cartulary means A medieval manuscript register containing full or excerpted transcriptions of important documents, especially of originally loose, single-sheet charters. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
cartulary is pronounced /ˈkɑːtjuləɹɪ/.
Why “cartulary” is a great word
CARTULARY — [Noun] A manuscript register, typically from the medieval period, containing organized transcriptions of charters, deeds, and legal instruments for an institution such as a monastery. From Middle English cartulari, borrowed from Medieval Latin chartulārium ("collection of charters"), from Latin chartula, a diminutive of charta ("paper, charter"). Unlike a charter—a single, original document bestowing a right—or an archive—a broad repository of records—a cartulary is a curated, vellum-bound concentration of institutional memory. It is the slow scratch of the scribe’s quill copying a land grant by candlelight, the heavy folio protecting a monastery’s claims to a mill or a meadow, and the deliberate assembly of proof in a brass-clasped volume—a fortress of copied words built against the slow siege of time and fire.
Etymology
From Middle English cartulari, borrowed from Medieval Latin chartulārium. Doublet of khaltura.
noun
- A medieval manuscript register containing full or excerpted transcriptions of important documents, especially of originally loose, single-sheet charters.
- A collection of original documents bound in one volume.
- An officer who had charge of records or other public papers.