Re: Quite TAN but contemporary and possibly interesting --- Aksum

Ralph Hancock <[email protected]> Sun, 15 Dec 2019 03:59:37 +0000

Newsgroups	gmane.education.classics
Message-ID	<CALBWZwawL3u3U-_JSCzjum+iPSt5=ME-_66w72u5z_wTG4MTcg@mail.gmail.com>

The ancient method of making an agreement by cutting something in two
survived well into the 18th century with the 'indenture' -- literally 'a
toothed thing'. A contract, for example for an apprenticeship, would be
written in duplicate on a sheet, which would then be cut in half between
the two texts in a random zigzag. Each party to the contract would keep one
half. Its validity could be verified by matching it to the other half to
see if the cut edges fitted together.

A fancy ecclesiastical indenture dating from 1252 at
https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FIndenture%23%2Fmedia%2FFile%3ACarta_de_la_Clerec%25C3%25ADa_de_Ledesma._1252.jpg&amp;data=02%7C01%7CCLASSICS-L%40lsv.uky.edu%7C0a035ba7431f4158bc6408d781133cff%7C2b30530b69b64457b818481cb53d42ae%7C0%7C0%7C637119791954100254&amp;sdata=eQeJ2XF0Jf%2BNye%2FUyYrzaOIcZflY8eyVITcb0trE2u0%3D&amp;reserved=0


And a more prosaic printed one for an impoverished 18th century migrant
working his passage from Ireland to America at
https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.virginiamemory.com%2Fblogs%2Fout_of_the_box%2Fwp-content%2Fblogs.dir%2F5%2Ffiles%2Findentured-servants%2Findenture001_it.jpg&amp;data=02%7C01%7CCLASSICS-L%40lsv.uky.edu%7C0a035ba7431f4158bc6408d781133cff%7C2b30530b69b64457b818481cb53d42ae%7C0%7C0%7C637119791954100254&amp;sdata=6OkvKvESjnCoJUg3xUxAmzDDWOyHvwHjYj7oiRR9DKs%3D&amp;reserved=0


RH