ABBREVIATOR. - He was an official of the Apostolic Chancery, to whom the task was entrusted of drafting the minute (notam facere) of pontifical acts. Under the antipope Benedict XIII there were 24; the abbreviators rose to 70 under Pius II, who established them as a college (1463), to which the following year Paul II gave a new organization. Sixtus IV (1479) raised them to 72, distributed in this way: 12 de parcu maiori for the preparation of the draft of documents; 22 de parcu minori for their taxation and dispatch (parco was the name of that part of the hall of the chancery surrounded by a balustrade); 38 de prima visione. The office of a. could be purchased; consequently the office was called venal. The misadventures of Platina (v.) following the dismissal of the a. by Paul II are well known.

Pius X, with the constitution Sapienti consilio of 1908, abolished entirely the college of the a. and transferred its attributions to the college of the Protonotaries Apostolic of numero participantium.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: I. Ciampini, De abbreviatorum de parca maiori... antiquo statu, illorumve in collegium erectione, numere, dignitate, praerogativis ac privilegiis, Rome 1691; id., Abbreviatoris de Curia compendiosa notitia, Rome 1697; Pastor, II, pp. 304-305; W. v. Hofmann, Forschungen zur Geschichte der kurialen Behörden, Rome 1914.

Niccolò Del Re

@incollection{ec1_abbreviatore, author = {Del, Re Niccolò}, title = {Abbreviatore}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {40--41}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/abbreviatore} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

About this entry