Invocatio

The invocatio (also invocation) is the introduction of the protocol in the form of medieval documents . It can appear as a symbol, verbally as text, or in both forms. Since it is at the beginning of the document, it is often written in markup .

Chrismon and verbal invocatio of Henry III. , written in the Elongata .

The symbolic invocatio, represented by a cross in different variations in numerous documents, is represented in the Franconian and German royal documents by the Chrismon .

In the Byzantine documents, the Invocatio proclaims the Trinitarian concept of God up to the iconoclastic dispute . After the imperial coronation, Charlemagne chose the form In nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti (In the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit), since 833 the version In nomine sanctae et individuae trinitatis has dominated the Reich Chancellery under Louis the German . In the course of the twelfth century this verbal invocatio ceased to exist in simpler document forms such as simple privileges and mandates , otherwise it was replaced by In nomine Dei or similar short forms.

In Lombard and Norman southern Italy, In nomine domini Dei et salvatoris nostri Iesu Christi is the most common version of the verbal invocation. The verbal invocatio is an integral part of the papal synodal constitutions; it appears only rarely in the actual papal documents and disappears completely with the reforms of the papal chancellery in the eleventh century.

Ottoman documents mostly use a tughra as an invocatio.

Web links

• Invocatio. Definitions of the Vocabulaire international de la Diplomatique, 1997

literature

• Walter Koch : Invocatio . In: Lexikon des Mittelalters V, Sp. 483–484.
• Leo Santifaller : About the verbal invocation in documents . Böhlau, Graz et al. 1961, ( Austrian Academy of Sciences - Philosophical-Historical Class Session Reports 237, 2, ISSN  0029-8832 ).
• Heinrich Fichtenau : On the history of invocations and "devotion formulas" . In: Heinrich Fichtenau: Contributions to Medieval Studies. Selected essays . Second volume: Document research . Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-7772-7701-0 , pp. 37-61.

Individual evidence

1. ^ After Fichtenau: History of the Invocations. P. 58 individuae is the awkward translation of homoioousios όμοιούσιος.