LOUIS IX

[LOUIS IX]. "Saint Louis." King of France. (1226-1270); canonized in 1297. A document written during the reign of St. Louis conferring to Thomas Odet a house within the walls of the abbey of St. Croix in Angouleme near Bordeaux, 3 by 5 inches, (75 by 127 mm.), with wax pendant seal attached measuring 37 mm. in diameter. Dated "Monday after the second Sunday after the Epiphany" (January 16, 1240). Ten lines in Latin, written on vellum. Light staining at the edges; basically fine. By this charter Guillaume (Willelmus), abbot of Saint-Croix at Angouleme (the Abbey of the Holy Cross), confirms the abbey's concession to Thomas Odet, his wife, Jeanne, and their heirs, of a house "super murum nostrum" (leaning upon our wall) which had belonged to the knight ("miles," chevalier) Giraud Varuus, now dead. This is, it explains, to facilitate the building of a house for himself by Odet on the land of the Abbey, and is done in consideration of an annual payment of "cens," or leasehold rent, to the Abbey, of two deniers ("denarii"). The grant is in perpetuity and explains that the new building is to be between the house here granted and other houses in the Abbey. The hand employed here is a very early, highly compressed and summarized bastard Gothic cursive of the sort that was to be universally used for leases, grants and writs of business value for the next 250 years, at least. The seal is slightly chipped around the edges, basically in unusually fine condition. It consists of a large cross and initials "D.A.".

This item is associated with these categories in our inventory:

• Law
• Royalty