Chartulary

Chartulary means a collection of charters. So soon as any body, ecclesiastical or secular, came to be possessed of a considerable number of charters, obvious considerations of convenience and safety would suggest the advantage of having them classified and copied into a book or roll. Such book or roll has generally received the name of a Chartulary. Mabillon traces chartularies in France as far back as the 10th century, and some antiquaries think that chartularies were compiled even still earlier. But it was not until the 12th and 13th centuries that chartularies became common. They were kept not only by all kinds of religious and civil corporations, but also by private families. Many of them have been printed, and their contents generally are of the greatest value in historical, archaeological, and genealogical inquiries. The name is in Scotland applied to the record of feu-charters kept by the superior's law-agent.