Inventory of a Carolingian Palace
Inventory of a Carolingian Palace
An excerpt from the Capitulary De Villis, an early 9th century manuscript concerning the management of the royal demensnes.
This section describes the royal estate at Annapes on the border of Flanders and Artois. A muid is an old unit of measure, about 9.7 cubic feet.
We have found in the fisc of Annapes a royal palace built of very good stone, with three chambers, the house surrounded by a gallery with eleven small rooms; below a cellar and two porches; inside the courtyard seventeen other houses built of wood with as many rooms and the other dependencies in good condition: a stable, a kitchen, a bake-house, two granges, three storehouses. A courtyard provided with a strong palisade, and a gate of stone surmounted with a gallery. A little courtyard also surrounded by a hedge, well ordered and planted with trees of different kinds.
Equipment: a set of bedding, linen to cover the table and cloth.
Tools. Two copper basins, two drinking vessels, two copper caldrons and one of iron, a pan, a pot-hook, a firedog, a lamp, two axes, an adze, two augers, a hatchet, a scraper, a plane, a chisel, two scythes, two sickles, two iron-tipped shovels. Plenty of wooden tools.
Farm produce: old spelt from the previous year: 90 baskets from which 450 measures of flour can be taken. Barley, 100 muids. From this year: 110 baskets of spelt;60 have been sown and we found the rest. 100 muids of wheat, 60 have been sown and we found the rest. 98 muids of oats. One muids of beans, 12 muids of peas.
From the five mills: 900 small muids; 240 muids of which have been given to the prebendaries, and we found the rest.
From the four brewhouses, 650 small muids.
From the two bridges, 60 muids of salt and two sous. From the four gardens, 11 sous, three muids of honey. From dues one muid of butter. Bacon from the previous year, 10 smoked porkers. 200 this year’s smoked porkers, with sausages and lard. This year’s cheese 43 loads.
Livestock: mares: aged, 51; three-year-olds, 5; two-year-olds 7; yearlings 7;. Horses: twoyear- olds, 10; yearlings, 8; stallions, 3. oxen 16; donkeys, two; cows with calves 50; heifers 20; this year’s calves, 38; bulls, 3. Old pigs 250, young ones, 100; boars, 5. Ewes with lambs, 150, yearling lambs 200, sheep 120. She-goats with kids, 30; yearling goats, 30; he-goats, 3; geese, 30; chickens, 24; peacocks, 22.
Brevium exempla ad describendas res ecclesiasticas et fiscales
Brought to you because history is palaces with four brew-houses and peacocks. This piece from the late Mahala de Sorbonne Another History is neat Project