Documentary culture in Catalonia and England, c .975–1050

Abstract

The records connected to Oliba (d. 1046) and Wulfstan (d. 1023) offer a compelling method for comparing documentary cultures in Catalonia and England. This article examines documents preserved in each region to guide research into analogous documents in the other. From the Oliba diplomatari, the most suggestive are the most unusual items: inventories, ritual texts, records of oblation, and letters of appointment, all of which find parallels in the English material. From the Wulfstan corpus, it is the broader categories of diploma, writ, and chirograph (carta partida) that prompt best a new look at the documentary landscape of comital Catalonia.