Topónimos documentados en el Libro de Apeos de Mansilla Mayor (León, 1746)

The «Libro de Apeos» (i.e., Land Registry file) of Mansilla Mayor is an 18th century document, handwritten in one volume and kept in the town’s church, in which the boundary lines of all the land of the inhabitants of that time, including those of the church itself, are recorded. Mansilla Mayor is a town in the province of Leon, located in the Esla-Campos Leonese region. Among its archaeological and monumental heritage is the settlement of the Asturian and Roman city of Lancia and the Cistercian monastery of Santa Maria de Sandoval (12th century). Linguistically speaking, the area is located within the central Asturian-Leonese dialect. This paper compiles all the place-names cited in that document and verifies those that are still known by the town's residents, which are reduced to 35 or 40% of all the place-names documented in that manuscript. The analysis of the document demonstrates the existence of traditional toponymic forms (such as Llama, Castro, prefix so- and sobre-, abundant in -al, keeping the group -mb-, among others), which allows us to draw conclusions related to linguistic uses in the Old Leonese territory. In this sense, and in relation to vocabulary, it is interesting to find documented voices whose use has currently disappeared completely or is in frank retreat, such as the words ejido, ferrenal or ferrenal or two abundant phytoponimics such as olmar and ponjal. The combination of properties undergone in the area as well as the alarming decrease in the population of the municipality make the collection and documentation of this toponymic heritage that is in danger of disappearing urgent.