The papal court issued the majority of the documents of the European Middle Age and, also during the first part of the Modern Age, it was only surpassed by few secular chanceries. Its production began very slowly in the late Ancient period and during the early Middle Ages and it greatly increased in the 14th and 15th Centuries. Towards the end of the 15th Century, as many documents as the ones produced in the first millennium of the history of the Church were produced. In the Modern Age, its production established itself at a slightly lower level. In all, until nowadays, no less than thirty million papal documents must have been written.
The study of the papal documents began with the general development of diplomatic sciences.
The opening of the Vatican Archives (and the subsequent foundation of historical foreign institutes in Rome), which made the access to the huge series of registers possible, greatly enhanced research and in the meantime contributed to increase in an almost unlimited measure the knowledge of the documentation.
The features of a papal document essentially depend on the age when it was written and on the procedure followed by the chancery.
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Privilege by Alexander III, 23rd January 1168
ASV, Fondo Veneto I, 6559
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Alexander IV Litterae Gratiose, 4th January 1261
ASV, Fondo Domenicani 331
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