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Country
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PT
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Name of institution (English)
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Évora Cathedral Archive
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Language of name of institution
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por
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Contact information: postal address
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Largo Marquês de Marialva, 7000 Évora
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Contact information: phone number
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00351 266759330
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Contact information: email
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geral@sedeevora.pt
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Reference number
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PT/ASE/CSE
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Type of reference number
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Archival reference number
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Title (English)
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Cathedral Chapter of Évora
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Title (official language of the state)
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Cabido da Sé de Évora
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Language of title
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por
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Creator / accumulator
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Cabido da Sé de Évora
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Date note
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13th century/20th century
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Language(s)
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lat
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por
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Extent
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c. 100 linear metres
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Physical condition
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Satisfactory
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Scope and content
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The Cabido da Sé de Évora fonds comprises documents related to the Cathedral Chapter of Évora's ecclesiastical administration and financial management since the 13th century.
Its collection of "Cartas dos reis" (Kings' letters, ref. RR) contains information on the troubled relationship between the Crown and local authorities and the Jewish minority. It contains, for instance, an original letter by King Fernando dated 1 March 1375 compelling the Jews and Muslims living in Évora to pay tithes to the bishop of Évora (RR 4 a, according to Tarouca's inventory). Another example from this collection is the copy of two letters dated 24 September 1316 and 3 August 1319 that include a royal sentence in a case involving two Jews from Évora (RR II h, according to Tarouca's inventory).
The "Códices manuscritos" (manuscript codices) also contain some scattered information on the Jewish community and the "judiaria" (Jewish quarter) of Évora in the 14th and 15th centuries. Some examples are the following:
CEC 3-VI "Tombo 1.º das herdades do Cabido" (First inventory of the Cathedral Chapter's estates): records on sales and "aforamentos" (emphyteusis contracts) of Santiago church's properties, most of them from the second half of the 15th century.
CEC-6-VII, CEC-6-VIII, CEC-6-IX, and CEC-7-I: Livros de Escrituras (Deed Books): they include several references to Jews and conversos living in Évora. See a compilation of these references in Ferro Tavares (1985, vol. 2).
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Archival history
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The first inventory of the Cabido de Évora's documentation was made in 1341. The codice containing this inventory is conserved in the Cabido's fonds, with the reference CEC 2-1 A. In 1518, a new inventory was created, but it did not cover the entire collection. In the 19th century, there was a new effort to organise and catalogue the Cabido's documentation, which resulted in a catalogue written in 1847. However, this catalogue became out-of-date after the reorganisation of the archival collection in 1910.
When the archivist Carlos da Silva Tarouca started the inventory of the Cabido's collection in the 1940s, he found several manuscript codices and loose documents (some of them medieval parchments) stored in the reading room's cabinets that remained uncatalogued and disorganised. Some of these manuscript codices had been bound in the early 17th century by canons Baltazar de Faria Severim and Manuel Severim de Faria. They gathered original parchments and papers that they thought could be useful to prove the privileges and property rights of the Chapter. These codices included papal bulls and briefs, royal letters and several documents sent by the bishops and archbishops of Évora. Tarouca reorganised and catalogued these documents, and composed an inventory published in 1946 (Inventário das Cartas e dos Códices manuscritos do Arquivo do Cabido da Sé de Évora, Évora: Edições Nazareth).
In 2011-2012, the project "Arquivo Histórico do Cabido da Sé de Évora: Salvaguarda e Difusão de Informação", developed by the CIDEHUS of the University of Évora and supported by the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, undertook the reorganisation and cataloguing of the Cabido da Sé de Évora fonds. The records' description was included in the online database http://fundis.cidehus.uevora.pt.
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Administrative / Biographical history
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The Cabido da Sé de Évora (Cathedral Chapter of Évora) was a corporation or community of ecclesiastics who advised the bishop on the governance of the diocese. It was formed by bishop D. Paio on April 24, 1200. One-third of the diocese of Évora's assets was delivered to the Chapter, which divided it into 26 prebends and distributed them to the "dignidades" (officers) (6) and canons (18) of the See's treasury chapter. After the second half of the 13th century, the Cathedral's revenues grew, and, over the centuries, the Évora Chapter became a wealthy institution.
Originally, there were three officers: the dean, the cantor and the treasurer. In 1376, bishop D. Martinho III created two more: the schoolmaster and the archdeacon. The number of officers increased in the 16th century. However, only the original three received the Cathedral's prebends. At the creation of the Chapter, there were 18 canons, but this number was reduced over the centuries. In the 18th century, only 13 canons integrated Évora's Chapter. Since the 16th century, the Chapter also included "meio-cónegos" (half canon) and "quartanários" (a quarter of canon), who received one-half and one-quarter of the prebend, respectively.
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(source: Baptista, Júlio César. 1982. “Os Pergaminhos dos Bacharéis da Sé de Évora.” A Cidade de Évora. Boletim de Cultura da Câmara Municipal 65-66: 63-164)
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System of arrangement
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The Cabido da Sé de Évora fonds is organised into 3 sub fonds (Confraria de Santa Maria da Sé de Évora, Fábrica da Sé de Évora and Mitra da Sé de Évora em sede vacante) and 11 sections related to the different dimensions of the Cathedral Chapter's management and daily life.
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Author of the description
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Carla Vieira, 2021
