| Summary: |
The Kingdom of Portugal was formed in the 12th-13th centuries, by establishing its borders, defining ruling powers and securing the social-economic stabilization of its inhabitants.
This construction included written pacts that secured long-duration legal relationships. Kings, on one hand, and both secular and ecclesiastical lords, on the other hand, put in writing
rules governing both their relationship with the communities and the relations among the inhabitants, namely their rights and duties. Such written charters were called forais.
Our project exclusively targets the municipal charters granted by kings, labelled short charters, aiming to reinterpret the nature of such documents (the circumstances in which
charters were granted and their text passed on) and the role they played in the wide scope of the relationship between the municipalities and royal administration. In order to fulfil
such goals, the project is guided by a key driver, i.e. an interdisciplinary approach. History and Linguistics will provide researchers with the conceptual and methodological tools
required, while Digital Humanities ensure the key instruments for maximizing the potential of the results and rendering their research and dissemination effective. The main
instrumental objective of our project is to create a corpus of Portuguese medieval forais, relying on a critical edition and electronically supported, for subsequent historical-linguistic
reflection. This corpus shall include all Portuguese forais granted by the kings until 1279, as well as their copies and vernacular versions produced until the end of the 15th century.
To achieve this goal, we will develop innovative methodologies based on semi-automatic task-optimization tools. Project results will be made available in open access.
Why study Portuguese medieval forais? Why finance this project in 2020? On one hand, we have eminently scientific reasons. First, research on old municipal charters (forais
antigos) has be  |
Summary
The Kingdom of Portugal was formed in the 12th-13th centuries, by establishing its borders, defining ruling powers and securing the social-economic stabilization of its inhabitants.
This construction included written pacts that secured long-duration legal relationships. Kings, on one hand, and both secular and ecclesiastical lords, on the other hand, put in writing
rules governing both their relationship with the communities and the relations among the inhabitants, namely their rights and duties. Such written charters were called forais.
Our project exclusively targets the municipal charters granted by kings, labelled short charters, aiming to reinterpret the nature of such documents (the circumstances in which
charters were granted and their text passed on) and the role they played in the wide scope of the relationship between the municipalities and royal administration. In order to fulfil
such goals, the project is guided by a key driver, i.e. an interdisciplinary approach. History and Linguistics will provide researchers with the conceptual and methodological tools
required, while Digital Humanities ensure the key instruments for maximizing the potential of the results and rendering their research and dissemination effective. The main
instrumental objective of our project is to create a corpus of Portuguese medieval forais, relying on a critical edition and electronically supported, for subsequent historical-linguistic
reflection. This corpus shall include all Portuguese forais granted by the kings until 1279, as well as their copies and vernacular versions produced until the end of the 15th century.
To achieve this goal, we will develop innovative methodologies based on semi-automatic task-optimization tools. Project results will be made available in open access.
Why study Portuguese medieval forais? Why finance this project in 2020? On one hand, we have eminently scientific reasons. First, research on old municipal charters (forais
antigos) has been neglected, preference being given to the new municipal charters granted in the early 16th century (the Manueline Reform), which are formally and materially more
attractive to the historians. Second, the existing studies are either scattered among publishers with weak dissemination capabilities or they lack scientific validation because they
were mostly made by local erudite people, rather than historians. In both cases, there is no global approach to the entire set of royal municipal charters. Our project aims to fill this
gap.
On the other hand, we have societal reasons. In the 21st century, local communities and authorities (town halls, archives, museums and schools) keep on celebrating the date in
which their oldest municipal charter was granted, updating collective memory and identity. Community interest in the local foral can be easily understood; the charter contains the
oldest forms of collective organization of people's ancestors and their relationship with the established powers - namely the King, in matters pertaining to politics, taxation, justice
and economic activity. Moreover, the forais enable people to know the natural resources then available to the community and their exploitation, as well as the landscape and the
topography - still perceivable by the communities today.
The IR and the Co-IR, confident that this project relies on a scientifically feasible and necessary and socially pertinent research, propose for this application a team formed by top
national experts in the areas of Medieval History (cities, royal power, written culture), Linguistics (philology, history of the language and textual criticism) and Informatics applied to
Humanities, renowned international researchers and consultants for ensuring comparison with other historiographies and a group of junior researchers, whose advanced training will
be monitored.The proposing institution and the participating institutions, from all regions of Portugal, and the University of Lausanne, ensure the scientific robustness and
management capability of our project, in which we resume previously established sound partnerships. The object of this project is a fine example of such continuity.
The IR and the Co-IR began to study medieval forais in 2005 and their work includes several international papers and public presentations, as well as knowledge dissemination
activities in the community. Along their lengthy experience, the IR and the Co-IR, experts respectively in History and Linguistics, have already tried out methodologies and reflections
on Portuguese medieval forais, which shall be developed and deepened in this project at the service of science and the community.Our project aims to promote the safeguard of one
of the oldest collections of written heritage of local communities. By preserving their memory, we want to fulfil some of the UN major objectives for 2030, namely the acquisition of
knowledge on justice, defence and the economic and ecological sustainability of peoples. |