The Notarial Possession Letters: Instituted and Instituting Materiality (Madrid, 15th c.)

Abstract

Between the 13th and 15th centuries, a specific type of private notarial documentation expanded in Castile: the letters of possession. The aim of this research is to analyze based on new contributions from the “material turn” a set of private notarial letters found in the monastery of Santo Domingo del Real in Madrid. The article proposes the hypothesis that letters function as graphics objects as an instituted materiality whose production and exchange had as its purpose visualize and establish a new relationship both between people and between people and things. In this sense we will consider that the letters are both instituted and instituting.