CARTOLARIO (CARTOLARIO). — The name c. (chartularium, instrumentarium, liber memorialis, pancharta, codex diplomaticus) designates the volumes in which churches, monasteries, cities, lords, and institutions in general of the Middle Ages collected, in systematic or chronological order, in simple transcription or in an authenticated copy, documents relating to their rights (contracts, privileges, immunities, etc.); the collection served to ensure the preservation of the documents and to facilitate their production in court. The oldest that have come down to us date from the 9th century; among the most important are the Codice Wangiano of Bishop Federico Wanga of Trento, the Caletti of Siena, etc. Careful historical criticism is necessary in order to distinguish among the c. documents that are wholly or partly forged.
Recently, the practice has become established of calling c. or “diplomatic codices” collections of documents of the most varied forms and origins, but relating to a single subject, published by scholars and learned societies; a model of this kind is the Chartularium studii Bononiensis (6 vols., Imola-Bologna 1907–21) of the Commission for the History of the University of Bologna.