[Of the credence given to documents.]

In pursuing suits the credence of documents and the depositions of witnesses are of equal force.

Types of public documents.

Some documents are public and others private. Public ones are those which have been made by a notary appointed by our authority and carry the signature of witnesses. Those which are backed by the impress of the our seal, or of the seal of any archbishop, bishop, archdeacon or his commissary or official, or of anyone else holding public office, shall rightly be regarded as authentic.

Private documents.

We call private documents those which are composed by private persons and which are not supported by any public or authentic seal, but we do not want them to have credence unless they are brought out of a public archive, as containing the entire cause in themselves, or have otherwise been proved.

Private documents are invalid, unless they are signed with the signature of three witnesses.

Private documents, by which an agreement is made between certain persons, shall be valid in judgment and have force if they are signed with the signature of three witnesses, so that no harm may be done to either party by the ambiguity of the handwriting and a comparison of the letters, nor any opportunity be given for perfidiously denying what has been done.

Libri mercatorum.

Exemplo perniciosum est, ut ei scripturae credatur, qua unusquisque annotatione propria debitorem sibi aliquem constituit, unde neminem ex suis subnotationibus debiti probationem praebere posse oportet, mercatorum tamen et aliorum artem aliquam approbatam exercentium, libris et [195r] rationibus, cum aliis adminiculis, plenam fidem adhiberi volumus.

Modus conficiendi instrumenta.

In conficiendo instrumento hanc seriem observari volumus, ut scriba cum primis a Dei nomine auspic{i}etur, annum Domini subdat, regis nomen, et regni eius nomen titulum et annum regni annum, posthac mensem et diem eius, et nomen loci ubi contractus initur. Deinde narrentur quae sunt exponenda, testes [1113] adscribantur, aut subscribant. Notarli quoque obsignatio cum subscriptione ac proprio signo in fine adiiciatur. Scriptura [t/c]um alieno sigillo m[uni/inu]ta non minorem facit fidem quam si proprio esset obsignata, si hoc ipsum et causa in eadem exprimatur.