260 UN IVERSAL ERUDITION. 

 CHAP. XII. 



DIPLOMATICS 



TH I S fcience does not, nor can it, extend 

 its refearches to antiquity ; but is confined 

 to the middle age, and the firit centuries of mo- 

 dern times. For though the ancients were ac- 

 cuftomed to reduce their contracts and treaties 

 into writing, yet they graved them on tables, 

 or covered them over with wax, or brafs, cop- 

 per, ftone or wood, &c. And all that in the 

 firft ages were not traced on brafs or marble has 

 perimed by the length of time, and the number 

 of deftructive events. Notwithftanding which, 

 diplomatics mult not be regarded as a trifling 

 fcience, or as of mere cuviofity : on the contra- 

 ry, it is ufeful, indifpenfable, and of the greateft 

 importance to erudition in general, and to lite- 

 rature in particular. 



II. As the objects which enter into diploma- 

 tics, and on which it is exercifed, make it a 

 diftinct fcience, it is therefore only neceflary to 

 know thofe objects and their denominations, as 

 they have been defcribed by the learned of dif- 

 ferent ages. We fhall begin by explaining the 

 peculiar terms of the art ; and we imagine that 



it 



