Medieval treasure: Thousand-year-old manuscripts found in trash
In Portugal, in the city of Figueira da Foz, medieval manuscripts were discovered in a dumpster. After examination, it turned out that the oldest of them is over a thousand years old.
An extraordinary discovery was made in the Portuguese city of Figueira da Foz. A collection of medieval manuscripts, the oldest of over a thousand years old, was found in a dumpster. The newspaper "Público" reported on the matter. The case was solved because one of the medieval letters was put up for sale online.
The seller was unaware that the document originated from the 15th century and was authored by King Afonso V of Portugal. Initially, it was not even suspected that the document for sale was authentic.
Thousand-year-old documents in the trash
The owner of the manuscripts turned out to be the owner of a café in Figueira da Foz. In his possession were not only documents from the 15th century but also older ones dating back to the 11th century, a time before the formation of the Portuguese state. The authenticity of the documents was confirmed by historians from the Portuguese National Archive in Lisbon, known as Torre de Tombo.
Mário Rui, the café owner, admitted that after putting the letter up for sale for 400 euros (approximately 570 Canadian dollars), he received an inquiry from the National Archive regarding the manuscript. It was then he realized that he might have found very valuable documents.
It turned out that the letter put up for sale was written by King Afonso V on December 26, 1480, shortly before his death. Rui explained that he found the documents near the dumpster, wrapped in newspapers from the 1970s, after the Carnation Revolution.
Rui handed over all the documents he found to the state archive of Portugal, for which he received financial compensation. This discovery is of great historical importance and was made possible thanks to the accidental posting of one of the documents for sale online.
