VIDIMUS. - Formula for giving probative value to copies of documents.

Among the methods used in the Middle Ages to give probative value to copies of documents, so that they might be valid, to every effect, on a par with the originals, one widely employed was to have them drawn up and authenticated by a public authority endowed with jurisdictional power: the text usually begins with a formula in which the word v. occurs, which later came to designate the document itself, and it is furnished with the seal of the authority, whether that be the sovereign or one of his officials, the prince, the communal magistrate or even the bishop or an official of his curia.

The Pope and the pontifical Chancery rarely issued acts of this nature. The use of v. occurred especially in the 13th and 14th centuries and outside Italy, where the notarial profession was less developed. When the copy thus vi-

VIDIMUS - V. of the official of the episcopal curia of Le Puy, dated 23 October 1383, with the text of a decree of the Pontifical Chamberlain, in favor of the monastery of St-Hostien, dated 16 Feb. 1383. The word v. is the penultimate of the first line. The wax seal, hanging on a simple tail, has been lost - Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Instr. Misc. 3160.(phot. Enc. Catt.)

issued by the same authority that had issued the original or by another higher authority, the v. also implies recognition or confirmation of the content; apart from this particular case, the v. correspond in value to authenticated notarial copies, except for the difference in form, which stems from the fact that they are emanations of a broader jurisdictional power, not of a specific faculty such as that of notaries.

Bibliography

BIBL.: A. de Boijard, Manuel de diplomatique française et pontificale, I, Paris 1929, pp. 176-80.

Giulio Battelli

@incollection{ec12_vidimus, author = {Battelli, Giulio}, title = {Vidimus}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {1389--1390}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/vidimus} }

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