16th of December

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On this day in 1439, the squire Per Brahe signed a charter acknowledging the receipt of valuables left to him by his mother at the local convent. She left him both a chest of letters and other documents and assorted silverware. In addition to Per Brahe three other men attested the legitimacy of the document by attaching their seals to it. Of the four original seals two remain: Those belonging to Jens Pedersen Jernskæg (d. 1448), bishop of Roskilde, and dean Oluf Daa (d.1461), who succeeded Jens Pedersen Jernskæg as bishop of Roskilde. 

The scribe who wrote this charter was attached to St Clara Convent in Roskilde for several years, and his writing is easily recognisable by the letter "ø" which looks like an "s" and the letter "æ" which looks like a ligature of "a" and "v". The scribe is known to have written documents in 1408 and 1437 as well as the leech book AM 187 8vo (which you can leaf through here: https://www.e-pages.dk/ku/614/). 

The document is part of the archive of St Clara Convent, which contains approx. 400 charters from the period 1253-1551. This archive has been a part of the Arnamagnæan Collection since the 18th century. The research project Script and Text in Time and Space hosted at the Arnamagnæan Institute and funded by the Velux Foundation is working on making interactive digital editions of these documents as well as performing systematic research into the script and language of the diplomas. You'll surely be hearing more about the project in the coming year.