Latin Charter from 1141

[thefaceoftheplanet]

Dear all,

I'm doing some research into the village of Herent, Vlaams-Brabant in Belgium. This town is mentioned in a charter from 1141, which does not exist anymore, but was copied down into a Cartulary from a nearby abby in 1266.
In this charter, the bishop of Liège confirms the ownership of properties that were gifted or sold to the abby.
The passage about Herent reads as follows:

...Reinzon de Thildunco quatuor bunaria; Herso Louaniensis unum mansum in Egenhoua, predicto Reinzone ad quem pertinebat concedente et donante; Berengardis dimidium bunuarium iuxta parchum; Minna unum bunuarium in villa Herent; Euerardus de Grauen sextam partem decime de Willenbringe; Balduinus de Zanthouaq unum mansum in Winga....

My latin is almost non existing, but i know the following:

• Reinzon de Thildunco is a person
• A bunaria or bunarium is a measurement for land
• Louaniensis probably refers to the city of Leuven
• Iuxta parchum refers to the abby (Abdij van Park in dutch, or Abby of Park in english)

The fulltext charter is available here, at page 46.

It would be a tremendous help is anybody could help me translate this passage, or answer the following questions:

• Was it this person, Reinzon de Thildunco, that gifted a bunarium land in the town of Herent?
• What does 'Herso Louaniensis' refer to?
• What does 'Minna' mean?

I realise that medieval latin can differ a lot from classical latin, so all help is very much appreciated.

Thanks a lot in advance!

 

[Pacifica]

Reinzon de Thildunco is a person

Yes. Thildunco (the nominative form would presumably be Thilduncum, unless the name is undeclinable like the other place names in the passage) must be the name of a place that that person was from: "Reinzon of... Thildunc" or something like that.

A bunaria or bunarium is a measurement for land

Bunarium is indeed a unit of measure for land ("bunder" in English); bunaria is a plural form of the same.

Louaniensis probably refers to the city of Leuven

Yes.

Iuxta parchum refers to the abby (Abdij van Park in dutch, or Abby of Park in english)

It refers to some park/fenced-in field or the like that was just then donated to St Mary; maybe the abbey was later named "Abdij van Park" because of that.

Was it this person, Reinzon de Thildunco, that gifted a bunarium land in the town of Herent?

No, he gifted four bunders to the abbey.

• What does 'Herso Louaniensis' refer to?
• What does 'Minna' mean?

Those are people.


...Reinzon de Thildunco quatuor bunaria; Herso Louaniensis unum mansum in Egenhoua, predicto Reinzone ad quem pertinebat concedente et donante; Berengardis dimidium bunuarium iuxta parchum; Minna unum bunuarium in villa Herent; Euerardus de Grauen sextam partem decime de Willenbringe; Balduinus de Zanthouaq unum mansum in Winga....

"Reinzon of Thildunc [contributed/gave to the abbey] four bunders of land; Herso of Leuven [contributed/gave] one manor* in Egenhoven, by the grant and concession of the aforesaid Reinzon, to whom it belonged; Berengard half a bunder next to the park; Minna one bunder in the town of Herent; Everard of Graven one sixth of the tithe of Willenbringen; Baldwin of Zanthouaq one manor in Winga"

Italicized words are place names for which I couldn't find the modern spelling with a quick Google search.

*Probably includes the appertaining land as well.

 

[Pacifica]

Thildunco (the nominative form would presumably be Thilduncum, unless the name is undeclinable like the other place names in the passage)

Actually, the o isn't part of the word. It's a sign leading to a footnote. The same goes for the n in Reinzon (should just be Reinzo).

The footnote on Thildunc enabled me to find out that the place in question is Tildonk in modern spelling.

 

[thefaceoftheplanet]

Thank you Pacifica, your help is truly appreciated!
Now that i know that Minna refers to a person, i can start searching for other references of this person and try to figure out who he/she was.

And you are correct about Tildonk, my appologies about copy-pasting the footnotes in the text. Winga probably refers to the river Winge or the towns Tielt-Winge or Sint-Joris-Winge, both close to the abbey. I have no clue what Zanthouaq could be, but that's less important for my research.

Thanks again and all the best!

 

[Pacifica]

he/she

Given the form of the word it's more likely to be a she (though not 100% certain).