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 would be valid for all purposes on a par with the originals, a widely diffused practice was to have them drawn up and authenticated by a public authority possessing jurisdictional power: the text usually begins with a formula in which the word V. recurs, which later came to designate the document itself, and is affixed with the seal of the authority, whether it be the sovereign or his official, the prince, the communal magistrate, or even the bishop or an official of his curia.
The Pope and the Papal Chancery rarely issued acts of this nature. The use of V. was especially prevalent in the 13th and 14th centuries and outside Italy, where notarial practice was less developed. When the copy thus authenticated derives from the authority that had issued the original or from another superior authority, the V. also implies recognition or confirmation of the content; apart from this particular case, the V. correspond in value to authentic notarial copies, except for the difference in form, which arises from the fact that they are emanations of a broader jurisdictional power, not of a specific faculty like that of notaries.