I Das Mittelalter 15 (2010) 2, S. 134-161 Cutting Edge The Economy of Mediality in Twelfth-Century Chirographic Writing BRJGITTE MIRIAM BEDOS-REZAK Abstract Chirographen prasentieren medial komplexe Situationen. Ihr Text, ihr Beschreibstoff, ihre Bildlichkeit, ihr Layout und das Siegel tragen ebenso zur Vennittlung ihrer Bedeutung bei wie ihre Herstellung. Wie diese Elemente eingesetzt werden, in welcher Weise sie wirksam werden und welche Bedeutung ihnen beigemessen wird, ist Gegenstand dieses Beitrags. Aus- gehend von franzOsischer Dberlieferung aus dem 12. Jahrhundert wird gezeigt, <lass Chirogra- phen besonders wirkungsvolle Formen der Zurschaustellung von Ve1tragen sein kOnnen, die in besonderem Maf3e KOrperlichkeit ausstellen und <lurch <las Oszillieren zwischen dem Gan- zen und seine Teilen wie auch zwischen physisch Prasentem und Transzendentem Status und Autoritiit ·des Adels inszenieren. Keywords: chirograph; seals; documentary practices; nobility; body and corporality Villior est humana caro quaro pellis ovina. Extrahitur pellis et scribitur intus et extra; Si moriatur homo, moritur caro, pellis et ossa. 1 Introduction 2 Jn a charter dated 1177, Matthew Ill, count of Beaumont-Sur-Oise (d. ca. 1208) and Geof- frey, abbot of Saint-Martin of Pontoise agreed to an exchange. The abbot gave up land and a grange near Chambly (Oise), while the count transferred all his rights, revenues, and land in Chambly proper to the priory of Saint-Aubin of Charnbly, a dependency of the abbey of Saint-Martin of Pontoise. The exchange engaged property and elites within a tight network in the Ile-de-France, more precisely in the Capetian royal domain; Abbot Geoffrey and This verse comes from a twelfth-century mortuary roll of the Vendean abbey of Saint-Vincent de Nieuil- sur-l'Autise, founded in 1068 by the canons of Saint-Augustin, s. Leopold Delisle, Rouleaux des morts du XIe au XVe siCcle. Paris 1866, no 132 p. 390. An English translation of the verse is found in Michael Camille, Master of Death. The Lifeless Art of Pierre Remiet, Illuminator. New Haven 1996, p. 25. Earlier versions of this essay were presented at the annual meeting of the Medieval Academy (Vancou- ver, 2008), at the Houghton Library Workshops in Medieval Manuscript Studies (Harvard, 2009), and at the seminar in Medieval Art of the Institute of Fine Arts (NYU, November 2009); I am grateful to Joel Rosenthal, Jeffrey Hamburger, and Jonathan Alexander for their comments and for giving me the oppor- tunity to present my arguments to receptive and stimulating audiences. Without the help of Ghislain Brunel at the Centre historique des Archives nationales (CHAN), and of Patrick Lapalu at the Archives d6partementales du Val-d'Oise, my research in their institutions would have been nearly impossible. I benefitted from the many discussions I had with Ghislain Brunel and Laurent Morelle, by and in person, on chirographs in general and on the Beaun1ont chirograph discussed here in particular. I am most grateful to Martina Stercken and Christian Kiening for inviting me to contribute this essay to their volume on Mediality. Das Mittelalter 15 (2010) 2: Modelle des Media/en im Mittelalter 135 Cmmt Matthew, in fact, may have been distant relatives. 3 The priory of Saint-Aubin of Chambly had been founded in 1123 when Count Matthew I surrendered his control and ownership of the church of Saint-Aubin to Bishop Peter of Beauvais, for the express pur- pose that it be deeded to Saint-Martin of Pontoise. 4 Some fifty years later, the Beaumont interests, both ecclesiastical and secular, reasserted themselves in order to achieve a secure endowment for Saint-Aubin. This effort would be unremarkable were it not for the excep- tional features of the document, a chirograph (Fig. 1), that records it. 5 Chirographs recorded in duplicate an agreement between two parties, after which both of the parties received an identical copy of the agreement. 6 Thus, the text of the exchange between the count of Beaumont and the abbot of Saint-Martin was scripted twice on a large piece of parchment. Between the two texts, the word cirographum in capital letters was inscribed, and divided by a cross which parallels the texts and bears the draped body of Christ, with cruciform halo. The original document was then divided through both the crucified figure and the word cirographum, cut in half, so that each party to the transaction could, as was usual, keep a record of the exchange for eventual later verification. By assur- ing the count and the abbot their respective portions, the chirograph emphasized their mu- tual responsibility to discharge the terms of a contract in which their common goal of furthering the establishment of the priory of Saint-Aubin caused each to gain and lose According to Joseph Depoin, Cartulaire de Saint-Martin de Pontoise. Pontoise 1895, p. 479-480, the Geoffrey ofRonquerollei who is listed by Dom Estiennot (in his 'Antiquitates Velocassium', Paris, Bib- liotheque nationale de· France, Lat. 12741) among those nobles who became monks at Saint-Martin and who is designated as the nephew of the count of Beaumont, might be identified with Geoffrey, abbot of Saint-Martin and the co-participant with the count of Beaumont in the chirograph of 1177. Depoin sup- ports his hypothesis of a familial relationship between the Beaumont and the Ronquerolles in the follow- ing ma!Uler: the name Geoffrey had been borne by a count of Beaumont in 1067 (p. 440). There was a continuing presence at the court of the counts of Beaumont of Peter of Ronquerolles (1151-1184) and of Thibaut Ronquerolles from 1189 onward; indeed, Peter of Ronquerolles witnessed the chirograph for Count Matthew while the ·count's brother was a witness for the abbot. Although it may not be possible to confinn the validity of Depoin's genealogical speculations, the following infonnation offers some reinforcement: Peter of Ronquerolles is mentioned in the necrology of the castral priory of Saint-Leonor established by the counts in their castle of Beaumont (Paris, Archives nationales, S 1410, no 1: copy of 1735 by Dom Pemot, archivist of Saint-Martin-des-Champs; Louis Douet d'Arcq, Recherches histo- riques et critiques sur !es anciens comtes de Beaumont-sur-Oise du Xie au XUie siecle. Amiens 1855, p. liv, 144). The same necrology (Douet d'Arcq, p. 145) contains an entry for Galfudus, abbas, which may refer to Abbot Geoffrey. Ronquerolles was located in the 'pagus Cambliacensis' (Chambly) where, in l 123, Matthew I of Beaumont had founded the priory Saint-Aubin. This priory, which belonged to Saint-Martin of Pontoise, was at the center of the exchange settled in the chirograph of 1177. Depoin (note 3), no 63 p. 61; Douet d'Arcq (note 3), p. xxvi, lxvi. In 1223, the executors of the testa- ment of Count John of Beaumont report gifts made by the deceased count and specify that they are recorded in charters that are kept in the priory of Saint-Leonor of Beaumont; see below at note 29. See below at notes 9 and 10 for futl archival and bibliographical references to each part of the document. I briefly met with Pierre Bureau, who is preparing a book-length study of the chirograph, and gave a description of his forthcoming project in Couper le corps du Christ en deux: Sens et fonction d'un chiro- graphe image du Xlle siecle. Societe fram;aise d'h6raldique et de sigillographie 71172 (2001/02), p. 153- 54. On chirographs, see Michel Parisse, Remarques sur les chirographes et les chartes-parties ant€:rieurs a l 120 et conserves en France. Archiv fiir Diplomatik 32 (1986), p. 546-567.