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DIPLOMATIC
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DIPLOMATIC
, the See also:science of diplomas, founded on the See also:critical study of the " diplomatic " See also:sources of See also:history: diplomas, charters, acts, See also:treaties, contracts, judicial records, rolls, chartularies, registers, &c
.
The employment of the word " diploma," as a See also:general See also:term to designate an See also:historical document, is of comparatively See also:recent date
.
The See also:Roman diploma, so called because it was formed of two sheets of See also:metal which were shut together (Gr
.
&z-).ovv, to See also:double) like the leaves of a See also:book, was the pass-See also:port or See also:licence to travel by the public See also:post; also, the certificate of See also:discharge, conferring privileges of citizenship and See also:marriage on soldiers who had served their See also:time; and, later, any imperial See also: In See also:Spain, the Benedictine See also:Perez published, in 1688, a See also:series of See also:dissertations following the See also:line of Mabillon's work . In See also:England, Madox's Formulare Anglicanum, with a dissertation concerning ancient charters and See also:instruments, appeared in 1702, and in 1705 See also:Hickes followed with his Linguarum septentrionalium See also:thesaurus, both accepting the principles laid down by the learned Benedictine . In See also:Italy, See also:Maffei appeared with his Istoria diplomatica in 1727, and See also:Muratori, in 1740, introduced dissertations on diplomatic into his great work, the Antiquitates Italicae . In See also:Germany, the first diplomatic work of importance was that by See also:Bessel, entitled Chronicon Qotwicense and issued in 1732; and this was followed closely by similar works of See also:Baring, Eckhard and Heumann . France, however, had been the See also:cradle of the science, and that See also:country continued to be the See also:home of its development . Mabillon had not taken See also:cognizance of documents later than the 13th See also:century . Arising out of a discussion relative to the origin of the abbey of St See also:Victor en Caux and the authenticity of its archives, a more comprehensive work than Mabillon's was compiled by the two Benedictines, Dom Toustain and Dom Tassin, viz. the Nouveau Traite de diplomatique, in six volumes, 1750-1765, which embraced more than diplomatic proper and extended to all branches of Latin See also:palaeography . With great See also:industry the compilers gathered together a See also:mass of details; but their arrangement is faulty, and the text is broken up into such a multitude of divisions and subdivisions that it is tediously See also:minute . However, its more extended See also:scope has given the Nouveau Traite an ad-vantage over Mabillon's work, and modern compilations have See also:drawn largely upon it . As a result of the Revolution, the archives of the middle ages lost in France their juridical and legal value; but this rather tended to enhance their historical importance . The See also:taste for historical literature revived . The Academie des See also:Inscriptions fostered it .
In r821 the Ecole des Chartes was founded; and, after a few years of incipient inactivity, it received a further impetus, in 1829, by the issue of a royal See also:ordinance re-establishing it
.
Thenceforth it has been an active centre for the teaching and for the encouragement of the study of diplomatic throughout the country, and has produced results which other nations may envy
.
Next to France, Germany and See also:Austria are distinguished as countries where activity has been displayed in the systematic study of diplomatic archives, more or less with the support of the See also:state
.
In Italy, too, diplomatic science has not been neglected
.
In England, after a See also:long See also:period of regrettable indifference to the study of the See also:national and municipal archives of the country, some effort has been made in recent years to remove the reproach
.
The publications of the Public See also:Record See also:Office and of the See also:department of See also:MSS. in the See also:British Museum are more numerous and are issued more regularly than in former times; and an awakened See also:interest is manifested by the foundation in the See also:universities of a few lectureships in diplomatic and palaeography, and by the See also:attention which those subjects receive in such an institution as the See also:London School of See also:Economics, and in the publications of private literary See also:societies
.
But such efforts can never show the systematic results which are to be attained by a See also:special institution of the See also:character of the French Ecole des Chartes
.
Extent of the Science.—The See also: Those ages inherited the documentary system which had been created and See also:developed by the See also:Romans; and, imperfect and limited in number as are the earliest surviving charters and diplomas of See also:European See also:medieval history, they See also:present themselves to us fully developed and See also:cast in the See also:mould and employing the methods and formulae of the earlier tradition . Based on this foundation the chanceries of the severalcountries of Europe, as they came into existence and were organized, reduced to method and See also:rule on one general system the various documents which the exigencies of public and of private life from time to time called into existence, each individual See also:chancery at the same time following its own line of practice in detail, and evolving and confirming particular formulas which have become characteristic of it . See also:Classification of Documents.—If we classify these documents under the two See also:main heads of public and private deeds, we shall have to See also:place in the former See also:category the legislative, administrative, judicial, diplomatic documents emanating from public authority in public See also:form: laws, constitutions, ordinances, privileges, grants and concessions, proclamations, decrees, judicial records, pleas, treaties; in a word, every See also:kind of See also:deed necessary for the orderly government of a civilized state . In early times many of these were comprised under the general term of " letters," litterae, and to the large number of them which were issued in open form and addressed to the community the specific See also:title of " letters patent," litterae patentes, was given . In contradistinction those public documents which were issued in closed form under See also:seal were known as " See also:close letters," litterae ciausae . Such public documents belong to the state archives of their several countries, and are the monuments of administrative and See also:political and domestic history of a nation from one See also:generation to another . In no country has so perfect a series been preserved as in our own . Into the Public Record Office in London have been brought together all the collections of state archives which were formerly stored in different See also:official repositories of the See also:kingdom . Beginning with the great survey of Domesday, long series of enrolments of state documents, in many instances extending from the times of the Angevin kings to our own See also:day in almost unbroken sequence, besides thousands of See also:separate deeds of all descriptions, are therein preserved (see RECORD) . Under the category of private documents must be included, not only the deeds of individuals, but also those of corporate bodies representing private interests and See also:standing in the position of individual See also:units in relation to the state, such as municipal bodies and monastic See also:foundations . The largest class of documents of this character is composed of those numerous conveyances of real See also:property and other title deeds of many descriptions and dating from early periods which are commonly described by the generic name of " charters," and which are to be'found in thousands, not only in such public repositories as the Public Record Office and the British Museum, but also in the archives of municipal and other corporate bodies throughout the country and in the See also:muniment-rooms of old families . There are also the records of the manorial courts preserved in countless See also:court-rolls and registers; also the scattered muniments of the dissolved monasteries represented by the many collections of charters and the valuable chartularies, or registers of charters, which have fortunately survived and exist both in public and in private keeping . It will be noticed that in this enumeration of public and private documents in England reference is made to rolls . The practice of entering records on rolls has been in favour in England from a very. early date subsequent to the See also:Norman See also:Conquest; and while in other countries the comprehensive term of " charters " (literally " papers ": Gr. xaprgs) is employed as a general description of documents of the middle ages, in England the See also:fuller phrase " charters and rolls " is required . The See also:master of the rolls, the Magister Rotulorum, is the official keeper of the public records . From the great See also:body of records, both public and private, many fall easily and naturally into the class in which the text takes a simpler narrative form; such as judicial records, laws, decrees, proclamations, registers, &c., which tell their own See also:story in formulae and phraseology early developed and requiring little See also:change . These we may leave on one See also:side . For fuller description we select those deeds which, conferring grants and favours and privileges, conform more nearly to the See also:idea of the Roman diploma and have received the special attention of the chanceries in the development and arrangement of their formulae and in their methods of See also:execution . All such medieval deeds are composed of certain recognized members or sections, some essential, others special and See also:peculiar to the most elaborate and See also:solemn documents . A deed of Structure the more elaborate character is made up of two See also:principal °f See also:ate"- divisions: I. the TEXT, in which is set out the See also:object of vaI the deed, the statement of the considerations and en-cumdiplomas. stances which have led to it, and the See also:declaration of the will and intention of the See also:person executing the deed,. together with such protecting clauses as the particular circumstances of the case may require; 2. the See also:PROTOCOL (originally, the first See also:sheet of a See also:papyrus See also:roll ; Gr. lrpwros, first, and ,coaxav, to See also:glue); consisting of the See also:introductory and of the concluding formulae: superscription, address, salutation, &c., at the beginning, and date, formulae of execution, &c., at the end, of the deed . The latter portion of the protocol is sometimes styled the eschatocol (Gr. fo- aros, last, and KoXXav, to glue) . While the text followed certain formulae which had become fixed by See also:common usage, the protocol was always special and varied with the practices of the several chanceries, changing in a sovereign chancery with each successive reign . The different sections of a full deed, taking them in order under the heads of Initial Protocol, Text and Final Protocol or Eschatocol, are as follows :—The initial protocol consists of the Invocation, the The In"' Superscription, the Address and the Salutation . 1 . The cation . INVOCATION, lending a character of sanctity to`'the See also:pro- ceedings, might be either verbal or symbolic . The verbal invocation consisted usually of some pious ejaculation, such as In nomine Dei, In nomine doming nostri Jesu Christi; from the 8th century, In nomine Sanctae et individuae Trinitatis ; and later, In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti . The symbolic form was usually the chrismon, or See also:monogram composed of the See also:Greek See also:initials XP of the name of See also:Christ . In the course of the loth and I ith centuries this See also:symbol came to be so scrawled that it had probably lost all meaning with the See also:scribes . From the 9th century the See also:letter C (initial of Christus) came gradually into use, and in :See also:German imperial diplomas it superseded the chrismon . Stenographic signs of the system known as Tironian notes were also sometimes added to this symbol down to the end of the loth century, expressing such a phrase as Ante omnia Christus, or Christus`, or See also:Amen . From the Merovingian period, too, a See also:cross was often used . The symbol gradually died out after the I2th century for general use, surviving only in notarial instruments The and See also:wills . 2.The SUPERSCRIPTION (superscriptio,intitulatio) Super- expressed the name and titles of the grantor or person scNption. issuing the deed . 3 . The ADDRESS . As diplomas were originally in epistolary form the address was then a necessity . While in Merovingian deeds the old See also:pattern was adhered The to, in the Carolingian period the address was sometimes Address. omitted . From the 8th century it was not considered neces- sary, and a distinction arose in the case of royal acts, those having the address being styled letters, and those omitting it, charters . The general form of address ran in phrase as See also:Omnibus Thesalu (or Universis) Christi fidelibus presentes litteras ins pecturis . ninon . 44 The SALUTATION was expressed in such words as Salutem; Salutem et dilectionem; Salutem et apostolicam benedictionem, but it was not essential . Then follows the text in five sections: the See also:Preamble, the Notification, the Exposition, the Disposition and the Final Clauses . 5 . The The PREAMBLE (prologus, arenga) : an ornamental introduction Preamble. generally composed of pious or moral sentiments, a prefatio ad captandam benevolentiam which facit ad See also:ornament um, degenerating into tiresome platitudes . It became stereotyped at an early See also:age: in the loth and See also:firth Notl- centuries it was a most ornate performance; in the The nastier] . 12th century it was cut See also:short; in the 13th century it died out . 6 . The NOTIFICATION (n'ptiftcatio, promulgatio) was the publication of the purport of the deed introduced by Bx- such a phrase as notum sit, &c . 7 . The EXPOSITION The set out the motives influencing the issue of the deed . 8 . The position . DISPOSITION described the object of the deed and the will The Dls- and intention of the grantor . 9 . The FINAL CLAUSES en-TheFinal n' sured the fulfilment of the terms of the deed; guarded The Fe against infringement, by comminatory anathemas and See also:im-Clauss. precations, not infrequently of a vehement description, or by penalties; guaranteed the validity of the deed; enumerated the formalities of subscription and execution; reserved rights, &c . Next comes the final protocol or eschatocol comprising: the Date, the Appreciation, the Authentication . It was particularly in this portion of the deed that the varying practices of the several chanceries led to minute and intricate distinctions at The Date different periods. to . The DATE . By the Roman See also:law every See also:act must be dated by the day and the See also:year of execution .
Yet in the middle ages, from the 9th to the See also:lath century, a large proportion of deeds bears no date
.
In the most ancient charters the date clause was frequently separated from the body of the deed and placed in an isolated position at the See also:foot of the sheet
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From the lath century it commonly followed the text immediately
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Certain classes of documents, such as decrees of See also:councils, notarial deeds, &c., began withthe date
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The usual See also:formula was data, datum, actum, factum, scriptum
...
In the Carolingian period a distinction See also:grew up between datum and actum, the former applying to the time, the latter to the place, of date
.
In the papal chancery from an early period down to the 12th century the use of a double date prevailed, the first following the text and being inserted by the See also:scribe when the deed was written (scriptum), the second being added at the foot of the deed on its execution (actum), by the See also:chancellor or other high functionary
.
From the Roman See also:custom of dating by the consular year arose the medieval practice of dating by the regnal year of See also:emperor, See also: In Merovingian and Carolingian diplomas it follows the date; in other cases it closes the text . In the greater papal bulls it appears in the form of a triple Amen . Benevalete was also employed as the appreciation in early deeds; but in Merovingian diplomas and in papal bulls this valedictory salutation becomes a See also:mark of authentication, as will be noticed below . I2 . The AUTHENTICATION was a solemn proceeding which was discharged by more than The Au-one act . The most important was the subscription or thentica• subscriptions of the person or persons from whom the deed See also:lion . emanated . The laws of the See also:late Roman See also:empire required the subscriptions and the impressions of the signet See also:seals of the parties and of the witnesses to the deed . The subscription (subscriptio) com-, prised the name, See also:signature and description of the person See also:signing . The impression of the signet (not the signature) was the signum, sometimes signaculum, rarely sigillum . The practice of subscribing with the autograph signature obtained in the early middle ages, as appears from early documents such as those of See also:Ravenna . But from the 7th century it began to decline, and by the lath century it had practically ceased .
In Roman deeds an illiterate person affixed his. mark, or signum manuale, which was attested
.
The cross being an easy form for a mark, it was very commonly used and naturally became connected with the See also:Christian symbol
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Hence, in course of time, it came to be attached very generally to subscriptions, auto-graph or otherwise
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Great personages who were illiterate required something more elaborate than a common mark: Hence arose the use of the monogram, the caracter nominis, composed of the letters of the name
.
The emperor See also:Justin, who could not write, made use of a monogram, as did also See also:Theodoric, king of the See also:Ostrogoths
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Those Merovingian kings, likewise, who were illiterate, had their individual monograms; and at length See also:Charlemagne adopted the monogram as his See also:regular form of signature
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From his reign down to that of See also:
If not autograph, the subscription might be impersonal in such form as signum (or signum manus) + N. in the Carolingian period, while phrases were constantly used in the body of the deed implying that it was executed by autograph subscription, it did not necessarily follow that such subscription was actually written in person
.
The ruche was also adopted by chancellors, notaries and scribes as their official mark
.
While autograph subscriptions continued to be employed, chiefly by ecclesiastics, down to the beginning of the 12th century, the monogram was perpetuated from the loth century by the notaries
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Their marks, simple at first, became so elaborate from the end of the 13th century that they found it necessary to add their names in See also:ordinary See also:writing, or also to employ a less complicated See also:design
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This was the commencement of the modern practice of writing the signature which first came into See also:vogue in the 14th century
.
To lend further See also:weight and authority to the subscription, certain symbols and forms were added at different periods
.
Imitating, the corroborative Legi of the See also:Byzantine See also:quaestor and the Legimus of the Eastern emperors, the Frankish chancery in the See also:West made use of the same form, notably in the reign of See also: From the beginning of the i 1th century it became the See also:fashion to See also:link the letters; and, dating from the time of See also:Leo IX., A.D . 1048-1054, the Benevalete was inscribed in form of a monogram . During Leo's pontificate it was also accompanied with a flourish called the Komma, which was only an exaggeration of the mark of See also:punctuation (periodus) which from the 9th to the 11th century closed the subscription and generally resembled the modern semicolon . Leo's successors abandoned the Komma, but the monogrammatic Benevaletc continued, invariable in form, but from time to time varying in See also:size . In Leo IX.'s pontificate also was introduced the See also:Rota . This sign, when it had received its final shape in the The Rota. nth century, was in form of a See also:wheel, composed of two concentric circles, in the space between which was written the See also:motto or See also:device of the pope (signum papae), usually a short See also:sentence from one of the See also:Psalms or some other portion of Scripture; preceded by a small cross, which the pontiff himself sometimes inscribed . The central space within the wheel was divided (by cross lines) into four quarters, the two upper ones being occupied by the names of the apostles St See also:Peter and St See also:Paul, and the two See also:lower ones by the name of the pope . The Rota was placed on the See also:left of the subscription, the monogrammatic Benevalete on the right . The two signs were likewise adopted by certain ecclesiastical chanceries and by feudal lords, particularly in the 12th century . From the same period also the See also:Spanish and Portuguese monarchs adopted the Rota, the, signo rodado, which is so conspicuous in the royal charters of the See also:Peninsula . Besides the subscription, an early See also:auxiliary method of authentication was by the impression of the seal which, as noticed above, was sealing. required by the Roman law . But the general use of the signet gradually failed, and by the 7th century it had ceased . Still it survived in the royal chanceries, and the sovereigns both of the Merovingian and of the Carolingian lines had their seals; and, in the 8th century, the mayors of the See also:palace like-See also:wise . It is interesting to find instances of the use of See also:antique intaglios for the purpose by some of them . In England too there is See also:proof that the Mercian kings See also:Offa and Coenwulf used seals, in See also:imitation of the Frankish monarchs . In the 7th century, and still more so in the 8th and 9th centuries, the royal seals were of exaggerated size: the precursors of the great seals of the later sovereigns of western Europe . The waxen seals of the early diplomas were in all cases en See also:placard: that is, they were attached to the See also:face of the document and not suspended from it, being held in position by a cross-cut incision in the material, through which the See also:wax was pressed and then flattened at the back . On the cessation of autograph signatures in subscriptions, the general use of seals revived, beginning in the loth century and becoming the ordinary method of authentication from the 12th to the 15th century inclusive . Even when signatures had once again become universal, the seal continued to hold its place; and thus sealing is, to the present day, required for the legal execution of a deed . The See also:attachment en placard was discontinued, as a general practice, in the middle of the I1th century; and seals thenceforward were, for the most part, suspended, leathern thongs being used at first, and afterwards silken and hempen cords or See also:parchment labels . In documents of See also:minor importance it was sometimes the custom to impress the seal or seals on one or more strips of the parchment of the deed itself, cut, but not entirely detached, from the lower margin, and left to hang loose . Besides waxen impressions of seals, Impressions in metal, bearing a device on both faces, after the fashion of a See also:coin, and suspended, were employed from an early period . The most widely known instances are the bullae attached to papal documents, generally of See also:lead . The earliest surviving papal bulla is one of Pope See also:Zacharias, A.D . 746, but earlier examples are known from drawings . The papal bulla was a disk of metal stamped on both sides . From the time of See also:Boniface V. to Leo IV., A.D . 617-855, the name of the pontiff, in the genitive case, was impressed on the obverse, and his title as pope on the See also:reverse, e.g . Bonifati/ papae . After that period, for some time, the name was inscribed in a circle See also:round a central ornament . Other See also:variations followed; but at length in the pontificate of See also:Paschal II., A.D . 1099, the bulla took the form which it afterwards retained: on the obverse, the heads of the apostles St Peter and St Paul; on the reverse, the pope's name, title and number in See also:succession . In the period of time between his See also:election and See also:consecration, the pope made use of the See also:half-See also:bull, that is, the obverse only was impressed . It should be mentioned that, in order to conform to modern conditions and for convenience of despatch through the post, Leo XIII., in 1878, substituted for the leaden See also:band a red See also:ink See also:stamp bearing the heads of the two apostles with the name of the pope inscribed as a See also:legend . The Carolingian monarchs also used metal bullae . None of Charlemagne's have survived, but there are still extant leaden examples of Charles the Bald .
The use of lead was not persisted in either in the chancery of France or in that of Germany
.
See also:Golden bullae were employed on special occasions by both popes and temporal monarchs; for example, they were attached to the confirmations of the elections of the emperors in the 12th and 13th centuries; the bull of Leo X. conferring the title of Defender of the Faith on See also: |