Provides insights into the most varied aspects of medieval society

The database Ut per litteras apostolicas represents an electronic version of the renowned Registres et lettres des Papes du XIIIe siècle (32 vols.; Rome, 1883- ) and the Registres et lettres des Papes du XIVe siècle (48 vols.; Rome, 1899- ).

The database provides striking information on the most varied aspects of medieval society: church institutions, the clergy, the papal states, politics, the legal system, taxation, government and finance, secular society, the religious life, intellectual and artistic life, the economy, wars, law and order, the environment and natural disasters, and daily life.

The database is realised in collaboration with the École française de Rome and the Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes (CNRS, Paris)

Contents

The first release of the database (online and on CD-ROM) contained the analyses of the litterae communes and curial letters of the Popes John XXII (1316-1334) and Benedict XII (1334-1342), and the litterae communes of Urban V (1362-1370), with the addition of abridged lists proper to each of these publications and a thesaurus.
In the present online version and the second release of the CD-ROM the following material has been added to the database:

• the litterae communes and curial letters of Clement V (1305-1314)
• the litterae secretae and (French) curial letters of John XXII(1316-1334)
• the litterae secretae and (French and foreign) curial letters of Benedict XII (1334-1342)
• the litterae secretae and (French and foreign) curial letters of Clement VI (1342-1352)
• the litterae secretae and (French and foreign) curial letters of Innocent VI (1352-1362), whose publication is in progress
• the litterae secretae and (French) curial letters of Urban V (1362-1370)
• the litterae secretae and (French and foreign) curial letters of Gregory XI (1371-1378)

In contrast to the corpus of material in the first electronic release, the current documents present, beyond the analyses, the actual editions of numerous letters.

Any errors that have been identified in the analyses of the original publication have been corrected. The data presented is an improvement on what is found in the printed editions.

A research tool

Ut per litteras apostolicas will provide online or in three CDs the complete collection of papal letters from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. But it is the possibility of searching such a resource with powerful software which makes this database so useful. As a result, a documentary source which has been underexploited, or even unexploited, can now be studied. The international community of medievalists will, for the first time, now be able to draw properly on this rich body of material.

Characteristics of Ut per litteras apostolicas

• The search screen comprises 14 fields:
  • The reference number of the letter from the printed edition
  • The name of the pope
  • The name of the author of the letter when it is not the pope himself
  • Start- and end-dates of the pontificate
  • The type of letter
  • The category of chancellory
  • The place of promulgation
  • The date in the original Latin
  • The date in modern day equivalent
  • The year of the pontificate
  • Chronological note
  • Payments
  • Analysis / Transcription
  • Comments
• The fields ‘Analysis’ and ‘Transcription’ allow full text searching using Boolean operators and metacharacters such as ‘AND’, ‘OR’, or ‘NOT’ (+ , #) and wildcards (* or ?)
• Linguistic or semantic analysis is also possible by analysing spelling variants, such as regional forms of forenames (for example, Galfridus – a variant of Gaufridus – being only found among Englishmen; or Geraudus instead of Girardus being only found in southern France)
• A hyperlink-style feature of the software further facilitates searching: many terms found in the results screens can be clicked on and made the subject of completely new searches.
• Results can be saved to a file or can be sent direct to a printer for printing (within bounds set by the software).

Ut per litteras apostolicas... Papal letters is also available on CD-ROM.

For more information, please contact us at brepolis@brepols.net