No rasto das Inquirições I: Introdução

Abstract

The Inquirições Gerais are a theme of great relevance for the study of political, social and economic history in Portugal. Conducted between 1220 and 1343, during the reigns of Afonso II, Afonso III, Dinis and Afonso IV, these registries had different purposes with each king. It was mostly through this process of royal inquiry that, in a decisive way, a governmental policy executed from a centralized power was built, which began in the first half of the 13th-century, and that was later heavily recovered halfway through the same century, having been an important tool for the same policy. The results of the Inquiriçõeswere copied, organized and archived in codexes, of which twenty-four still exist today. These manuscripts are among the most relevant written artefacts from the Portuguese Middle Ages. The livros de inquiriçõesrepresent not only copies of the original documents but were also recompiled, reorganized and even altered, containing marks of the many recastings and of systematic use through the centuries.