Readings and re-readings of a text of a Carolingian polyptych from the Abbey of Saint Bertin, AD844-859 (A French medieval elucidation of Latin terminology for ecclesiastical land management)

In spite of certain gaps and errors, the text of the polyptych of Saint-Ber tin presents a remarkable formal coherence, which allows internal compariso ns for an elucidation of Latin terminology for lands and people. Considerin g these characteristics and the limitations involved by the nature of the d ocument, the meticulous confrontation of the data drawn from the diverse ch apters (breve) and enlightened by contemporary sources often make it possib le to overcome the contradictory interpretations suggested by historians. T hus, all the described lands were property of the abbey and, among them, th e "small estates" were beneficia or precariae; ingenuus and servus are used as legal terms in this document, contrary to mancipium, lunarius or lumina rius; these various terms are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and so on . Even if we are not able to apprehend the consistency of the management as a whole, such an analysis leads to a nuanced vision of the so-called eccle siastical large estates, less static than often claimed, and of the flexibi lity of their management. It also involves the impossibility to use the dat a of the polyptych to estimate population numbers or to prove the extensive survival of a "slave system" in Carolingian times.