CHARTA PAGENSIS. — For a long time the term was equivalent to the modern “private document.” In the formulary of Marcellus (7th century), 52 examples of chartae pagnes are clearly contrasted with 40 examples of chartae regales, i.e., public documents; Marcellus (v.) did not consider papal or imperial documents. By the end of the 17th century the term, already obsolete, was revived by Mabillon to denote one of the three categories into which he divided all documents (ecclesiastical, royal, and pagan).
The term derives from the expression used by Marcellus and other formulary writers: “negotia hominum tam in palatio quam in pago.”
BIBL.: MGH, Leges: formulae, I. Hannover 1886, p. 36 ff.; H. Bresslau, Handbuch der Urkundenlehre, 2nd ed., I. Leipzig 1912, p. 3; C. Paoli, Diplomatica, nuova ed. a cura di G. C. Bascapé, Firenze (1942), p. 27.