PANCHARTA. – A term used in the Middle Ages to designate the privileges issued by sovereign authority to confirm to churches or monasteries all previous concessions, especially when earlier documents had been lost or destroyed.
At the abbey of St-Martin in Tours, the term p. is attested with the meaning of “cartulary” or “liber privilegiorum.” Limited to Frankish territory, and coinciding with the use of the Christian era in the French style (beginning of the year on Easter Day), it is the name of the *p. nychalis* given to the table containing the chronological indications for the new year, which was hung in the Easter choir during the function of Holy Saturday. More widespread, however, in the Carolingian age, is the term p. with the value of *appennes* (q.v.).
ALESSANDRO PRATESI