Diplomata et Chartae Merovingicae Aetatis in Archivo Franciae Asservata

Description

This collection of 48 Latin documents dating from the sixth to the ninth centuries was published anonymously in Paris in 1848, when its focus on St Denis, the burial place of the French kings, would have been highly politically sensitive. Many of the charters relate to land, revenues or rights given by Merovingian and Carolingian kings to religious institutions near Paris closely connected to their dynasty. Subjects include Childebert I's foundation of the abbey of St Vincent in 558, donating fields, meadows, forests, fisheries and mills on the River Seine, and grants to St Denis from benefactors including Chlotharus II in 527, Dagobert I in 637, Childebert III in 710 (the taxes on a market) and Chilperichus II in 716-7 (100 cows and a forest). Writings by Pope Nicholas I and a Byzantine emperor also appear. The book provides valuable information about land and power in early medieval France.