Creating

This chapter is dedicated to the who, how, when, and where of the documentation. When we look for agents of literacy in early medieval Iberia, we find that primary literacy is nearly invisible amongst both the parties and witnesses to the transactions: in this society of secondary literacy, where making use of the written word by proxy was the norm, scribes become our quarry. If we pursue for whom they wrote, we can identify a broad network of scribes. We can trace their working methods, operating within a framework of standardised language derived from earlier charters, yet showing signs of regionalism, localism, individualism in customising formulaic texts to concrete moments. Scribes interacted with parties and witnesses in a dynamic relationship which unfolds over the preparation and placement of the charter on parchment, its relationship in time to the transaction which it documents, and the context of confirmation, location as well as audience. Charters thereby emerge as far from simple records of transactions, becoming convergences of people and place, context and content, reaching out from text into the realm of speaking and hearing. By seeking a home for the charter, we find a society organised around the written word at one remove.

Charter · Context (archaeology) · Documentation · Literacy · Localism · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Realm · Sociology · Computer Science · Hispanic-African Historical Relations · Historical and Linguistic Studies · History · Law · Medieval Iberian Studies