DIPTYCH
22
DIPTYCH
Dom Ruinart. Seeing, however, that this pioneer
work had not extended to any documents later than
the thirteenth century and had taken no account of
certain classes of papers, such as the ordinary letters
of the popes and privileges of a more private character,
two other Benedictines of St-Maur, Dom Toustain and
Dom Tassin, compiled a work in six large quarto vol-
umes, with many facsimiles etc., known as the " Nou-
veau Traite de Diplomatique" (Paris, 1750-1765),
which, though it marks but a small advance on Mabil-
ion's own treatise, has been widely used, and has been
presented in a more summary form by Dom Vaines
and others.
With the exception of some useful works specially consecrated to particular countries (e. g. Maffei, " Is- toria diplomatica", Mantua, 1727, unfinished; and Muratori, " De Diplomatibus Antiquis", included in his " Antiquitates Italicie", 1740, vol. HI), as also the treatise of G. Marini on papyrus documents (I papiri diplomatici, Rome, 1S05), no great advance was made in the science for a century and a half after Mabillon's death. The " Dictionnaire raisonn^ de diplomatique chr^tienne", by M. Quentin, which forms part of Migne's "Encyclopedia", is a rather unskilful digest of older works, and the smnptuous " Elements de pal^ographie " of de Wailly 1 2 vols., 4to, 1838) has lit^ tie independent merit. But within the last fifty years immense progress has been made in all diplomatic knowledge, and not least of all in the study of papal documents. In the bibliography appended to the articles Bulls and Briefs and Bull.^uium, the reader will find references to the more important works. Amongst the pioneers of this revival the names of Leopold Delisle, the chief librarian of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, and of M. de Jlas-Latrie, professor at the Ecole de Chartres, as well as that of Julius von Pflugk-Harttimg, the editor of a magnificent series of facsimiles of papal Bulls, deserve to occupy a foremost place; but their work has been carried on in Germany and elsewhere, often by those who are not themselves Catholics. It must be obvious that the photographic reproductions of documents which can now be pro- cured so easily and cheaply have enormously facili- tated that process of minute comparison of documents which forms the basis of all palseographic studies. Further, the improvement in the cataloguing and the extension of facilities under Pope Leo XIII in such great libraries as that of the Vatican have made their contents much more accessible and have rendered pos- sible such a calendar of early papal Bulls as has been appearingsince 1902, being the resultsof the researches of Messrs. P. Kehr, A. Brackmann, and W. Wieder- hold, in "Nachrichten der Gottingeu Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften". Of the series of papal regesla now being published by various scholars, especially by members of the Ecole Fran^aise de Rome, a sufficient accoimt has been given in the second part of the article BuLL.\RiUM. Still greater progress in the study of diplomatics is no doubt to be looked for from the facili- ties alTonk'd by the recently founded journal, " Archiv fiir Urkundcnfnr.schung" (Leipzig, 1907), edited by Messrs. Karl Hrandi, H. Bresslau, and M. Tangl, all acknowledged masters in this subject.
SUBJECT-M.^TTEH OP PaPAL DIPLOMATICS. As thlS
topic has already been treated in part in the article B11LL.S AND BiuEFs, it will be sufficient here to recall the principal elements in the process of expediting ancient papal documents, all of which need special attention. We have first of all the officials who are concerned in the preparation of such instruments and who collectively form the "Chancery". The constitu- tion of the Chancery, which in the case of the Holy See seems to date back to a schola notariorum, with a primi- cerius at its head, of which we hear under Pope Ju- lius I (.'537-352), varied from period to period, and the part played by the different officials composing it necessarily varied also. Besides the Holy See, each
bishop also had some sort of chancery for the issue of
his own episcopal Acts. An acquaintance with the
procedure of the Chancery is clearly only a study pre-
paratory to the examination of the document itself.
Secondly, we have the text of the document. As the
position of the Holy See became more fully recognized,
the business of the Chancery increased, and we note a
marked tendency to adliere strictly to the forms pre-
scribed by traditional usage. Various collections of
these formulae, of which the " Liber Diurnus" is one of
the most ancient, were compiled at an early date.
Many others will be found in the "Receuil g^n^ral
des formules" by de Roziere (Paris, 1S61-1871),
though these, like the series published by Zeumer
(Formula^ Merovingici et Karolini sevi, Hanover, 1886),
are mainly secular in character. After the text of the
document, which of course varies according to its na-
ture, and in which not merely the wording but also the
rhythm (the so-called cursus) has often to be con-
sidered, attention must be paid (1) to the manner of
dating, (2) to the signatures, (3) to the attestations of
witnesses etc., (4) to the seals and the attachment of
the seals, (5) to the material upon which it is written
and to the manner of folding, as well as (6) to the
handwriting — under this last heading the whole science
of palaeography may be said to be involved.
All these matters fall within the scope of diplomatics, and all offer different tests for the authenticity of any given document. There are other details which often need to be considered, for example the Tironian (or shorthand) notes, which are of not infrequent occur- rence in primitive Urkunden, both papal and imperial, and which have only begun of late years to be ade- quately investigated (see Tangl, "Die tironischen Noten", in "Archiv fiir Urkundenforschung", 1907, I, 87-166). A special section in any comprehensive study of diplomatics is also likely to be devoted to spurious documents, of which, as already stated, the number is surprisingly great.
Besides the books referred to in the course of this article see the bibUoKraphy of the article Bulls .vnd Briefs. A larger selection of authorities may be found in such treatises as those of GiRY, Mantlet de Diplomatique (Paris, 1S91); and Bresslau, Handbucli der llrkundenlefire (Leipzig, 1SS9), I. One very use- ful work for the study of papal diplomatics, the Practica Cancel' lariiB ApostoticfF, ed. Schmitz-Kallenberg (Munich, 1904), though confined to the working of the Chancery at the close of the fifteenth century, is valuable for the indirect light thrown on other periods. Consult also the important work of Tangl. Die papsllichen Kamlei-Ordnungen von lSOO-1500 (Innsbnick, 1894); Erben, Url:undenlehre (Munich, 1907); and Rosenmund, Die Fortschritte der Diplomatitc seit Mabitlon (Munich, 1897), though these last two books have little directly to do with papal docu- ments. In A. Meister's important work on early ciphers. Die Anfhnge der modemen diplomatischen Geheimschrijt (Paderbom, 1902), the papal Chancery is hardly mentioned (see, however, p. 34). Finally, the best summary account of papal diplomatics is to be found in the section contributed by Schmitz-Kallen- berg to the GruTidriss der Geschichtswi^senschaft (Leipzig, 1906), vol. I, pp. 172-230.
Herbert Thurston.
Diptych (or Dipttchon, Or. SlirTvxor from Sis, twice, and irTiaaeiv, to fold), a sort of notebook, formed by the union of two tablets, placed one upon the other and united by rings or by a hinge. These tablets were made of wood, ivory, bone, or metal. Their inner surfaces had ordinarily a raised frame and were covered with wax, upon which characters were scratched by means of a stylus. Diptychs were known among the Greeks from the sixth century be- fore Christ. They served as copy-books for the exer- cise of penmanship, for correspondence, and various other uses. The Roman military certificates, privi- legia 7nilitum, were a kind of diptych. Between the two tablets others were sometimes inserted, and the diptych would then be called a triptych, pol^^ptych, etc. The term diptych is often restricted to a highly ornamented tj'pe of notebooks. They were generally matie out of ivory with carved work, and were sometimes from twelve to sixteen inches in height. In the fourth and fifth centuries a distinction
