'lost Charter' Issued by Otto I11.

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6773, 3 February 1932, Page 12

'lost Charter ' Issued by Otto 111.

Tlio Wellesley College Library possesses a manuscript dating from the t-mth century, and one which scholars had supposed to have been irretrievably lost during the confusion in Home at tho time of tho establishment of the present Italian monarchy. In the year o%', the young Emperor Otto 111. was crowned at Home and a few days later, on the last day of May, he gave a charter to the Roman monastery of .Sts, Boniface and Alexis, confirming it in all its possessions, including lands, houses, churches and incomo from various sources. After being signed with the imperial monogiam, and scaled with tho imperial seal, the parchment was given into thq keeping cf the abbot of tho monastery, and, after 7J centuries, it was still to be found in the monastery archives. It was transcribed by tho abbot then ruling, who printed it as an appendix to the history of the monastery which he published in 3751. Another century went by, and German scholars wero busily collecting imperial documents for printing in the great collections of chronicles and legal and official documents known 33 the “Monumcnta Gcrmaniac.” The charter given by Otto to the old Roman monastery still lay in its archives and rvas again (and more accurately) transcribed for printing but beforo it could bo published, the original document had disappeared. It was reported in Borne that an English antiquarian had .somehow acquired the manuscript, but it could not bo traced and meantime the monastery itself, after an existence of more than 1000 years had been suppressed by the new Italian Government.

A few years later, however, the manuscript seems to have been bought through a London dealer by an American collector, Mr. Medlicott, who offered it for sale in a catalogue printed in 187 S. From this catalogue it was bought in ISSO by tho founder of Wellesley College, Mr. Henry Fowlo Durant. lie gave it to the college, but because at this time the college, cnly five years old, did not have a "treasure room,” the manuscript was locked away.

In IS9O. and again in 1593, German scholars lamented the loss of this among other documents of the reign of Otto 111. It was not until the addition to the new library was built and adequate space was found to display the old manuscript that it began to be noticed; and it is only recently that it has been proved in an article publisl ed by Brof. Edna V. Moffett of the Wellesley history department to he the identical parchment given to the monastery so many centuries ago. It is one of the very few charters of Otto 111. still extant, and the only one in America.