripts.
Through an innovative and multidisciplinary approach, the objective of this project is thus to begin filling these gaps in a study that jointly deploys:
- as regards A, molecular analysis of the illuminations and writing inks, complemented by the same type of analysis carried out on similar Iberian manuscripts (such as the Cantigas de Santa Maria) within the objective of elucidating on key but still unknown aspects of this codex, including its dating, conditions and probable place of production and its subsequent ownership;
- in relation to the Italian copies, internal analysis (gathering all the markers present in these copies that may provide information on the original manuscript), as well as external analysis (systematic research in archives and libraries, particularly focusing on the Angelo Colocci collection and also a person playing a decisive role in this question, Miguel da Silva, Bishop of Viseu, a previous and partially unstudied collection).
In the final project phase, and based on the data collected in stages 1 and 2, we expect to better understand the parameters of the transfer of Iberian troubadour song to writing (actors, dates, locations), such as the unknown subsequent life of these manuscripts (including those disappeared), especially the role played by important figures in Portuguese and European Renaissance humanism within the scope of the Stemma project.
The candidacy of these precious and highly fragile manuscripts to the UNESCO “Memory of the World” program, an application for submission by the National Library of Portugal by the end of 2019, with scientific support from this team further strengthens our objectives.
With a team that brings together researchers highly specialised in the laboratory analysis of illuminated manuscripts (especially molecular analysis of colour and pigments) and some of the leading researchers from the fields of medieval literature and art, in a team led by LR and co-LR with established experience of working together, this project is set to obtain these objectives and dynamically raising the profile of this extremely rich shared heritage.
Finally, we would like to highlight that a study of this type, particularly as regards analysis of A, holds no parallel with any other thus far undertaken both at the European and the world levels. To this end, the data collected on the colours in A (and that shall be shared through an open-access database) shall also represent a fundamental tool for all researchers approaching medieval art.
REGNUM REGIS – The inquiries of 1220 and the genesis of the documentary memory of the Portuguese medieval kingdom
Before the numbering of 1527-1532, the minutes of the General Inquiries of the 13th and 14th centuries are the most complete and exhaustive sources for the inventory of communities, goods and powers in Portugal north of the Mondego, as various regional and thematic studies based on the most important of these inquiries, those of 1220, 1258 and 1288, have shown.
The aim of this project is to carry out a critical edition of the first, those of 1220, since all of them have been published or are in the process of being published, but they are incomplete and therefore in need of urgent textual revision. In fact, the edition available today of the minutes of the General Inquiries of 1220, published, under the direction of Alexandre Herculano, in the Portugaliae Monumenta Historica – Inquisitiones, did not take into account all the available manuscripts, nor does it meet the current needs of editing a text whose consultation and use has proved fundamental for a complete knowledge of medieval Portugal in the 13th century.
In fact, the edition to be produced will not only seek to provide all researchers and cultural and educational agents with a critical and complete text of the minutes of the Inquiries of 1220, both in printed and computerized form, but it also proposes to present indexes that provide a complete and comprehensive set of information and materials that can be compiled and used in the further study of the minutes of all the Inquiries of the 13th and 14th centuries, since their editions do not include a similar treatment and presentation of the text.
In this sense, the proposed publication will ultimately provide the basis for a more rigorous, mappable and quantifiable clarification of the issues raised by the General Inquiries of the 200s and 300s, while at the same time shedding light on a wide range of issues that are decisive for our knowledge of Portuguese history, such as settlement patterns, demographic behavior, property regimes, the elements that ordered the occupation of the territory (castles, temples, the exercise of justice (communal, manorial, royal), taxation models, social differentiation, the marks of rural and urban daily life, toponymy and anthroponymy systems and the value of writing, records and archives in the defence of political and social rights and duties, as well as a better understanding of the functioning of the strategies of local and regional affirmation of royal power, as well as the tensions between centralization, manorialism and feudality.
Objectives: To establish the critical Latin text of the minutes of the General Inquiries of 1220. Prepare the respective edition. Design and complete a database based on the information available in the edition of the minutes of the Inquiries. Draw up a glossary of the text. Organize and establish the respective toponymic and institutional indexes. Promote the availability of all these materials on CD ROM and on the Internet. Hold a national meeting to reflect on the testimonies of the Inquiries of 1220. To organize, at the end of the project, an international conference dedicated to the comparative historical analysis of the royal production of the first regional documentary memoirs produced in the various medieval Christian kingdoms of the 13th century.
IEM as a participant entity with a specific role
iForal – Portuguese medieval charters: a historical and linguistic perspective in the digital era
Research Units: Centre of History (CH/FL/ULisboa), Centre of Linguistics, University of Lisbon (CL/FUL/ULisboa)
Lead Researchers: Filipa Roldão (CH/FL/ULisboa), Co-LR Joana Serafim (CL/FUL/ULisboa)
IEM-NOVA FCSH Researchers: Adelaide Millán Costa, Amélia Aguiar Andrade, Maria João Branco
Duration: 01-01-2021 – ongoing
Throughout the 12th and 13th centuries, the construction of the kingdom of Portugal focused on defining the territorial boundaries, setting down power structures and the socioeconomic stability of their inhabitants, involved the written contractualization of long term juridical relationships. Kings and nobles, lay and ecclesiastic entities, established their relationships with their communities in writing and thereby defining the norms of socialisation among inhabitants, including their rights and duties: these written documents were charters.
Approaching the charters signed by the royal power, termed forais breves (brief charters), this project seeks to reinterpret the nature of these documents (the circumstances around their signing and textual transmission) and its function within the broad scope of the relationship between the councils and the royal administration. To this end, this project stems from a core idea: interdisciplinarity. History and Linguistics provide the research with the conceptual and methodological tools and the Digital Humanities the necessary instrumental tools to enable the results and render effective their research and dissemination. The major instrumental project objective is to establish a corpus of Portuguese medieval charters, critically edited and in an electronic format to foster historical-linguistic reflection. This corpus will incorporate all of the Portuguese royal charters granted through to 1279, their copies and the vernacular translations produced through to the end of the 15th century. To this end, we deploy innovative methodologies, based on semi-automatic tools for task optimisation before making the project results available through open access.
However, what are the justifications for studying Portuguese medieval charters? For what reason is there financing for this project in 2020? Firstly, there is an eminently scientific rationale: the study of historical charters has been overlooked in favour of the new charters issued in the 16th century (the Manueline Reform), formally and materially more attractive to historians; the existing studies are either overly dispersed among publishers lacking the capacity for their promotion or requiring scientific validation as having been written not by historians but above all by local intellectuals. In either case, there is no joint perspective considering the entirety of these royal charters. This project aims to overcome that lack.
Secondly, there are reasons of a societal nature: as the 21st century advances, local communities and the public authorities (councils, archives, museums and schools) continue to commemorate the date of signing of their oldest charters, updating the collective memory and identity. The interest in the local charter is easily explained: in them, the communities encounter the longest standing forms of collective organisation of their predecessors and their relationships with the established powers, especially the king, on issues of a political and fiscal nature, on justice and economic activities; furthermore, these documents provide insights into the relationships with the natural resources available to the community and their exploitation and as well as the landscape and its topography still today recognisable to the community.
Convinced that this project reflects scientifically viable and necessary research, the LR and Co-LR submitted this application with a team featuring the best national specialists in the fields of Medieval History (cities, royal power, written culture), in Linguistics (philology, history of language and textual criticism) and IT applied to the Humanities, researchers and renowned international consultants that shall ensure the fundamental comparison with other historiographies, and in addition to a team of junior researchers who shall accompany this process as advanced training. The proponent institution and the participant Institutions, located from the North to the South of Portugal, and the University of Lausanne provide guarantees of the scientific robustness and management capacity of this project, which extends already well-established and cemented partnerships. The project study object represents a fine example of this.
The study of medieval charters by the LR and Co-LR began in 2005 and already counts on various different publications and international public presentations, as well as community knowledge dissemination activities. In their already long careers, the LR and Co-LR are, respectively, specialists in the fields of History and Linguistics, leading the way in methodologies and reflections on Portuguese medieval charters that this project serves to deepen and develop in the service of both science and the various different communities. This project fosters the safeguarding of one of the oldest examples of the written legacy of the local and city powers as well as those of the Portuguese kingdom and, with this memory, we will provide the best response to some of the major United Nations objectives for 2030, such as knowledge about justice, legal defence, equity, and the economic and ecological sustainability of peoples.
IGAEDIS – The historical village of Idanha-a-Velha: city, territory and population in ancient times (1st century BC. 12th century AD)
PTDC/HAR-ARQ/6273/2020
Research Unit: IEM-NOVA FCSH
Participant Institutions: Idanha-a-Nova Municipal Council; University of Coimbra and NOVA University
Lead Researchers: Pedro C. Carvalho and Catarina Tente
Research Team: Tomás Cordero Ruiz, Brais X. Currás, Ricardo Costeira da Silva, Adolfo Fernández, Patrícia Dias, José Cristóvão, Gabriel de Souza, Sofia Tereso, João Pedro Tereso, José Ruivo, Vera Pereira, Lídia Fernandes, Armando Redentor, Catarina Meira, Bruno Franco Moreno, Paulo Almeida Fernandes and Saul Gomes
Duration: 2017 – active
The IGAEDIS – The historical village of Idanha-a-Velha: city, territory and population in ancient times (1st century BC. – 12th century AD), project was one of three archaeological projects to receive financing in the last call for tenders in all scientific domains of the FCT (2020 Call for SR&TD Project Grants). The project results from a partnership between the University of Coimbra, NOVA University, Idanha-a-Nova Municipal Council and the Centro Regional Directorate of Culture. The now financed project is led by Pedro C. Carvalho of CEIS 20/UC and by Catarina Tente of IEM /NOVA FCSH and brings together a multidisciplinary and international team from different national and international institutional backgrounds. The team shall collectively strive to deepen the study of the historical Idanha-a-Velha village (Idanha-a-Nova Council), that was formerly a capital city (Roman), capital of a diocese (Suevi-Visigoth) and also a key strategic settlement for the Templars. The Historical Village, a National Monument, where today around 50 people life, was perhaps the most important location in current Portuguese inland regions, between the Tagus and the Douro, throughout almost 1,200 years. The village hosts important monuments of this historical legacy.
The project seeks to expand the scale of intervention of a preceding project (2016-2019) and holds the following objectives: 1) characterise the urban evolution of the classical city and its territories in a diachronic approach (from the 1st century BC to the 12th century); 2) understanding patterns of production and consumption in the city and its hinterland; 3) studying the historical populations residing here. Methodologically, the study of the classical city is leveraged by the archaeological excavation plan undertaken in the areas constituting key public spaces and shall enable particular cultural/commercial contacts and the production and consumption of goods, both foodstuffs and other daily objects. The long term study of the territory focuses on the settlement strategies and the exploitation of resources and carried out in a systematic and integrated approach, making recourse to SIG analysis, remote detection and prospecting.
The study of historical populations involves analysis of the remains recovered from necropolis, including the anthropological study of the osteological remains as well as chemical analysis to ascertain dietary and mobility patterns in addition to extracting and sequencing of the DNA.
Another strength derives from the dissemination and the social returns of this knowledge. This requires involving the local population, especially the schools, in this heritage that belongs to them, contributing to strengthening their identity and social cohesion.
MedCrafts – Regulation of masters in Portugal in the late Middle Ages: 14th and 15th centuries
PTDC/HAR-HIS/31427/2017
Research Units: LAb2PT- University of Minho (project coordination); CITCEM-Faculty of Arts and Humanities of University of Porto; CHSC-Faculty of Arts and Humanities of University of Coimbra; IEM-NOVA FCSH; CH-School of Arts and Humanities -ULisboa.; CIDEHUS-University of Évora
Lead researchers: IR Arnaldo Sousa Melo (LAB2PT-University of Minho), Co-IR Joana Sequeira (CITCEM-FLUP)
IEM-NOVA FCSH researchers: Amélia Aguiar Andrade, Mário Farelo, Gonçalo Melo da Silva, Ana Cláudia Silveira, Mário Viana and Diana Martins
Duration: 01-10-2018 to 30-09-2022
This project seeks to study the regulations of craftsmen’s activities in the late Middle Ages, specifically the 14th and 15th centuries, through the analysis of the various Portuguese towns, from different regions, within a comparative perspective. The project seeks to nurture an integrated vision on the regulation systems and social practices, placing them in their respective social, economic, juridical and political contexts, especially focusing on the relationships between craftsmen and the public authorities. Through analysis of these regulations, the control records and the social practices, we aim to grasp and characterise the reality of the artisanal activities in medieval Portugal. The focus on the regulations and the controls would seem to be the best departure point for studying the realities prevailing among craftsmen. Through the study of the regulation and control of this group, we aim to access other aspects of artisanal activities, especially their organisation, the structures of production, their spatial integration the the political role of the craftsmen. The project brings together six research units from the same number of universities and their respective Medieval History experts, junior and senior researchers, including doctoral and master’s students.
WebsiteIEM as a participant entity with a specific role (concluded)
Beauty and the meaning of color in Portuguese medieval illuminated manuscripts
PTDC/EAT-EAT/104930/2008
Proponent Institution: Fundação da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia
Participants Instituttions: FCSH/NOVA; Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica (IBET); Instituto de Ciências e Tecnologias Agrárias e Agro-Alimentares – Porto (ICETA-Porto/UP)
Associeted research units: Centro de Informática e Tecnologias de Informação (CITI/FCT/UNL); Instituto de Estudos Medievais (IEM/FCSH/UNL)
Lead Researcher: Maria João Melo
Research Team: Adelaide Miranda, Ana Alexandra Matias, Ana Lemos, Ana Luísa Claro, Ana Teresa Serra, António Eduardo Baptista, Catarina Pereira Miguel, Inês Abreu dos Santos, João Pedro Lopes, Mafalda Sarraguça, Maria da Conceição Casanova, Nuno Correia, Rita Carvalho, Rita Castro, Teresa Romão and Tânia Muralha
Duration: 2009-2011
Medieval illuminated manuscripts are among the most valuable artistic objects in Europe’s cultural heritage. Portuguese codices date back to the formation of Portugal as a kingdom and bear witness to medieval ideas, religion and politics. Santa Cruz de Coimbra, São Mamede do Lorvão and Santa Maria de Alcobaça are important in the context of the royal political strategy, which involved the creation of monasteries to maintain peace and social order.
In this project we propose to explore issues related to the social significance of color in Portuguese medieval illuminations, executed during the 12th century and the first quarter of the 13th century in the monasteries of Alcobaça, Lorvão and Santa Cruz. The use and production of color in Portuguese medieval illumination was as much a consequence of the technology available as it was a cultural and artistic choice; by defining the specificities of its use and production, we think we can contribute to determining the legacy of the influences of the Arab, Jewish and Christian cultures that coexisted in Romanesque Portugal.
This subject will be dealt with from the point of view of art history and molecular sciences, capable of characterizing the scriptoria and their evolution during the 12th century and the first quarter of the 13th century. We will begin by quantifying the dominant colors and their combinations in the national funds, namely in the Alcobaça, Arouca, Lorvão and Santa Cruz manuscripts. We will then make a comparison with other international funds. Quantification will be carried out through digital analysis of the areas of color. Given that the degradation process of an ink affects our perception of color, its characterization at a molecular level is fundamental in order to avoid misinterpretations as to the meaning and distribution of color in manuscripts. Binders, the invisible component of color, can also have a fundamental influence on its perception and play a key role in color changes over time. Particular attention will be paid to their complete characterization through the use of immunoenzymatic techniques that allow the detection of specific antibodies/antigens, for example the ELISA assay.
We intend to prepare a book describing the most important findings and results of our research. The possibility of creating a website on which the results can be disseminated will also be considered. We will explore new ways of disseminating our findings to the general public, and particularly to children, helping to raise awareness of the art of medieval illumination through the use of new interactive technologies. We intend to develop an interactive system that is attractive, intuitive and simple to use, which will recreate the physical objects that were used in real life in the production of medieval illuminations. This installation will simulate the creative process, covering various aspects, from the sources of materials and production methods to the application of color and image construction. We will also show the historical and social context of that time and reveal the meanings of the colors used and the images painted. This interactive installation could easily be used in cultural sites, enriching an exhibition, or in institutions where books are preserved.
DEGRUPE – The european dimension of a group of power: ecclesiastics and the political state building of the iberian monarchies (13th-15th centuries)
Unit Research: CIDEHUS
Associated Research Units: IEM-FCSH/NOVA, Universidade Católica de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra, Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, Universidade Complutense de Madrid, Universidade de Salamanca, Universidade de Lleida
Lead Researcher: Hermínia Vilar
Research Team: Maria João Branco, Ana Jorge, Maria Helena Coelho, Amélia Álvaro de Campos, Rosário Morujão, Anísio Saraiva, Armando Carvalho Homem, Cristina Cunha, Hermenegildo Fernandes, André Leitão, Hugo Crespo, Óscar Villaroel González, José Luis Martin Martin e Flocel Sabaté
Research Fellow: Francisco Díaz
This project seeks, firstly, to reflect on the role and importance of the clergy, especially the secular clergy, in creating a space for mobility and the circulation of cultural and political models that extended to the whole of European Christianity and, secondly, to delve into the comparative aspects of their contribution to the construction of the peninsular monarchies: Portugal, Castile and Aragon.
To this end, we set ourselves 5 basic objectives:
1 – reconstitution of the universes of clerics linked to the royal chapels of the kingdoms under analysis, to the exercise of administrative positions with the monarchs or on their behalf, namely with the papal power;
2 – definition and analysis of the peninsular and European mobility circuits of the Portuguese and Castilian episcopal clergy, taking into account the university training circuits, the holding of benefices in different parts of Christendom and the holding of offices
in the ecclesiastical or political structure;
3 – understanding the social and cultural profile of clerics linked to the political structure, understanding the types of trajectories and the articulation between the ecclesiastical path and the political path between the 13th and 15th centuries and from a comparative perspective between the different peninsular spaces;
4 – to deepen knowledge of the forms of influence and intervention of the clergy in the context of the formation of the peninsular monarchies in the defined time frame;
5 – to articulate the research to be carried out with the work already developed in the context of the GDRE – At the Foudations of the Modern European State: the Legacy of the medieval clergy.
These five objectives are based on the central notion of the importance of the clergy as a key element in the constitution and definition of the peninsular monarchies, at multiple levels, from influence in the legal field and the construction of political legitimacy, to the exercise of administrative positions and external representation and spiritual support.
It is also based on the assumption that this influence needs to be read taking into account not only the local or national importance and influence of the ecclesiastics, but also their inclusion in networks that went beyond the political borders of the kingdom and extended, with greater or lesser depth, to different areas of Christendom. In this context, we will try to understand the weight of these networks in defining mobility paths and career models.
Lastly, the justification for this project is also based on the need to study, from a comparative perspective, the processes of formation of the peninsular monarchies and the role of the clergy, which, despite the existing studies mentioned below in the section on the state of the art, still leave open, among other aspects, the identification of protagonists, the definition of trajectories, the importance and role of the clergy, the role of the clergy and the role of the clergy.
the importance and functions of the royal chapel, the conclusions and readings that can be drawn from a comparative analysis that goes beyond the political borders of a kingdom.
Achieving the above objectives will involve analyzing and consulting a variety of documents, especially royal documents, which will allow us to identify the universes mentioned above. Added to this is the documentation from the diocesan funds, the volume and size of which will require a heuristic guided by clear objectives and aimed at identifying protagonists and reconstructing careers.
In addition, the compulsion of papal documentation will, in many cases, make it possible to complete the knowledge of mobility routes throughout Christendom.
In methodological terms, the sometimes case-by-case or individual approach proposed will allow comparative and more global readings to be established on the role and influence of the clergy in the peninsular monarchies. Likewise, the aim is to gain a better understanding of the privileged levels of intervention, from the royal chapel to the administrative apparatus and the agents responsible for this influence, especially through studies of the importance and breadth of the networks that criss-crossed the ecclesiastical space of European Christendom. As this theme is part of a historiographical tradition present in specific historiographical contexts, as indicated in the literature review, and as this project is linked to a European research group, we must take into account the remarkable variety of existing approaches. These approaches, in some cases casuistic, but in others provide lines of interpretation and analysis that will be taken into account and which are reflected in the profile of the scientific consultants chosen. With specific regard to the constitution of the team, it seeks to bring together not only some researchers who already have recognized work in the area(s) under analysis, but also young researchers who are in the process of training and whose work is secondary to particular aspects of this analysis.
Hebrew illumination in Portugal during the 15th century
PTDC/EAT-HAT/119488/2010
Research Unit: Instituto de História da Arte da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa
Associated Research Unit: IEM-FCSH/NOVA
Lead Researcher: Luís Urbano Oliveira Afonso
Research Team: Paulo Jorge Soares Mendes Pinto, Paulo Jorge Farmhouse Simões Alberto, Susana Rute de Oliveira Soares Bastos Mateus, Maria Adelaide da Conceição Miranda, Catarina Alexandra Martins Fernandes Barreira, Maria Alice da Silveira Tavares
Research fellows: Tiago Moita and Luís Ribeiro
Duration: 2012-2015