Il breve recordationis nella documentazione valdostana dei secoli XII e XIII

The Aosta Valley was controlled by the kings of Burgundy from the 9th century and by the counts of Savoy from the 11th century. Although the region lies on the Italian side of the Alps, its documentary traditions were similar to those of the transalpine area. The studies so far carried out on Aosta Valley documentation have focused on the charta Augustana: an endemic form of private act, produced by the urban chancellery of Aosta. This essay looks at a group of about 120 documents, designated as brevia recordationisand written in Aosta Valley between the beginning of the 12th century and the 1230s. The Aosta Valley brevia do not have authentication elements nor dating formulas. They follow a standardized structure, that underwent little change during the period under review. They mostly concern donations, loans and land occupancy agreements. After studying the formation of the Aosta Valley breve model, the essay describes its functions, which were complementary to those of charta Augustana. Some observations are dedicated to the experiments performed on the basic structure of the breve by scribes working for the episcopal church of Aosta, which was engaged during the 12th century in a redefinition of its institutional relations with the counts of Savoy. The disappearance of the Aosta Valley breve at the beginning of the 13th century is connected with the spread in the region of documentary forms hiterto little used, such as instrumentum publicum and sealed act. The last part of the essay focuses on the main recording techniques of the Aosta Valley brevia, which were related mostly to accountability practices. Some reflections are also dedicated to the legal and documentary relevance of brevia, whose credibility was limited to the territory of Aosta Valley and was based on the use of certain diplomatic formalities in the composition of their text.