32 ON ERRATA RECEPTA. 



of the pontifex maximus regeruntur—oxQ orderly recorded for refer- 

 ence. "We have but slightly changed the word protocol (Ital. proto- 

 collo), but we have departed to some extent from its first acceptation.— 

 The increase of forgeries induced Justinian* to give orders that no 

 public documents should be held valid which were not written on a 

 certain kind of paper, on sheets having inscribed on them by autho- 

 rity the name of the Comes largitionum for the time being. Sheets with 

 this inscription as a heading duly attached were termed protocols 

 (protos, colla-ein to affix). In diplomacy the documents which form 

 the groundwork of negotiations between imperial or regal plenipo- 

 tentiaries are still called protocols. Such papers are accredited as 

 issuing from the crowned heads themselves. 



• Vide iVoreWae Jwst, ConstitutioneSy xiy . c. 2. (A.D. 537.) 

 Illud quoque praesenti adjicimus legi, ut tabelliones non in aliS, charta pura 

 scribant documenta, nisi in ilia quae in initio (quod vocant protocoUum) per 

 tempora gloriosissimi comitis sacrarum nostrarum largitionum habeat appella- 

 tionem, et tempus quo charta facta est, et quaecunque in talibus scribuntur : et 

 ut protocollum non incidant, sed insertum relinquant: novimus enim multas 

 falsitates ex talibus cbartis ostentas et prius et nunc : ideoque licet aliqua sit 

 cbarta (nam et hoc sancimus) babens protocollum non ita conscriptum, sed 

 aliam quandam scripturam gerens, neque illam suscipiant, tanquam adulteram, 

 et ad talia non opportunam, sed in sola tali charta qualem dudum diximus, docu- 

 menta scribant. Haec itaque quae de qualitate talium chartarum a nobi- 

 decreta sunt, et de incisione eorum qune vocantur protocoUa, valere in hac felis 

 cissima solum civitate volumus, ubi plurima quidem contrahentium multitudo, 

 multa quoque chartarum abundantia est, et licet legali modo interesse negotiis, 

 et non dare occasionem quibusdam falsitatene committem, cui se obnoxios exis- 

 tere demonstrabunt, qui praeter haec aliquid agere prsesumpserint. To this 

 Godofredus (Corpus Juris Civilis, Tom. iii. Col. 115.) adjoins the explanatorj 

 note : " Protocollum non est major et regia charta velut quidam opinantur: nee 

 est scheda negligentius scripta. Non est etiam exemplar formularum quo tabel- 

 liones uti Solent : sed brevis adnotatio, quae declarabat quo Comite largitionum 

 (sub cujus cura erant chartariae), quo tempore et a quo praeparatae fuissent 

 ehartae." — In " quidam opinantur" Godofredus probably glances at the definition 

 in Calepinus : " Proprie dicitur illud quod breviter et succinct^ a tabellione nota- 

 tur, ut postea per otium quoties opus, latius possit extendi." Calepinus then 

 refers to his remarks under Macrocolon, where he says that macracola are "majores 

 et longiores ehartae, quas nos hodie chartas regias vocamus ;" but he does not 

 cay this of protocola. Previous to Calepinus, Tortelius De Orthographid had 

 also given as one of the interpretations of protocoUum— '^ prima ilia et raptim 

 confecta scriptura quae aliam magis compositam desiderat." The notion is ad- 

 mitted by both Calepinus and Tortelius that colon, i.e. membrum, is a factor of 

 pretocollum. — Meursius, Glossarium Graeco-barbarum, p. 460, defines protocollum 

 to be " Liber in quo acta a tabulariis perscribebantur." 



