Studied zu den 'Formulae imperialesʼ. Urkundenkonzeption und Formulagebrauch in der Kanzlei Kaiser Ludwigs des Frommen [Book Review]

Abstract

In a book stemming from her 2014 doctoral dissertation, Patt takes on the so-called Farmulae imperiales, a group of models, mostly for imperial diplomas, that stem from the reign of the Carolingian emperor Louis the Pious (r. 814-40). The formulas, fifty-five in number, were copied in Tours sometime around 830, entirely in Tironian notes, into a rather disorganised manuscript that also includes theological texts and capitularies (BNF, Paris, MS lat. 2718). They get their name from their most recent editor, Karl Zeumer, who in 1886 published them in his edition of the early medieval formula collections for the Monumenta Germania Historica (MGH LL 5). There is no question that they are closely connected to Louis's chancery; they were only inconsistently anonymised, enough to tell us that most were taken from real, actually issued diplomas. Some of these diplomas still exist, but some have been lost, so that the Fannulae imperiales both significantly expand the range of Louis's surviving diplomas and tell us more about the legal matters with which Louis's chancery concerned itself.

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