DIPLOMATICS. | : 
cient importance, and they have been conftantly employed 
ci that time by kings, princes, bifhops, abbots, noble- 
men 
t no document was re 
puted valid unlefs etl fealed ; indeed the feal fupelied 
the ‘ony - almo the other formalities, 
was an ciently of white wax a aes ted on the 
Breen! "ittelf, figillam 1 impreffum method of feal- 
in England until oe the confeffor and 
illiam the conqueror, or th 1087; in France 
i $ 0 oe in G&rman sain 
nd as in France ce. aor apna 
intil Charles 1. oe wax 3 appropriated 
to the fealing a cia rters, See SEA 
Latin was the diplomatic - gongs in both the eaftern 
and weftern empire until the year of our era 602, after 
which the Greek ites alone was ufed in the documents 
of the eaftern, and the Latin in thofe of the weltern em- 
The Greek was alfo the diplomatic language of the 
ici i Ith, cae an 
anguage were u aia "indifferently, ie AaoGu a 
ill the 13th century, except that from Wil- 
iam the corqueror t III. the French was the 
disloaaee language in public tranfactions ; but private do- 
cuments continued to be written in the Anglo-faxon. Th 
Latin was ely raephaee the Englifh language 
alone employed after — 
Every document ee ee (prologus), a text, 
(textus), and a eouelules (epilogus). The formule prologi 
were invocatio divina, nomen et titulus, promulgatio, exor- 
ao 
The invocations ufed “ander the firft Carolingians were : 
“Tn nomine Dei et Salvatoris noftri Jefu Chrifti ;?? or “ In 
nomine patris et filii et Spiritus San@ii.”? After Charles the 
ald; “In nomine San&te et individue Trinitatis;*? and in 
a fuppofed document of Henry II. bein the duchy of Be- 
nevent, 0 the year 1014; * In nomine domini Dei omni- 
potentis aes filii et Spiritus s Sanéti,” which affords an ad- 
of the unauthesti ag . pias document, Ta 
omitted 
but in the year 1512, 
the a notaries to ufe the invocatio divina in their in- 
ftrumen 
With aan to the name and title, the pronoun ego or 
nos was not prefixed to the names before the middle of the 
thirteenth century. Until the aaa ae there never was 
one Chriftian name. Of the 
in England, there was eit on 
chief, or ae poy monarch above the other fix. 
in the year 730, is on that account ftyled 
although he was only Rex Merciorum. The 
ia were frequently exprefled by ‘ Divina clementia ; 
nte clem entia $ divina concedente, auxiliante, 
juvante, prelates proptiante, by eae oe aacanlag mi- 
feranda, preordinante clem common is 
ff. 
the motives of the teantediion, goers were derived ‘a pio, 
OL. 
ab honefto, ab utili, a decoro, &c.;” for inftance  Quia 
memoria hominum labilis eft, et tempora pretereunt more 
fluentis zque.’ 
In the text itfelf we may obferve, that ever fince Otte 
the Great, kings and emperors, in fpeaking of themfelves, 
ufe the expre “fflons * celiitudo, majeftas, ferenitas, rezalis 
magnificentia, fublimitas, regale culmen.” 
confilio principum, are not to be found = efore ge _ cen- 
tury, and the term feudum appears o nly ia the time o 2 
emperor Frederick, Tiil then it is always vale benef 
cium. 
The concluficn, or a ak alas the formula robo- 
randi, as for inftance: ‘¢ Et uctoritas noftra firma 
fiabilifque permaneat, char oe ‘ine confcribi juffimus.”” 
Tt was fometimes itrengthened by appa or by maledic- 
tions, of which there are inftances of the m ocking nature 
7, euck feld’s canto eke WwW ica cahoe. 
Pp. 31, and in ee see of documents. 
tions the witneffes, the dat 
refolved upon, hich is alld —. and t 
for inftance ; “ in Dei ine,” or *in Dei 
amen,” or * iieia amen,’? or ee * feliciter.” 
votum finale is frequently omitted. 
Thus the different hand. oe of the different ages; 
the materials on, and with which the documents are written ; 
their accentuation, poneaten eal abbreviations ; their 
ams, and feals; ; the langua age, 
ach age, a8 seal as the different 
mulas, &c, conflitute fo many charac 
a diploma or cpararanae is td 
rks 
in ° e 
a 
mine a. 
But th 
fiyle, and. pa ie ae 
inchoative and final for 
ters by which the authenticity 0 l 
be afcertained. When it bears all the m 
quifite for the time ai and the pface a it is fuppofed 
to be written, its authenticity is no longer to 
but documents canno 
ected that they enjoyed the confidence of princes and ftatef- 
Be Hg and were even fometimes in poffeffion of their rings and 
eals 
With re se - manvufcripts or books written before th 
invention of printing, the art of judging of their antiquity 
and Gites de real authors, 13 a branch of literary cri« 
ticifm, and not of diplomatics. (See Criticism, Manu: 
SCRIPT.) | 
{cience of diplomatics owes its origin toa Jefuit of 
matica,”” ae al in 1681 (fee Mas pie on » which was 
unjuftly and fee npeoaty | attacked in England by the cele- 
brated Hickes, in his « Ling. veter. Septentr. Thefaurus. 
Prafatio,” p. xxxv. ‘The Italian M-ffci’s diplomatic hittory 
is but a fuppl ement to Mabillon. But it is to Touffaint and 
; a aoe monks o - sree t 
work extant i 
oO 
mann von Teutfchen 
« Commentar. de Re Diplom. Imper.’’ was publifhed in 4to. 
at Nurenberg in the year 1 745 5: The * DiGionnaire raifonné 
de D:plomatique,” by de Vaines, Paris, 1774, 2 vols, 
vo. is a compilation aoa to affit beginaoers in the 
a 
fence. 
Diplomatics have been lately reduced to a complete fyf- 
4U tematical 
