A Sergius donates his properties in Rumijan to St. Michael’s monastery in Pula.
(SC) In nomine domini nostri Iesu Christi.
Regnante domnoa Ottoni anno VIII, die VIII mense septembris, indictione Vb, Polęc.
Donatione quod facio ego Sergiuse in domo sancti Michaelis, ubi est monasterio, modo a die presenti: hoc est terras qui vocatur Prato in fundo Rumiano de proprio cum perof suo secus terra Theodorog, seu et alia pecia de terra que habeo per testamentum de socera meah, seu et porcione que commutavii cum Leo cognato meo et coniux sua et cum sorore sua [Bo]naj in ipso fundo Rumiano que ipsis pertinet – sive casalia, sive terras, sive sorentak – cum omnibus quę de ipsis habeo in ipso fundol Rumianim, omnia sit in supradicto monasterio.
Et si ego Sergius aut parentes mei inquirere et hanc cartulam corrumpere voluerit, componat in ipso monasterio sancti Michaelis auri libram I et hanc donationis cartulam permaneat in sua firmitatemn.
Acto Pola.
Testes: Iohannes et Martinus fratres, et Andrea et Marcellinus fratres, et Iohannes de Monte.
Et ego Andreas tabellius scripsi et complevi.
a) domino ed. Kandler. b) indictione V] ind… ed. Margetić; in C ed. Kandler. c) Polae em. Kandler et saepe sic. d) sic B: pro que, sicut em. Margetić; quam ed. Kandler. e) ex Sergios corr. B. f) peso ed. Kandler. g) sic B; Theodori ed. Kandler et Margetić. h) seu et—socera mea] add. sup. l. B. i) comunicavi ed. Kandler. j) …na ed. Kandler; Bona em. Margetić. k) sic B: fort. pro torrenta, sicut ed. Margetić; fovento ed. Kandler; torenta ed. Margetić. l) fundi ed. Kandler. m) seq. sign. abbr. supra unam lineam quod om. Kandler et Margetić ut illa ed; fort. pro in. n) sic B: pro firmitate, sicut ed. Kandler.
The dating of the charter presented many problems for the former editors as neither Kandler nor Margetić managed to decipher the correct indiction (what is somewhat surprising as the roman numeral is quite easily decipherable).
Kandler dated the document to 990, but erroneously as the 8th year of Otto III's kingship does not at all concur with 990.
Margetić corrected the dating and also based solely on the 8th year of Otto III's kingship dated the document to 991.
However, the 5th indiction corresponds to 992. Indeed, the 8th year of Otto III's kingship goes from the 25th of December 991 to the 24th of December 992. The dating elements, therefore, concur perfectly and the document is dated to 992.
That would, however, mean that the indiction in Istria (or at least in Pula from the 10th century onwards) began not on the 1st of September (the so-called Byzantine or Greek indiction), but either on the 25th of December or on the 1st of January (the so-called Roman indiction).
The donation is recorded on a parchment that features the texts of two documents: this one from 992 and the second one from 1006 - see the second one edited here.
Moreover, the script is uniform throughout the parchment and conforms to the characteristics of the late Carolingian script typical of the late 11th, and 12th centuries. All of this leads to the conclusion that both the 992 and 1006 donations are preserved only as 12th-century copies, the parchment perhaps being a part of the nowadays lost cartulary.
Su concessione del Ministero della Cultura - Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana. Divieto di riproduzione.
The digital facsimile of B (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, ms. lat. XIV 101 (=2804), p. 300) is published free of charge by the generous concession of the Biblioteca Marciana di Venezia. We wholeheartedly thank our dear colleagues at Marciana Library for their support of open access scholarship.
Photo by the editor.
The image remains under the exclusive copyright of Biblioteca Marciana.