CHARTA PAGENSIS. – For a long time, the term was equivalent to the modern « private document ». In the formulary of Marculfo (7th century), 52 examples of chartae pagenses are clearly contrasted with 40 examples of chartae regales, that is, public documents; Marculfo (v.) did not consider pontifical and imperial documents. At the end of the 17th century, the term, already obsolete, was revived by Mabillon to designate one of the three categories into which he divided all documents (ecclesiastical, royal, pagensian). The term derives from the expression used by Marculfo and other authors of formularies: « negotia hominum tam in palatio quam in pago ».
BIBL.: MGH, Leges : formulæ, I, Hannover 1886, p. 36 SGR.; H. Bresslau, Handbuch der Urkundenlehre, 3rd ed., I, Leipzig 1912, p. 3; C. Paoli, Diplomatica, new edition edited by G. C. Bascapè, Florence (1942), p. 27. Carmelo Trasselli