848 
DIPLOMATICS. 
and fo forth. The collections that have been made of 
them, are called chartaria and chartulia. The place where 
thefe papers and documents were kept, the ancients 
named fcrinia, tabularium, or ararium, words that were 
derived from the tables of brafs, and, according to the 
Greek idiom, archnum or archivUm. On this fubjeCt there 
are two works which furnilh the cleared: information, 
and which may ferveas fare guides in the judgment we 
may have occafion to make on what are called ancient 
diplomas. The one is the celebrated treatife on the 
“ Diplomatique,” by F. Mabillon ; and the other, the 
fird volume of the “ Chronicon Gotvicenfe.” We there 
tind fpecimens of all the characters, the fiourifhes, and 
different methods of writing, of every age. 
In order to underhand the nature of diplomas, and an¬ 
cient manufcripts, and to diftinguilh the authentic from 
the counterfeit, it is necelfary to know that the paper 
of the ancients came from Egypt, and was formed of 
thin leaves or membranes, taken from the branches of a 
tree named papyrus, or biblum ALgyptiacum, and which were 
palled one over the other with the dime of the Nile, and 
were preffed and polilhed with a pumice-llone. This 
paper was very fcarce ; and it was of various qualities 
and forms, didinguidied by the names of charta kieratica , 
Luna, augujla, amphitkeatrica, Jaitica, tanirica, emporetica, 
&c. They cut this paper into fquare leaves, which they 
joined one to the other, in order to make rolls of them : 
from whence an entire book was called volumen , from 
volvendo ; and the leaves of which it confided, paging. 
Sometimes, alfo, they palled the leaves all together by 
one of their extremities ; by this method they formed 
the buck of a book, and thefe the learned call cordiccs. 
They rolled the volume round a dick, which they named 
umbilicus ; and the two ends that came out beyond the 
paper, cornua. The title, written on parchment, in pur¬ 
ple characters, was joined to the lad dieet, and ferved it 
as a cover. They made ufe of all forts of drings or rib¬ 
bands, and fometimes of locks, to clofe the book; and 
fometimes alio it was put into a cafe. But there is 
not now to be found, in any library or cabinet known, 
any one of thefe-ancient volumes. A late traveller, 
(Swinburne,) however, afferts, that he had feen feveral 
of them in the ruins of Herculaneum; but fo damaged, 
the paper fo diff and brittle, by the length of time, that 
it was impoflible to unrol them, for on the fird touch 
they fell to pieces. We are ignorant of the precife time 
when modern paper was invented; and when they began 
to make ufe of pens in writing, indead of the dalks of 
reeds. The ink that the ancients ufed, was not made 
of vitriol and galls, like the modern, but of foot. Some¬ 
times alfo they wrote with red ink, made of vermilion ; 
or in letters of gold, on purple or violet parchment. It 
is not difficult for thofe who apply themfelves to this 
ftudy, to didinguilh the parchment of the ancients from 
that of the moderns, as well as their ink and various ex¬ 
terior characters : but that which bed didinguidies the 
original from the counterfeit, is the writing or character 
itfelf; which is fo didinCtly diderent from one century 
to another, that on a ccmparifon we may tell with cer¬ 
tainty, within about forty or fifty years, when any di¬ 
ploma was written. 
All the diplomas are written in Latin, and confequently 
the letters and characters have a refemblance to each 
other: but there are certain drokes of the pen which 
didinguiffi not only the ages, but alfo the diderent na¬ 
tions; as the writings of the Lombards, French, Saxons, 
&c. The letters in the diplomas are alfo ufually longer, 
and not fo'drong as thofe of manufcripts. There has 
been alfo introduced a kind of court-hand, of a very dif- 
proportionate length, the letters of which are called 
exiles litter#, crijpee ac prctraEliorcs. The di d line of the 
diploma, the dgnature of the fovereign, that of the chan¬ 
cellor, notary, &c. are ufually written in this character. 
The dgnature of a diploma confids either of the dgn of 
the crofs, or of a monogram or cipher, compofed of the 
letters of the names of thofe who fubferibed it. The 
initial letters of the name, and fometimes alfo the titles, 
were placed about this crofs. By degrees the cudom 
changed, and they invented other marks; as for example, 
the dgn of Charlemagne was thus : 
R 
A 
K—--S 
V 
L 
They fometimes added alfo the dates and epoch of the 
dgnature, the feads of the church, the days of the ca¬ 
lendar, and other like matters. The fucceflive corrup¬ 
tion of the Latin language, the dyle and orthography of 
each age, as well as their diderent titles and forms; the 
abbreviations, accentuation, and punCtuation, and the 
various methods of writing the diphthongs ; all thefe 
matters united, form fo many characters and marks by 
which the authenticity of a diploma is to be afeertained. 
The feal annexed to a diploma was anciently of white 
wax, and imprinted on the parchment itfelf. It was af¬ 
terwards pendent from the paper, and inclofed in a box 
or cafe, which they called bulla. There are fome alfo 
that are damped on metal, and even on pure gold. When 
a diploma bears all the characters that are requifite to 
the time and place where it is fuppofed to have been 
written, its authenticity is not to be doubted: but, at 
the fame time, we cannot examine them too fcrupuloudy, 
feeing that the monks and prieds of former ages have 
been very adroit in making of counterfeits; and the more, 
as they enjoyed the confidence of princes and datefmen, 
and were even fometimes in poffeffion of their rings or 
feals. It is alfo alferted, by the writers on diplomatics, 
that the feals have been artfully taken oft’ from original 
diplomas, in order to forge others, or give a falfe tedi- 
mony to public acts, under colour of the genuine feal. 
To effeCl this, the waxen feal was a little heated, but 
not fo much as to injure the impreflion, and then it was 
carefully cut oft’ from the paper or parchment to which 
it was originally affixed, by a horfe’s hair; fo that it 
could then be eafily fixed upon any forged indrument, 
by heating it again on the under fide. This method, 
however, has been defeated in modern times, by the in¬ 
vention of fealing-wax, which cannot be cut off in this 
manner; fo that the fraud was praCtifed only in thofe 
ancient times when no other than common foft wax was 
known. 
With regard to manufcripts that were written before the 
invention of printing, it is neceffary to know their nature, 
their effential qualities, and matter; to be able to read 
them freely, and without error; to judge of their anti¬ 
quity by thofe characters which we have jud mentioned 
with regard to the diplomas ; and to render them of ufe 
in the fciences. As there are fcarcely any of the ancient 
codes now remaining written on the Egyptian paper, or on 
wood, ivory, &c. we have only to conlider thofe that are 
written on parchment or vellum (membraneos), and fuch 
as are written on our paper (chartaceosJ. The former of 
thefe are in mod edeem. With regard to the character, 
thefe codes are written either in fquare and capital letters, 
or in half fquare, or round and final 1 letters. Thofe of 
the fird kind are the mod ancient. There are no inter¬ 
vals between the words, no letters different from the 
others at the beginning of any word, no points, nor any 
other diftinCtion. The codes which are wrote in letters 
that are half fquare, relemble thofe we have in Gothic 
characters, as well for the age as the form of the letters. 
Such as are wrote in round letters are not fo ancient as 
tlie former, and do not go higher than tiie ninth or tenth 
century. Thefe have fpaces between the words, and 
fome punctuation. They are likewife not fo well wrote 
as the preceding, and are frequently disfigured with com¬ 
ments. The codes are divided, according to the country, 
into Lombard, Italian, Gaulic, Franco-Gaulic, Saxon, 
Anglo-Saxon, &c. 
In 
