Gavetas
Item
Country
PT
Name of institution (English)
The National Archive of Torre do Tombo
Name of institution (official language of the state)
Language of name of institution
por
Contact information: postal address
Alameda da Universidade, 1649-010 Lisbon
Contact information: phone number
00351 210037100
Contact information: web address
Contact information: email
mail@dglab.gov.pt
Reference number
PT/TT/GAV
Type of reference number
Archival reference number
Title (English)
Drawers
Title (official language of the state)
Gavetas
Language of title
por
Creator / accumulator
Arquivo da Casa da Coroa / Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo
Date(s)
1101/2017
Language(s)
ara
fra
ita
lat
por
spa
Extent
264 bundles and 25 drawers
Type of material
Textual Material
Physical condition
Good
Scope and content
The Gavetas collection comprises various documents, mainly official records, including forals, wills, sentences, records on "morgados" (entails), treaties, correspondence and numerous documents regarding the Portuguese overseas territories, such as records referring to the commerce and navigation in Africa, slave trade, papal bulls about missionary campaigns, correspondence between Portugal and Castille about territories in dispute, etc.
Within such a rich collection of records, many references can be found regarding New Christians and Portuguese Jewish communities before the late-15th-century expulsion.
Some examples are the following:
PT/TT/GAV/3/1/7: a donation given by King D. Dinis in 1317 to the “Almirante-Mor” “(royal admiral), consisting of houses that had belonged to the Jewish family Navarro.
PT/TT/GAV/10/12/17: terms of a contract between King Fernando and the Jews of Portugal, which included the definition of the "sisa judenga" (Jewish land transfer tax). August 11, 1353.
PT/TT/GAV/15/15/22: a "carta de mercê" (letter of favour) given in 1484 by King João II to D. Afonso, a son of the Marquis of Valença, of confiscated goods from a Jew, Mestre Guedelha, who had been indicted for bigamy.
PT/TT/GAV/23/10/19: fragment of the sale deed of the "foro" (incomes of a property leased by an emphyteusis contract) of some houses to the Jewish "comuna" (commune) of Lisbon. The deed was signed in the house of Juda Gabão, in the Judiaria Velha (Old Jewish quarter) of Lisbon. October 17, 1485.
PT/TT/GAV/15/6/14: a confirmation of the Royal Chancellery from 1496 of a contract between a Jewish woman named Cimfa and the city council of Santarém, in which she offered accommodation (400 beds and clothes) to nobles and royal officers visiting the city within the following ten years.
Several documents regarding the establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal and the New Christian question can be found in particular in Gavetas 2, 13, 15 (PT/TT/GAV/2; PT/TT/GAV/13; PT/TT/GAV/15).
In the 1960s and 1970s, António da Silva Rego undertook a project of describing and transcribing the contents of the Gavetas collection, whose result was the 12-volume work, As gavetas da Torre do Tombo. Several documents from this collection have also been digitised.
Within such a rich collection of records, many references can be found regarding New Christians and Portuguese Jewish communities before the late-15th-century expulsion.
Some examples are the following:
PT/TT/GAV/3/1/7: a donation given by King D. Dinis in 1317 to the “Almirante-Mor” “(royal admiral), consisting of houses that had belonged to the Jewish family Navarro.
PT/TT/GAV/10/12/17: terms of a contract between King Fernando and the Jews of Portugal, which included the definition of the "sisa judenga" (Jewish land transfer tax). August 11, 1353.
PT/TT/GAV/15/15/22: a "carta de mercê" (letter of favour) given in 1484 by King João II to D. Afonso, a son of the Marquis of Valença, of confiscated goods from a Jew, Mestre Guedelha, who had been indicted for bigamy.
PT/TT/GAV/23/10/19: fragment of the sale deed of the "foro" (incomes of a property leased by an emphyteusis contract) of some houses to the Jewish "comuna" (commune) of Lisbon. The deed was signed in the house of Juda Gabão, in the Judiaria Velha (Old Jewish quarter) of Lisbon. October 17, 1485.
PT/TT/GAV/15/6/14: a confirmation of the Royal Chancellery from 1496 of a contract between a Jewish woman named Cimfa and the city council of Santarém, in which she offered accommodation (400 beds and clothes) to nobles and royal officers visiting the city within the following ten years.
Several documents regarding the establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal and the New Christian question can be found in particular in Gavetas 2, 13, 15 (PT/TT/GAV/2; PT/TT/GAV/13; PT/TT/GAV/15).
In the 1960s and 1970s, António da Silva Rego undertook a project of describing and transcribing the contents of the Gavetas collection, whose result was the 12-volume work, As gavetas da Torre do Tombo. Several documents from this collection have also been digitised.
Archival history
The Gavetas collection is as ancient as the Royal Archive/National Archive of Torre do Tombo. Its origins go back to the 12th century, when the royal court was still itinerant. It was only in the 14th century that the archive was established in the tower of the Castle of São Jorge in Lisbon.
The name of the collection, Gavetas (drawers), is presumably from the 16th century, and it refers to its organisation in the old Royal Archive. Each drawer stored a specific set of documents (city charters, wills, treaties, sentences, "morgados" (entails), etc). organised by location and typology. Some chronological order was tried without full success. By the 18th century, the collection had already 20 drawers, with several documents from the 15th century onwards. After the Great Earthquake of 1755, the tower of the Castle of São Jorge was damaged, and the records were moved to new premises and reorganised. One of the early inventories of the collection was produced at the end of the 18th century by the "guarda-mor" (chief warden) João Pereira Ramos de Azeredo Coutinho, in order to ease the process of finding documents in the Royal Archive.
The organisation of the collection suffered some changes over time. At present, the drawers are no longer named by their contents but are ordered by numbers. An extended list of those changes is available on:
The name of the collection, Gavetas (drawers), is presumably from the 16th century, and it refers to its organisation in the old Royal Archive. Each drawer stored a specific set of documents (city charters, wills, treaties, sentences, "morgados" (entails), etc). organised by location and typology. Some chronological order was tried without full success. By the 18th century, the collection had already 20 drawers, with several documents from the 15th century onwards. After the Great Earthquake of 1755, the tower of the Castle of São Jorge was damaged, and the records were moved to new premises and reorganised. One of the early inventories of the collection was produced at the end of the 18th century by the "guarda-mor" (chief warden) João Pereira Ramos de Azeredo Coutinho, in order to ease the process of finding documents in the Royal Archive.
The organisation of the collection suffered some changes over time. At present, the drawers are no longer named by their contents but are ordered by numbers. An extended list of those changes is available on:
Administrative / Biographical history
The Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo is one of Portugal's oldest institutions. Its origins go back at least to the 14th century. The royal documents used to follow the itinerant medieval court, with only the most important documents being held at different monasteries. Once the court established itself in Lisbon, so did the royal archives. The first documental reference to a set location is from 1378. The archive was kept in one of the towers of São Jorge Castle, hence its name Torre do Tombo (Tower of the Archive). The "guarda-mor" (high-guardian) was responsible for its safekeeping.
Until 1755, the Torre do Tombo functioned as the Crown's archive, serving the king's administration and granting certificates to institutions and individuals. The oldest record reporting its organisation and content is from 1526: a letter from Tomé Lopes to King João III that mentions 149 books of Chancellery records and 47 of the so-called Leitura Nova (a compilation of copies of old documents ordered by King Manuel I).
In the 16th century, with the growing centralisation and the greater strength and complexity of the State, Torre do Tombo became a real State archive. Monarchs took notice of the archive, as they understood the importance of the relation between information and power. Some documents from other areas of the central administration were incorporated into the archive. Torre do Tombo became a reference, even serving as an example to Philip II of Spain when regulating the Archive of Simancas.
The first indexes of the archive were created during the 17th and 18th centuries, as the interest in these documents increased and their reorganisation was ongoing. A 1702 index, most likely created by João Duarte Lisboa, responsible for the archive’s reformation, reveals that, in 1656, the archive was arranged in 15 “armários” (cabinets). Twenty years later, the archive had five more “armários”.
In 1755, the tower of the castle was destroyed in the Great Earthquake. The documents were then temporarily saved in a woodshed and, two years later, partly transferred to the monastery of São Bento da Saúde in Lisbon. The papers were then reorganised, and several copies were made. The new organisation did not follow the old methods; instead, it followed the logic of the enlightened 18th century, favouring a methodical and chronological order. The confusion between sections, series, collections, and fonds is noticeable, and the archive's organic structure was unclear, which certainly illustrated how the Crown's institutions were arranged and functioned. Many documents were lost in this new reorganisation and, even with the information given by the indexes, the original structure is still somewhat unclear.
The 18th century also brought a new way of looking at history and a new value to these documents. That explains the incorporation of the Society of Jesus' records in 1768, following the expulsion of the Jesuits from Portugal. It was one of the first examples of the incorporation in the Crown's archives of documents produced by other institutions. After the Liberal Revolution, these incorporations became customary, collecting records of old courts and religious corporations. In 1823, the royal archive changed its name to Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (National Archive of Torre do Tombo), making it clear that it was not only an archive of the Crown but of the whole nation. However, there was no active will or ability to enable its access and to explore its documents, as the focus was only on their compilation.
The beginning of the 20th century and the establishment of the Republic in 1911 did not bring many new developments, as well as the dictatorship (1926-1974). In the 1950s, an effort was made by the director, João Martins da Silva Marques, to reorganise the documentation, leading to the creation of the Núcleo Antigo (Old Core) collection. Throughout the 20th century, many collections and documents were added to the archive, coming from different public and private institutions.
In 1990, the archives moved to a new building made specifically for that purpose, where they are still located today. In more recent years, part of the fonds and collections were rearranged to match the original organisation. For instance, the Núcleo Antigo was disassembled, creating new fonds and collections, and incorporating other documents into already existing ones.
Until 1755, the Torre do Tombo functioned as the Crown's archive, serving the king's administration and granting certificates to institutions and individuals. The oldest record reporting its organisation and content is from 1526: a letter from Tomé Lopes to King João III that mentions 149 books of Chancellery records and 47 of the so-called Leitura Nova (a compilation of copies of old documents ordered by King Manuel I).
In the 16th century, with the growing centralisation and the greater strength and complexity of the State, Torre do Tombo became a real State archive. Monarchs took notice of the archive, as they understood the importance of the relation between information and power. Some documents from other areas of the central administration were incorporated into the archive. Torre do Tombo became a reference, even serving as an example to Philip II of Spain when regulating the Archive of Simancas.
The first indexes of the archive were created during the 17th and 18th centuries, as the interest in these documents increased and their reorganisation was ongoing. A 1702 index, most likely created by João Duarte Lisboa, responsible for the archive’s reformation, reveals that, in 1656, the archive was arranged in 15 “armários” (cabinets). Twenty years later, the archive had five more “armários”.
In 1755, the tower of the castle was destroyed in the Great Earthquake. The documents were then temporarily saved in a woodshed and, two years later, partly transferred to the monastery of São Bento da Saúde in Lisbon. The papers were then reorganised, and several copies were made. The new organisation did not follow the old methods; instead, it followed the logic of the enlightened 18th century, favouring a methodical and chronological order. The confusion between sections, series, collections, and fonds is noticeable, and the archive's organic structure was unclear, which certainly illustrated how the Crown's institutions were arranged and functioned. Many documents were lost in this new reorganisation and, even with the information given by the indexes, the original structure is still somewhat unclear.
The 18th century also brought a new way of looking at history and a new value to these documents. That explains the incorporation of the Society of Jesus' records in 1768, following the expulsion of the Jesuits from Portugal. It was one of the first examples of the incorporation in the Crown's archives of documents produced by other institutions. After the Liberal Revolution, these incorporations became customary, collecting records of old courts and religious corporations. In 1823, the royal archive changed its name to Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (National Archive of Torre do Tombo), making it clear that it was not only an archive of the Crown but of the whole nation. However, there was no active will or ability to enable its access and to explore its documents, as the focus was only on their compilation.
The beginning of the 20th century and the establishment of the Republic in 1911 did not bring many new developments, as well as the dictatorship (1926-1974). In the 1950s, an effort was made by the director, João Martins da Silva Marques, to reorganise the documentation, leading to the creation of the Núcleo Antigo (Old Core) collection. Throughout the 20th century, many collections and documents were added to the archive, coming from different public and private institutions.
In 1990, the archives moved to a new building made specifically for that purpose, where they are still located today. In more recent years, part of the fonds and collections were rearranged to match the original organisation. For instance, the Núcleo Antigo was disassembled, creating new fonds and collections, and incorporating other documents into already existing ones.
Access points: locations
Access points: subject terms
Access points: document types
System of arrangement
This collection is divided into 25 "gavetas" (drawers), which one divided into bundles.
Access, restrictions
Most documents are available online. The original copies of those documents are not available for consultation.
Finding aids
Unpublished finding aids available in the archive:
Coutinho, João Pereira de Azeredo. 1776. "Núcleo Antigo: inventário". (L. 299A).
"Gavetas: índice suplementar de Próprios (A-V) e Comuns (A-Z)". 1912. (L. 269-270).
Maia, Manuel da. 1765. "Índice dos documentos que se guardauão nas XX Gavetas Antigas deste Real Archivo da Torre do Tombo da Letra A até a Letra Z". (L. 267-268).
Maia, Manuel da. [1766]. "Inventário dos documentos chamados das Gavetas". (L. 271-273).
Published finding aids:
Links to finding aids
Existence and location of copies
Author of the description
Inês de Sá, 2021
Bibliography
Published primary sources
Linked resources
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| Title | Alternate label | Class |
|---|---|---|
| Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo | Collections (official language of the state) |