Brief

BRIEF. - A name given in the Middle Ages to various types of documents, still used today to indicate a special form of pontifical document.

The most common meaning in the centuries before the 13th was as equivalent to Notitia (v.), a document of proof generally drawn up at the request of the recipient and lacking the author's signature; it was also used for "letter" and, especially in Tuscany in the 12th-13th centuries, for "oath charter," whereby it came to indicate also "statute" insofar as it was the object of an oath. From b. derive the notarial terms "imbreviare" and "imbreviatura" (v.).

The b. was distinguished from the bull (v.) by a set of external and internal characteristics that give it a much lesser solemnity. It is distinguished first of all by the quality and color of the parchment, which is very fine and white; by the type of script, which follows the evolution of current scripts, that is, Gothic cursive in the 14th century and the first decades of the 15th, humanistic cursive in the 15th and 16th centuries, with modern derived forms in more recent times; by the seal, which is of red wax with the impression of the ring (v.) of the fisherman or, from 1842, in red ink with a similar representation. As for the text, brevi bear written at the top the name of the Pope followed by his title and ordinal number (e.g., Martinus pp. V); at the end of the text the date is indicated in the modern manner, with the year according to the style of the Circumcision. The most characteristic element is represented by the corroboration formula sub anulo piscatoris added in the date after the place (in the 14th century and the first half of the 15th also: sub anulo fluctuantis navicule or capitum Principum Apostolorum or nostro secreto). Brevi of some importance bear the signature of the cardinal Secretary of State, while in other cases the signature of the chancellor of the b. is affixed.

The oldest pontifical b. known thus far is that of Boniface IX (17 Oct. 1390), preserved in the State Archive of Mantua; until the middle of the 15th century they are rare.

Brevi arose with the character of litterae secretae, that is, written by the apostolic secretaries for matters of political or administrative interest, but later they were widely used for every kind of concession; at first they were sent only closed and the closure was guaranteed by the wax seal suitably placed on the outside on the folded flaps; from the 17th century there were also brevi sent open in a more solemn form (with the formula at the beginning of the text ad futuram rei memoriam) and then the seal was placed on the back only as a mark of validation.

The apostolic secretaries, following the expansion of their competences, also sent documents in the form of a bull, called brevia sub plumbo. At present the brevi are drafted and sent by the Chancery of the apostolic brevi, which constitutes the third section of the Secretariat of State (v.), even when the measure is issued by another dicastery.

Benedict XIV gave in the bull Gravissimum, of 26 Nov. 1745, a long list of cases in which the b. was to be used; at present, apart from the most important affairs handled with a bull, the use of the b. is very frequent: for example, the erections and modifications of apostolic vicariates and prefectures up to 1933 (after this date such erections are made with bulls and boundary modifications with decrees of Propaganda); the sending of cardinal legates to congresses; the granting of indults or privileges to private individuals or to juridical persons; prelatial appointments and honors; congratulations and felicitations to sovereigns or heads of state. In the past, other matter of broader scope was regulated by b., such as the suppression of the Society of Jesus decreed by Clement XIV on 21 July 1773 and the reestablishment of the Hierarchy in England, through the work of Pius IX, on 1 Sept. 1850.

Giulio Battelli