One of the main categories of entity in most historical databases is place: where are particular people, institutions and objects located and where did particular events happen? The three main problems in dealing with such historical places are also common to many databases. How should places be identified and mapped and how should hierarchies of places be represented?
About 12% of our charters record confirmations. A charter of confirmation is quite simply an endorsement of a previous grant or an existing possession, agreement or other right. Many royal diplomas confirm the rights and possessions of religious houses, as these were keenly sought by bishops and abbots when an opportunity to meet the king arose. Confirmations could equally be sought by institutions and lay people in order to reiterate or clarify a previous donation or privilege. These charters often had the effect of reaffirming or renewing a social, political, economic or spiritual relationship between two parties. A confirmation might also be granted if an original document had been lost or destroyed.
Continuing our tour of Carolingian charters, today we look briefly at sales and exchanges.
This week, we’re going to look at a type of conditional property grant which became fairly widespread in Frankish Europe.
In my first post in this series I outlined the factoid model we were using to record information, which can be schematically represented as follows:
