Textmanuscripts - Les Enluminures
22 folios on paper, watermark, bull resembling a goat, Briquet 2812-2822, diffused widely in France, Nantes 1449, 1451, modern foliation in pencil, 1-22, complete (collation i12 ii8 iii2), no ruling, (no coherent justification, f. 4, c. 180 x 100 mm.), contracts written in brown inks in cursive script of different sizes, signed by Guillerme Passe and other notaries and witnesses, in single column on a varying number of lines, often c. 32, minor stains from water damage in the inner margins, some wear due to use, but in overall good condition. Bound in 1470 in a reused parchment leaf on which is written the title “Limoellan. Registre de contrats d'acquisitions faites par Raoul quersaliou de differents heritages. 1470,” both covers stained. Dimensions c. 210 x 146 mm. (f. 8, 210 x 74 mm.)
This collection of notarized legal contracts records the acquisitions of property by a noble family, who carefully kept track of their holdings by retaining copies of the contracts. The resulting collection, to our knowledge unpublished and as yet unstudied, will provide a wealth of information about the history of the de Kersaliou family in Brittany and the seigneury of Limoëlan in Sévignac. Beyond that, it lends itself to teaching broader topics in social, economic, and legal history and, being in the vernacular, is more widely accessible than diplomatic texts in Latin.
1. All but one of these 27 contracts were written in 1448-1461 for Raoul de Kersaliou (also spelled Quersaliou), seigneur de Limoëlan. The sole exception, bound first in the volume and numbered “1,” is a contract executed in 1470 for Gilles de Kersaliou, Raoul’s brother, who inherited the title of seigneur de Limoëlan when his brother died sometime between 1461 and 1468. The contracts were not copied in chronological order, and were written or signed by local notaries, Guillerme Passe, Bertram Leboucher, G. Lesut, and Rolland Passe. Dates were added in the nineteenth century in the margins, some with errors.
2. The manuscript comes from the “archives de Limolean” according to a modern (twentieth-century?) note on a loose paper kept inside the book.
3. Bookseller’s number (?) “DB 74801105” written in pencil in the upper margin of f. 1. Booksellers’ numbers in ink inside the front cover.
ff. 1-22, twenty-seven contracts, each numbered in the nineteenth century, recording acquisitions of Raoul de Kersaliou (ff. 2-22) and Gilles de Kersaliou (f. 1r-v), as follows:
f. 1r-v, contract 1, dated 10 April 1470, concerning contract for Gilles de Kersaliou;
f. 2, contract 2, dated 31 May 1452, (the erroneous date 1462 was added later in the margin), concerning acquisition from “Johanne famme de feu Johan Raoulle”, Jeanne, the wife (femme) of the deceased Jean Raoulle;
f. 2v, contract 3, dated 25 January 1450, concerning acquisition from Thomas Regnaust;
f. 3, contract 4, dated 14 April 1455, concerning acquisition from Michiel le Ronyer;
f. 3v, contract 5, dated 1 September 1454, concerning acquisition from Jehanne Gonvet;
f. 4, contract 6, dated 10 April 1455, concerning acquisition from Jehanne Gonvet;
ff. 4v-5, contract 7, dated 1 May 1450, concerning acquisition from “Olivier Duval et Amette sa femme”;
f. 5v, contract 8, dated 1 January 1448, concerning acquisition from Perot de Rouillac and Johan Guillerp Lesne;
f. 6r-v, contract 9, dated 26 August 1449, concerning acquisition from Johan Guillerp;
f. 7, contract 10, dated 5 June 1455, concerning acquisition from “Guillerme Lebret et sa femme”;
f. 7v, contract 11, dated 22 February 1459, concerning acquisition from Robin Legat;
f. 8, contract 12, dated 1 March 1448 (the erroneous date 1468 was added later); [f. 8v, blank];
f. 9r-v, contract 13, dated 1 December 1451, concerning acquisition from “Guillemette Jagu famme de feu Estienne Guillemot”;
f. 10, contract 14, dated 2 February 1456, concerning acquisition from “Bretm Regnaust”;
ff. 10v-11, contract 15, dated 13 December 1461, concerning acquisition from “Johan Maulet et Johanne Berhaut sa femme”;
f. 11v, contract 16, dated 13 December 1451, concerning acquisition from “Guillemette Jagu famme de feu Estienne Guillemot”;
f. 12r-v, contract 17, dated 1 December 1451, concerning acquisition from “Guillerme Duval de Sallenz et Johanne sa femme”;
f. 13, contract 18, dated 4 June 1456, concerning acquisition from “Johanne fille Johan le Bouchier”;
f. 13v, contract 19, dated 6 July 1456, concerning acquisition from “Guillemette Jagu famme de feu Estienne Guillemot”;
f. 14, “Par m... court...” (the beginning of an unfinished contract);
f. 14v, contract 20, dated 24 October 1451, concerning acquisition from Etienne Bretron;
f. 15r-v, contract 21, dated 16 September 1456, concerning acquisition from Gillet Gaimen and Jehan Nehel; [f. 16, blank];
ff. 16v-17v, contract 22, dated 4 October 1456;
f. 18, contract 23, dated 18 September 1456;
f. 18v, contract 24, dated 2 April 1456, concerning acquisition from Jehan Berthelot; [f. 19, blank];
ff. 19v-20, contract 25, dated 15 September 1457; [f. 20v, blank]; f. 21, a list of names;
f. 21v, contract 26, dated 24 January 1457;
f. 22, contract 27, dated 25 January 1457; [f. 22v, blank].
The seigneury de Limoëlan in Sévignac on the Côtes d’Armor in Brittany was first held by the family Rouxelot, recorded since the late thirteenth century, including the illustrious Raoul Rouxelot, conseiller juridique of King Philip IV of France, bishop of Saint-Malo in 1310, and then of Laon in 1317. In 1422, Jehanne Rouxelot, dame de Limoëlan, the last heir of this family, bequeathed the seigneury to Roland de Kersaliou, who in 1429 is recorded as chambellan of Jean V, Duke of Brittany (cf. “Quelques notes sur la famille de Kersaliou” in Online Resources). Roland de Kersaliou had two sons, Roland and Gilles. Roland is certainly the Raoul de Kersaliou, seigneur de Limoëlan, who is represented in in our contracts from1448-1461. By 1468, his brother, Gilles de Kersaliou, inherited the seigneury. The original castle of Limoëlan was rebuilt at the time of the de Kersaliou family in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The first known member of the de Kersaliou family was Geoffroy de Kersaliou, who in 1249 participated in the Seventh Crusade, led by King Louis IX of France, as ecuyer of Pierre de Dreux, Duke of Brittany. The armorial bearings of the de Kersaliou family are: fascé d’argent et de gueules de six pièces; au lion de sable armé, lampassé et couronné d’or, brochant sur le tout, and the motto “Tout pour Dieu” (Le Borgne, 1667, p. 155). The archival document from the de Kersaliou family described here, to our knowledge unpublished, offers historians a rich new source of information on the history of an important noble Breton family and the seigneury of Limoëlan in Sévignac.
This family collection of notarized legal contracts recording acquisitions of property, functioned in a similar way as the cartularies assembled by religious foundations, gathering together documents about the buying, selling, giving, and exchanging property. Registers of this type are usually kept in notarial archives and are seldom digitized; they are therefore rarely accessible for study. Beyond its value for the history of local Breton history and prosopography, this document will lend itself to teaching broader topics in social, economic, and legal history.
Briquet, C.-M. Les filigranes: Dictionnaire historique des marques du papier dès leur apparition vers 1282 jusqu’en 1600…, vol. 1, Paris, 1907, pp. 198-199, figs. 2812-2822.
Available online: https://archive.org/details/BriquetLesFiligranes1/page/n537/mode/2up
Le Borgne, G. Armorial breton, Rennes, 1667.
Potier de Courcy, P. Nobiliaire et armorial de Bretagne, second edition, vol. 2, Nantes, Paris, 1862, p. 374.
“Quelques notes sur la famille de Kersaliou”
http://poudouvre.over-blog.com/2020/01/quelques-notes-sur-la-famille-de-kersaliou.html
“La seigneurie de Limoëlan à Sévignac et ses possesseurs”
http://poudouvre.over-blog.com/article-la-seigneurie-de-limoelan-a-sevignac-et-ses-possesseurs-107014525.html
TM 1133
