Fernão Peres de Trava e os seus Cavaleiros Um Estudo sobre os Rituais da Investidura Cavaleiresca Atribuídos pelo Livro do Deão e pelo Livro de Linhagens do Conde D. Pedro

Abstract

ke many other members of his family group (Trava-Trastâmara-Palmeira-Togues-Pereira), the character of Fernão Peres de Travahas received a laudatory treatment in several passages of the portuguese peerage books of the XIVth century (Livro do Deãoand Livro de Linhagens do Conde D. Pedro) –mainly due to the intervention of the Pereira family in the writings of the count D. Pedro of Barcelos.In effect, both in LD19A2 and LL13B2, Fernão Peres is described as an exemplary knight and «knighter» of D. Mendo, the Sousão, Fernão Rodrigues de Castro and D. Pedro Arazo de Aragão. Because of an error in Herculano’s edition of the Livro do Deão, that excludes the figure of D. Mendo from this passage, no philologist or historian has taken the due interpretations about the nature –be it real or fictional –and discursive importance of these passages, within the context of medieval genealogycal literature, or has linked them to the first ceremonies of knighting in the Western part of the Iberian Peninsula (in the early XIIth century).In this article, we will try to analyse the flaw caused by Herculano in its textual transmition, to inscribethese lessons on the retoric discourse related to the first knighting rituals and to assess its contributions to the comprehension of the expansion of this phenomenon