Capitulary

A capitulary (Medieval Latin capitulare) was a series of legislative or administrative acts emanating from the Frankish court of the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties, especially that of Charlemagne, the first emperor of the Romans in the west since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the late 5th century. They were so called because they were formally divided into sections called capitula (plural of capitulum, a diminutive of caput meaning "head(ing)": chapters).

As soon as the capitulary was composed, it was sent to the various functionaries of the Frankish Empire, archbishops, bishops, missi dominici and counts, a copy being kept by the chancellor in the archives of the palace. The last emperor to draw up capitularies was Lambert, in 898.