A cartulary or chartulary (pronunciation: /ˈkɑrtjʊləri/, Latin: cartularium or chartularium), also called Pancarta and Codex Diplomaticus, is a medieval manuscript volume or roll (rotulus) containing transcriptions of original documents relating to the foundation, privileges, and legal rights of ecclesiastical establishments, municipal corporations, industrial associations, institutions of learning, or private families. The term is sometimes also applied to collections of original documents bound in one volume or attached to one another so as to form a roll. The word is formed from two Latin words, for a collection of charters – "an officer in charge of it."
The allusion of Gregory of Tours to chartarum tomi in the 6th century is commonly taken to refer to cartularies. The oldest surviving cartularies, however, originated in the 10th century.[1] Those from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries are very numerous.
Generally speaking, a cartulary, attested by the signatures or marks of a number of prominent individuals, ranks as a public document possessing greater value than a private letter or the narrative of an annalist.
Sometimes the copyist of the cartulary reproduced the original document with literary exactness. On the other hand, some copyists took liberties with the text, including modifying the phraseology, modernizing proper names of persons and places, and even changing the substance, such as to extend the scope of the privileges or immunities granted in the document. The value of a cartulary as a historical document depends not only on the extent to which it faithfully reproduces the substance of the original, but also, if edited, the clues it contains to the motivation for those changes. These questions are generally the subject of scrutiny under well-known canons of historical criticism.
No complete inventory of the cartularies of the various institutions of the Middle Ages exists, but many cartularies of medieval monasteries and churches have been published, more or less completely. The "Catalogue général des cartulaires des archives départementales" (Paris, 1847) and the "Inventaire des cartulaires" etc. (Paris, 1878–9) are the chief sources of information regarding the cartularies of medieval France. For the principal English (printed) cartularies, see Gross, "Sources and Literature of English History," etc. (London, 1900), 204–7 and 402–67. The important cartulary of the University of Paris was edited by Father Denifle, O.P., and M. Chatelain, "Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis" (Paris, 1889, sqq).
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A cartulary is formally a book or a medieval "codex" where documents, chronicles or other kinds of handwritten texts were compiled, transcribed or copied. Many definitions should be given, because the cartulary is a medieval documentary type that functioned like a handwritten technology.
Michael Clanchy attended to the monastic origin of both chronicles and cartularies, and he defines the latter as "a collection of title deeds copied into a register for greater security".[2]
In the introduction to the book entitled Les Cartulaires, it is argued that in the contemporary diplomatic world it was common to provide a strict definition as the organized, selective, or exhaustive transcription of diplomatic records, made by the owner of them or by the producer of the archive where the documents are preserved.[3]
In the Dictionary of Archival Terminology a cartulary is defined as "a register, usually in volume form, of copies of charters, title deeds, grants of privileges and other documents of significance belonging to a person, family or institution".[4] In 1938, the French historian, Emile Lesne, wrote: "Every Cartulary is the testimony of the statement of the Archives in a Church at the time when it was compiled".[5]
The related terms in other languages are: Cartularium (Latin); Kopiar, Kopialbuch (German), Chartular (Oes.); Cartolario, cartulario, cartario (Italian); Cartulario (Spanish).
In medieval Normandy, a type of cartulary was common from the early 11th century that combined a record of gifts to the monastery with a short narrative. These works are known as pancartes.[6]
The late Roman/Byzantine chartularius was an administrative and fiscal official. In the Greek Orthodox Church, the corresponding position was called chartophylax. This title was also given to an ancient officer in the Roman Church, who had the care of charters and papers relating to public affairs. The chartulary presided in ecclesiastical judgments, in lieu of the Pope.