Colegiada de Santa Maria da Oliveira de Guimarães

Item

Country

PT

Name of institution (English)

Alfredo Pimenta City Archive

Name of institution (official language of the state)

Language of name of institution

por

Contact information: postal address

Rua João Lopes de Faria 12, 4800-414 Guimarães

Contact information: phone number

00351 253421246

Contact information: web address

Contact information: email

arquivo.municipal@cm-guimaraes.pt

Reference number

PT/AMAP/ECL/CSMOGMR

Type of reference number

Archival reference number

Title (English)

Santa Maria da Oliveira de Guimarães Collegiate

Title (official language of the state)

Colegiada de Santa Maria da Oliveira de Guimarães

Language of title

eng

Creator / accumulator

Colegiada de Santa Maria da Oliveira de Guimarães

Date(s)

953/1982

Language(s)

lat
por

Extent

59 linear metres

Type of material

Textual Material

Physical condition

Good

Scope and content

The Colegiada de Santa Maria da Oliveira de Guimarães fonds contains three series with materials on the history of the medieval city of Guimarães and its inhabitants, including the Jewish minority: the Pergaminhos (Parchments), the Livros de Notas (Record Books), and the Fazenda do Cabido e da Colegiada (Treasury of the Chapter and the Colegiada).
The Pergaminhos series gathers 404 parchments, most of them medieval, of numerous sorts: deeds, certifications, bulls, sentences, contracts, donations, among others. A parchment dated July 9, 1426, mentions a house in the "judiaria" (Jewish quarter) of Guimarães that was “emprazada” (rented) to a Jew named Abraão Çaa Diaz (PT/AMAP/ECL/CSMOGMR/001/8-3-1-11). He was not living there in 1488, when the "enfiteutas" (emphyteusis contract holders), the Christian blacksmith Pero Luís and his wife Domingas Gonçalves, renounced the contract of the said house (PT/AMAP/ECL/CSMOGMR/001/8-4-5-6). Other documents refer to the names of other Jews dwelling in the Jewish quarter of Guimarães in the 15th century, such as Solomon Querido and David Alles in 1449 (PT/AMAP/ECL/CSMOGMR/001/8-4-1-1/8-4-1-1-28), Isaque Baru and his wife Ouro in 1489 (PT/AMAP/ECL/CSMOGMR/001/8-4-5-6), or Jacobo Boino, who rented a house there in 1493 (PT/AMAP/ECL/CSMOGMR/003/DP68/07). Particularly interesting is a sentence given by Gil Fernandes de Freitas, judge of Guimarães, ordering the selling of some houses in Vila Nova de Famalicão in order to pay a debt of 4,500 reais brancos (currency) that Gonçalo Rodrigues owed to Samuel Montezinho, a Jew of Guimarães (PT/AMAP/ECL/CSMOGMR/001/8-4-4-9).
The oldest codices of the Livros de Notas series, named "Nota Antiga" (Old Records), date back to the 14th century and contain information on deeds involving houses located in the Jewish quarter of Guimarães and references to Jews dwelling there. For instance, in 1370, Salomon Ranu rented a farm in the outskirts of Guimarães (vol. II, fl. 6v) and, in the same year, there is a record of the “emprazamento” (emphyteusis) of a house in the Jewish quarter by Mestre Davi (vol. II, fl. 8v). In 1460, the weaver Mosse Querido and his wife Jamilla also got the “prazo” of a house in the Jewish quarter of Guimarães (vol. XII, fl. 8v). The content of the 12 volumes of Nota Antiga was described by Abade Oliveira (1905-11).
The Fazenda do Cabido e da Colegiada series includes records related to the Chapter and Collegiate's properties, dating back to the mid-15th century. The book no. 12A (PT/AMAP/ECL/CSMOGMR/037/C-617) contains references to some converts who, after the late 15th-century expulsion, continued to live in the former Rua da Judiaria, then renamed as Rua do Espírito Santo. It was the case of Mestre António, son of Joseph Mestre, who leased a house there, or Rodrigo Álvares, also a Jewish convert, who leased the building of the former synagogue around 1515 (fols. 36-36v) (see Tavim, 2016).

Archival history

In 1857, the prior of the Colegiada de Santa Maria da Oliveira de Guimarães, D. José Francisco de Paula e Almeida, was notified of a royal decree ordering the delivery of the archives of every chapter, collegiate, and convent in Portugal to the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo to be copied and later published. When the delegate of the Academia Real das Ciências (Royal Academy of Sciences) arrived in Guimarães with the mission of collecting the Collegiate's documents and carrying them to the National Archive in Lisbon, the chapter refused to hand over the documents. The impasse lasted until 1862 when a new decree was issued ordering the transference of the archives of every church and religious corporation in Portugal to the National Archive. Therefore, most of the collection of the Colegiada de Santa Maria da Oliveira de Guimarães is currently part of a fonds of the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo. However, the collection was not entirely delivered to the National Archive in 1862. Some documents remained in the Collegiate archive. Some were parchments, each of them described by Abbot Oliveira Guimarães in a series of articles published in the journal O Arqueólogo Português between 1905 and 1908. When the Arquivo Municipal Alfredo Pimenta was created in 1931, these documents were incorporated in the new archive and formed the Colegiada de Santa Maria da Oliveira de Guimarães fonds.

Administrative / Biographical history

The origins of the Collegiate of Santa Maria da Oliveira de Guimarães precede the foundation of the Kingdom of Portugal. Around 950, Mumadona Dias, countess of the Condado Portucalense, established the monastery in which she would live until her death in 968. This monastery precedes the Collegiate established between 1107 and 1110 by secular clerics and instituted in 1139 by D. Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal. The clerics followed the rule of Saint Gregory. King Dinis confirmed the Collegiate’s first by-laws on May 1, 1291. Although the Collegiate was under the jurisdiction of the archbishopric of Braga, the relationship between both entities was somewhat contentious due to authority disputes. King João I ended up granting the Collegiate exemption from the archbishopric of Braga, which Pope Boniface I confirmed in 1395.
After the Battle of Aljubarrota (1385), the devotion to Senhora da Oliveira (Our Lady of the Olive Tree) grew and promoted the reconstruction of the Collegiate church, which was consecrated on January 23, 1401. The church of Santa Maria da Oliveira became the centre of the liturgical life of Guimarães, despite the rivalry of other churches, convents, and brotherhoods of the town. Indeed, the Collegiate had jurisdiction over several churches and monasteries in the region, which ensured its significant revenues. On June 16, 1848, a decree-law abolished the collegiates in Portugal. Yet, after the intercession of the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon, the Collegiate of Santa Maria da Oliveira of Guimarães, as well as a few other “colegiadas insignes” (distinguished collegiates), was preserved. In 1869, it survived again to a new decree of extinction that abolished other "colegiadas insignes". However, after the establishment of the Republic in 1910, the government extinguished the Collegiate of Guimarães, although it was restored some decades after, on February 13, 1967.

Access points: locations

Access points: subject terms

Access points: document types

System of arrangement

The Colegiada de Santa Maria da Oliveira de Guimarães fonds is organised into 88 series. Both the Pergaminhos and the Livros de Notas series are arranged chronologically.

Access, restrictions

There are no restrictions to consultation, but access to the documents is preferably made through their digital copies.

Finding aids

Links to finding aids

Author of the description

Carla Vieira, 2021

Bibliography

Item sets

Linked resources

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is part (item) of
Title Alternate label Class
Arquivo Municipal Alfredo Pimenta Collections (official language of the state)