A complete official cadastral and title record for a substantial diocesan estate, written on Treasury-stamped paper and authenticated throughout by surveyors, clerks, witnesses and original signatures.

Bibliographic Details

Author: Officials of the Diocese of Porto, including Manoel Leite Telles de Menezes and associated surveyors and legal representatives.
Title: Auto de Appegação do Prazo dos Treze Cazaes de Fradelos e Outros.
Place: Porto, northern Portugal.
Date: 1856.
Language: Portuguese.
Format: Manuscript on official fiscal paper; quarto, approximately 30 × 21 cm.
Extent: Manuscript title page followed by 95 consecutively numbered leaves, written on both sides; 190 pages in total.
Binding: Contemporary half green leather over marbled boards, with morocco spine label lettered “Appegação do prazo dos treze cazaes”.
Location: The estate comprised properties in and around the historic Porto locality of Fradelos, principally within the parishes of Santo Ildefonso, Bonfim and Paranhos, now incorporated into the modern city of Porto.
Fiscal marks: Every leaf bears a blind-embossed “Thesouro Publico XL 40” stamp at the head.
Authentication: All leaves are rubricated “Leite” beneath the foliation; the first 22 leaves additionally bear “Monteiro” in the upper corner. Numerous constituent documents are signed at their conclusions.

Condition

Good to Very Good. Complete, with all 95 numbered leaves present; leaf 70 is detached but remains with the volume. A few pages are lightly age-toned, but the manuscript is otherwise notably well preserved, without significant staining or tears, and the text remains clear and legible throughout.

The contemporary half green leather binding is rubbed, with wear to the board edges and corners. The leather is splitting along the lower edge of the spine, although the binding remains reasonably solid and serviceable. Original marbled boards and morocco spine label remain present. Please examine the gallery photographs carefully or request a more detailed condition report.

Description

A substantial and complete official Portuguese property manuscript recording the formal survey, inspection, measurement, boundaries and title history of the ecclesiastical estate known as the Prazo dos Treze Cazaes de Fradelos e Outros. Compiled in 1856 under the direct lordship of the Episcopal See of the Diocese of Porto, the volume concerns a hereditary emphyteutic estate held by Joaquim António da Costa Lima.

The manuscript is not a miscellaneous collection of private deeds, but a coherent legal dossier composed of separately headed and authenticated proceedings. These investigate the constituent farms, houses, gardens, fields and enclosed parcels belonging to the estate, tracing ownership and inheritance, recording earlier conveyances and wills, and defining each property by its dimensions, neighbouring occupiers, roads, lanes and cardinal boundaries.

The estate lay in the historic northern and eastern districts of Porto, centred upon the old locality of Fradelos and extending through the parishes of Santo Ildefonso, Bonfim and Paranhos. These districts are now part of the modern city, but in 1856 still included agricultural holdings, orchards and semi-rural properties. The manuscript therefore preserves unusually detailed evidence of a landscape subsequently transformed by Porto’s urban expansion.

Among the separately headed sections is the extensive “Cazal de Lamas” proceeding, occupying leaves 9–22 and concluding with signatures including José Ferreira dos Santos Neves and Manoel Leite Telles de Menezes. Other instruments are signed by José Maria Monteiro, António Álvares dos Santos, João Álvares dos Santos and further participants, including appointed louvados, or sworn valuers and surveyors.

Each leaf is written on official Treasury paper blindstamped “Thesouro Publico XL 40”. The recurring rubrics “Leite” and “Monteiro”, together with the numerous full signatures closing the individual proceedings, authenticate the constituent parts of the record and support its formal legal status and completeness.

The volume is an important primary source for the study of Portuguese land tenure, ecclesiastical property, cadastral surveying, genealogy and the historical topography of Porto. Complete manuscript terriers of this scale, retaining their original titled bindings, official fiscal paper and extensive signatures, are seldom encountered on the market.

Notes

A rare and highly evocative record of nineteenth-century Porto, combining legal, architectural, genealogical and topographical information across 190 manuscript pages. Particularly suitable for a Portuguese institutional collection, local historian or specialist collector of European legal manuscripts.