Metadata: Monastery of São Domingos 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/MSDS
- Title:
- Monastery of São Domingos of Santarém
- Title (official language):
- Mosteiro de São Domingos de Santarém
- Creator/accumulator:
- Mosteiro de São Domingos de Santarém
- Date(s):
- 1230/1841
- Language:
- Portuguese
- Extent:
- 28 books and 45 bundles
- Type of material:
- Textual Material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
- The Mosteiro de São Domingos de Santarém fonds includes documentation related to or produced by this monastery in Santarém, including property and income records, inventories of assets, deeds, sentences, donations, papal briefs and bulls, wills, etc. The oldest records in this fonds include some scattered information related to Jews living in Santarém and Tomar. Bundle 3 of the first incorporation (PT/TT/MSDS/1M03) gathers a document, dated October 24, 1343, regarding a Jewish couple, Isaac Calvo and his wife Ana (n.º 38). The demand set them against the Monastery of São Domingos. Another record of the same bundle (n.º 34) reports the sale of an estate in Santarém's outskirts by Samuel Aboam(?), as attorney of Dom Guedelha, the Rabi-mor (Chief Rabbi) of Portugal. The document includes a copy of the letter of attorney. Among the witnesses of this instrument were Salomão de Alenquer, Isaque Cascão and Isaque (identified as "son of Junça), all of them Jews.
- Archival history:
-
After the dissolution of the Monastery of São Domingos in 1834, its archive was transferred to the registry of the Direcção-Geral dos Próprios Nacionais (General Directorate of the National Assets). In 1869, the records were relocated to the Torre do Tombo (1.ª incorporação / first incorporation). A part of the Monastery's registry that was in the Biblioteca Nacional (National Library) was also incorporated in the Torre do Tombo in 1912 (2.ª incorporação / second incorporation). Another part of the registry is part of the Biblioteca Pública de Évora collection.
Most of the records from the Monastery of São Domingos, as well as other registries from extinct convents and monasteries in Portugal, were gathered in the Torre do Tombo in the so-named Colecção Especial (Special Collection). Between 1938 and 1990, this documentation was gradually organised in fonds in an attempt to reconstruct the original registries. The records were arranged chronologically and gathered in bundles of about 40 items each, with a sequential numeration. At the end of the 1990s, the geographical arrangement by place of origin was replaced by an organisation by religious orders. The records' description in the archive's online database was produced following the abstracts on the back of the documents or previous finding aids.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The Monastery of São Domingos in Santarém, also known as the Convent of Nossa Senhora da Oliveira, was founded around 1225 to host Dominican friars from the Convent of Nossa Senhora das Neves in Montejunto. The friars settled near the Chapel of Nossa Senhora da Oliveira, attached to the Parish Church of the Collegiate of Santa Maria de Alcáçova. The building was probably concluded during the reign of King Afonso III (1238-1253). Among the first Dominicans who lived in the Monastery of São Domingos were Saint Gil of Santarém and Arnaldo de Sagarra, who was a high-ranking official of the Dominicans in Spain.
In 1517, King Manuel I gave the Convent of Nossa Senhora da Serra, near Almeirim, and all its assets, to the Monastery of São Domingos. Then, the Monastery increased its properties and income. However, at the beginning of the 17th century, the building was rundown, which led to a campaign of construction that demolished the church of Nossa Senhora da Oliveira and its reconstruction. The works lasted until the mid-17th century.
The Monastery was abolished in 1834, like all other male orders and convents in Portugal, following the liberal ecclesiastical reformation. Its assets were incorporated in the Próprios da Fazenda Nacional (National Assets). The church was demolished in 1880-1883, and the last ruins of the convent were dismantled in 1964-1966.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Isaac Calvo
- Isaque Cascão
- Salomão de Alenquer
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds is composed of bundles and books, each of them with a specific numbering.
- Access, restrictions:
- Access is conditional depending on the physical condition of the records and the existence of alternative formats (microfilmed or digital copies).
- Finding aids:
-
Handwritten and typewritten finding aids available in the Torre do Tombo:
"Índice (inventário) dos livros de diversos conventos, ordens militares e outras corporações religiosas guardados no Arquivo da Torre do Tombo, conventos diversos" (Inventory of books from extinct convents, military orders and religious institutions stored in the Torre do Tombo), booklet 3 (Santo Elói a Teatinos) (C 270), fols. 113-115.
Inventário das Corporações Religiosas, desintegrado da antiga Colecção Especial, em 24 de Julho de 1978 (Inventory of religious institutions' records, extracted from the former Colecção Especial, on July 24, 1978) (L 208).
Relação de documentos vindos da Direcção-Geral dos Próprios Nacionais, em 14 de Maio de 1894 (letras L-V) (Inventory of documents that came from the Direcção Geral dos Próprios Nacionais on May 14, 1894: letters L-V) (C 280) fols. 75-88.
Relação dos documentos pertencentes ao extinto Convento de São Domingos de Santarém que, em virtude das Portarias de 26 de Novembro de 1863 e 24 de Agosto de 1864, foram transferidos do cartório da Direcção-Geral dos Próprios Nacionais para o Arquivo da Torre do Tombo, em 8 de Abril de 1869 (Inventory of the records from the closed Monastery of São Domingos of Santarém that were transferred from the Direcção-Geral dos Próprios Nacional to the Torre do Tombo on April 8, 1869) (C 441).
- Links to finding aids:
- https://digitarq.arquivos.pt/details?id=4411915
- Yerusha Network member:
- Universidade Nova de Lisboa - Western Sephardic Diaspora Roadmap
- Author of the description:
- Carla Vieira, 2021