IMBREVIATURA. – In medieval terminology, it is the draft drawn up by the notary on a separate sheet and sometimes even on the reverse side of the very parchment intended to contain the document, or, later, in the protocol register, which was itself sometimes also called an i. by extension. It was usually written as a summary, omitting the fixed parts of the formula, which the notary would supply in the final drafting. In the earliest periods, the i. were normally destroyed after the document was drawn up; but from the age of the Communes onward they were preserved by the notary himself and formed the material of notarial archives (v. NOTAIO).
A special case is that of the carta augustana (11th–15th centuries), namely the documents issued by the chancery of the city of Aosta, where the dorsal note, which serves as evidence, follows the notarial i. and precedes the writing on the recto, which represents the dispositive document.