Henry IV, King of the Romans, donates properties in Istria to Margrave Ulrich I of Weimar-Orlamünde for his faithful service.
<Privilegium restitutionis et donationis viginti mansorum sitorum in pago Histrie factum Udalrico marchioni>
Henricus divina favente clementia rex.
Omnibus Christi nostrisquea fidelibus, tam presentibus quam futuris, notum esse volumus qualiter nos ob interventum fidelium nostrorum, dilecti scilicet magistri nostri Annonis Coloniensis archiepiscopi [et]b Adalberti Nammaburgensisc archiepiscopi, viginti regales mansos in pago Histrie in villis et castellis subter nominatis:
[1] Pinvendid,
[2] Lompaga,
[3] Bangul,
[4] Curtalla,
[5] Lahanewit,
[6] et in villa que vocatur ad Sanctum Martinum,
[7] Ruz,
[8] Winstrume,
[9] Rana
in Comitatu Odalrici marchionis sitos eidem prefato Oldalricof marchioni ob fidele servitium eius cum omnibus appendiciis – hoc est utriusque sexus mancipiis, areis, edificiis, agris, pratis, pascuis, vineis, silvis, venationibus, terris cultis et incultis, aquis aquarumque decursibus, molis, molendinis, piscationibus, exitibus et redditibus, viis et inviis, quesitis et inquirendis – in proprium dedimus atque reddidimusg, ea videlicet ratione ut predictus Odalricus marchio liberam inde potestatem deinceps habeath, remota omniumi contradictione, tenendi, trahendij, commutandi, precariandi vel quicquid de eodem predio voluerit faciendi.
Et ut hec nostra regalis traditio stabilis et inconvulsa omni remaneatk tempore, hanc chartam inde conscribi manuque propria coroborantesl sigilli nostri impressione iussimus insigniri.
Et quicunque hoc regale preceptum violaverit, centum libras auri persolvat, medietatem camere nostre et medietatem prefato et prescripto marchioni Odalrico.
Signum domini Henrici quarti regis.
Sigrardusm cancellarius vice Sigefridi archicancellarii recognovi.
Data II Kalendas augusti, anno Dominice incarnationis MLXIIII, indictione II, anno autem ordinationis domini Henrici [quarti]n regis VIIII, regni vero octavo.
Actum Goslarie.
In Dei nomine feliciter, amen.
a) sic B: pro nostrique. b) om. B; em. Gladiss et Gawlik. c) sic B: pro Hammaburgensis, sicut em. Gladiss et Gawlik. d) Puviendi leg. et ed. Gladiss et Gawlik, sed perperam mihi esse videtur – Pinvendi est forma corrupta verbi Pinguenti (cro. Buzet, ital. Pinguente). e) lect. dub.: Winstrm cum duobus sign. abbr. supra primam et ultimam syllabam. f) sic B: pro Odalrico, sicut em. Gladiss et Gawlik. g) sic B et propter hoc Privilegium restitutionis et donationis add. in marg. B; profecto error exemplatoris et recte tradidimus debet esse, sicut em. Gladiss et Gawlik. h) ex habetur corr. B. i) omni cum sign. abbr. B quod leg. omnium; omni ed. Gladiss et Gawlik. j) sic B; tradendi em. Gladiss et Gawlik. k) permaneat em. Gladiss et Gawlik. l) sic B; corroborantes em. Gladiss et Gawlik. m) sic B: pro Sigehardus, sicut em. Gladiss et Gawlik. n) om. B.
"Privilegium Henrici regis de XX massaritiis datis Udorlico marchioni in certis locis Istrie, videlicet Pingone, Bagnol et Ruyn et aliis, MLX" – Thesauri claritas (opus saec. XIV), ed. Giuseppe Bianchi, Thesaurus Ecclesiae Aquileiensis (Udine 1847), n. 594, p. 235.
This regal gift to Ulrich I is believed to be connected to the faithful service the margrave provided during the military campaigns in the Kingdom of Hungary in September of 1063 in which Solomon, the son of King Andrew I and fiancé of Judith, the sister of King Henry IV, was restored to the Hungarian throne. Another "war trophy" for Ulrich I was the marriage with Hungarian princess Sophie, the daughter of the deposed King Bela I.
The toponyms mentioned in the donation are (in order of appearance): Buzet (Ital. Pinguente), Lupoglav (Ital. Lupogliano), Boljun (Ital. Bogliuno), Belaj (Ital. Bellai), Letaj (Ital. Lettai), Sveti Martin (Ital. San Martino), Roč (Ital. Rozzo), Brest pod Učkom (Ital. Olmeto di Bogliuno) (or Kožljak, Ital. Cosliacco, from Germ. Wachsenstein) and Vranja (Ital. Vragna). The possessions make up a compact territory, a defensive microregion against a possible attack from the direction of Croatia, or a base for offensive campaigns and eastward expansion. See the appended map.
The donation charter is also a clear testament to the fact that no lands to the east of the Učka mountain range were at this point in time subjected to the Holy Roman Empire, otherwise, had the political border already shifted from the Učka mountain range to the River Rječina, it would make little sense to build up the power base of a marcher lord along this natural border.
Almost all of these possessions, the only exceptions being Lupoglav and Brest, will be mentioned in 1102 donation charter of Ulrich II, the son and heir of Ulrich I (see the document here).
The toponym read as "Puviendi" by Gladiss and Gawlik is doubtlessly a wrong reading of the original "Pinvendi" (from Lat. Pinguentum) as the the five minims between the letters "P" and "e" can be read both as "inv" as well as "uvi".
Diplomatic notes:
The charter survives only as a much later copy, made in the 15th-century by an unknown copyst. Nonetheless, besides the omission of the invocatio, the charter does not display any diplomatic anomalies which would justify doubt in the charter's authenticity.
The image of B was taken by the editor who has subsequently inserted a red line simply to clearly denote the part of the manuscript that is hereby edited.
The publication of this image (Venice, Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Consultori in iure, b. 345, fasc. 1, fol. 18v) is granted free of charge by Archivio di Stato di Venezia by way of the “simplified procedure” of publishing archival facsimiles (La circolare della Direzione generale archivi n. 39 del 29 settembre 2017: procedura semplificata: pubblicazioni online che perseguano finalità scientifiche o pedagogiche, non beneficino di inserzioni pubblicitarie o commerciali e non siano soggette ad accesso a pagamento).
The image remains under the exclusive copyright of Archivio di Stato di Venezia.