Metadata: Convent of Santa Clara of Santarém
Collection
- Country:
- Portugal
- Holding institution:
- The National Archive of Torre do Tombo
- Holding institution (official language):
- Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo
- Postal address:
- Alameda da Universidade, 1649-010 Lisbon
- Phone number:
- 00351 210037100
- Email:
- mail@dglab.gov.pt
- Reference number:
- PT/TT/CSCS
- Title:
- Convent of Santa Clara of Santarém
- Title (official language):
- Convento de Santa Clara de Santarém
- Creator/accumulator:
- Creator / accumulator Convento de Santa Clara de Santarém
- Date(s):
- 1213/1902
- Language:
- Latin
- Portuguese
- Spanish; Castilian
- Extent:
- 35 books and 22 bundles
- Type of material:
- Textual Material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
This fonds comprises documentation related to or produced by the Convent of Santa Clara of Santarém, in central Portugal. It includes various types of documents, including records of privileges, sentences, permits, propriety records and deeds, donations, wills, etc.
Among the documentation contained in this fonds, it is possible to find some evidence of the history of the Jewish community of Santarém. Some examples are:
PT/TT/CSCS/010/0001/00040: sale of an estate in the outskirts of Santarém by a Jew named Jufez, son of late D. Aziz, to João Domingues, from Leiria, and his wife on December 7, 1281.
PT/TT/CSCS/010/0002/00065: a sale of an estate in Trouxe, in the outskirts of Santarém, to the Convent of Santa Clara in 1280. The record includes a "carta de quitação" (letter of discharge) signed by a Jew named D. Aziz, son of Jufez, regarding the payment of 150 pounds from the sale.
PT/TT/CSCS/010/0007/00316: another letter of discharge from debts, given by a Jew named Salomão Arame to Constança Eanes, nun of the Convent of Santa Clara, on October 29, 1321.
PT/TT/CSCS/010/0006/00215: sale of a "pardieiro" (hovel) in Santarém by Isaac Navarro, a Jew from Lisbon, and his wife Lidiça, to Pedro Afonso, “alcaide” (governor) of Santarém in 1332.
PT/TT/CSCS/010/0011/00798: record dating from 1479, in which the abbess and the Convent of Santa Clara were refused an estate in the surroundings of Lisbon that had been "emprazado" (leased by emphyteusis contract) to Diogo Gonçalves and his wife Beatriz Eanes. The area of the estate had been the reason for the litigation between the couple and the Convent. In this deed, Diogo Gonçalves and his wife were represented by Guedelha Palaçano, a Jewish merchant from Lisbon, son of Bento Cação. Later, the same estate was "emprazado" to the grandson of Guedelha Palaçano, Mousém Cação.
- Archival history:
-
In the 1860s, the documentation that currently forms the Convento de Santa Clara de Santarém fonds started to be gradually transferred to the Torre do Tombo. In 1864, bundles 1 to 20 and books 24 to 34 arrived in the archive, brought from the Seminário Patriarcal de Santarém (Santarém Patriarchal Seminary). In 1912, books 1 to 23 and bundle 23, which were part of the Biblioteca Nacional (National Library) collection, were also incorporated into the Torre do Tombo.
Bundle 21 was misidentified as pertaining to the Convent of Santa Clara de Santarém and was incorporated in the so-named “Colecção Especial” (Special Collection), which gathered ecclesiastical records transferred to the Torre do Tombo. Thus, it ended up integrating into this fonds. However, the documents comprised in bundle 21 are in fact from the Convent of Nossa Senhora da Piedade in Santarém.
In the late 1990s, the conventual records preserved in the Torre do Tombo were reorganised. An organisation by religious order was adopted, replacing the previous categorisation by locality. Between the end of 2014 and 2016, a campaign for the digitisation of this fonds was undertaken and followed by a detailed description of its contents by Maria Filomena Andrade and João Luís Fontes.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The Convent of Santa Clara was originally established in Lamego in 1258, following a request by the pope three years after the canonisation of Saint Claire. It was first inhabited by beguines who lived in Lamego, under the allegiance of the Franciscans. A year later, the convent was transferred to Santarém and, in 1261, a new building was ready to shelter the nuns.
The convent was home to many women with high status, such as Leonor Afonso, an illegitimate daughter of King Afonso III. It received many privileges both from the Pope and the King. During the beginning of the 14th century, construction works were undertaken in order to expand the monastery.
In 1517, the pope requested friar Francisco de Lisboa to reform the monastery. He delegated the responsibility to friar Brás de Góis who, supported by four other clerics, insisted that the abbess Beatriz de Meneses should follow their requests. However, the nuns resisted. The insurrection ended with the transference of nine nuns from de Convent of Santa Clara of Lisbon, from whom the new abbess was appointed. In 1668, a big fire destroyed part of the building and forced the nuns to temporarily move to another monastery.
In 1834, religious orders and male monasteries were banned in Portugal by virtue of the new Liberal regime. Only the female monasteries and convents were allowed to be kept open until the death of the last nun. This was the destiny of the Convent of Santa Clara, closed after its last nun died in 1902. Some of the goods and artworks of the monastery were sent to the Academy of Fine Arts in Lisbon and to various churches. Some parts of the construction were demolished in the early 20th century.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Beatriz Eanes
- Bento Cação
- Constança Eanes
- Diogo Gonçalves
- Guedelha Palaçano
- Isaac Navarro
- João Domingues
- Mousém Cação
- Pedro Afonso
- Salomão Arame
- System of arrangement:
- This fonds is organised in 10 series according to the documents' typology: 1) records of privileges; 2) sentences and permits; 3) records of new nuns, professions, and deaths; 4) registry of deeds; 5) property deeds; 6) lists of “foros” (emphyteusis contracts); 7) incomes and expenses; 8) books of devotion and other religious records; 9) payments made by the nuns; 10) various documents comprised in 22 bundles.
- Access, restrictions:
- Documents are available online. The originals of those documents are not available for consultation.
- Finding aids:
-
Unpublished finding aids available in the archive:
"Inventário das Corporações Religiosas, desintegrado da antiga Colecção Especial, em 24 de Julho de 1978" (Inventory of the Religious Organisations, extracted from the former Colecção Especial on July 24, 1978). (L 208).
"Inventário dos cartórios recolhidos da Biblioteca Nacional, em 1912" (Inventory of the registries collected from the National Library in 1912). (L 283), fols. 153-154.
"Relação dos documentos pertencentes ao cartório do Convento de Santa Clara de Santarém (Alcanede a Vialonga) que, em virtude do Decreto de 2 de Outubro de 1862, e da Portaria do Ministério do Reino, de 29 de Janeiro de 1864, foram transferidos do Seminário Patriarcal de Santarém para o Arquivo da Torre do Tombo, em 5 de Outubro de 1864" (Inventory of documents belonging to the Convent of Santa Clara of Santarém registry that, after the decree of October 2, 1862, and the ordonnance of the Ministry of the Kingdom of January 29, 1864, were transferred from the Patriarcal Seminary of Santarém to the Archive of the Torre do Tombo on October 5, 1864). (C 443-C 445).
Published finding aids:
Pina, Isabel Castro, Maria Filomena Andrade, and Maria Leonor Ferraz de Oliveira Silva Santos. 2002. Inventário Ordens Monástico/Conventuais. Edited by José Mattoso and Maria do Carmo Jasmins Dias Farinha. Lisbon: Instituto dos Arquivos Nacionais/Torre do Tombo.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://digitarq.arquivos.pt/details?id=6031849
- Yerusha Network member:
- Universidade Nova de Lisboa - Western Sephardic Diaspora Roadmap
- Author of the description:
- Inês de Sá, 2021
