Memoria războiului în documentele de cancelarie ale Ţării Româneşti. Hrisoavele Goleştilor
The Memory of War in the Wallachian Chancery. The Charters for the Goleşti Boyars

Summary/Abstract: This article aims to investigate how the memory of war was shaped by the Wallachian chancery in the sixteenth century. It takes a comparative approach, by looking at the historical memory of war in chancery charters, in chronicles and in stone funeral inscriptions. The article mainly focuses on the most spectacular war descriptions in the sixteenth century Wallachian charters, those of the battles from Fântâna Ţiganului (1538?) and Jiliştea (1574) in several charters given to the Goleşti boyars. The article is structured in four sections: (1) Historical memory. Chronicles and compositions like chroniclers; (2) Donative memory. The shedding of blood and the land grants; (3) Genealogical memory. The cartulary of the Vieroş monastery and the Goleşti boyars; (4) Charters, chroniclers and songs. The main contention of the article is that the Goleşti boyars’ heroic deeds thoroughly described in the charters preserved in a mid-18th century cartulary of the Vieroş monastery are late interpolations. The monks and a descendent of the 16th century boyars fabricated the charters for material and symbolic gains. The cartulary scribe used the oral traditions of the past in order to substantiate the historical context of the charters he rewrote. It is my suggestion that the genealogical memory of war was transmitted through oral epic songs.

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