n.a recognition, of a deity or a civil body, inserted in a document to indicate it is signed in anticipation of that entity’s consent and approvalDuranti 1991, 11The invocation, that is, the mention of God, in whose name each action had to be done, was present in both public and private documents in the medieval period. It can still be found in documents issued by religious bodies, but more and more rarely. When it appears, it takes a verbal form (starting with the words “in the name of”) or a symbolic form (expressed by a cross, the Constantinian monogram for Christos, or the ‘I’ and ‘C’, for Jesus and Christus). The mention of God is in the eschatocol, when he is called to witness an act (e.g., an oath). It is possible to say that modern and contemporary documents contain an invocation whenever they present a claim that the act therein is done in the name of the people, the king, the republic, the law or other similar entities.Guyotjeannin 1996, 419Having a global and synthetic significance, the study of the document and its formula (understood here to be the functional ensemble of formulas) is meant to include, along with the evolution of the most significant parts of the text and intent of the document (formulas of invocation, titularies, preambles, terms which announce the decision, etc.), the character of the various features within a document, since it indicates complex evolution, phenomena of imitations, and reappropriations of models.Frogner 2010, 62All the Douglas treaties begin with a common notification, a diplomatic element used to identify the document’s addressees and declare their interest in the act embodied in the text: “Know all men.…” This clause begins the treaty with an assertion of sovereignty directed to both domestic and international audiences. These abstract audiences are meant to bear witness to Crown sovereignty and must therefore acknowledge the European concept of an imperial legal forum. Used to enter this forum, and incorporate the native signatories, “Know all men …,” is an invocation of natural law.Duranti and Franks 2015, 178The protocol may identify all or some of the persons involved in authoring or issuing the document (through entitling or superscription—the modern letterhead) and the person to whom the document is directed (general or nominal inscription—the modern addressee), the date (including time and place), title, subject, invocation (symbolic or textual, lending a character of solemnity to the document), and initial formulae, the most common of which is the salutation (also the formula perpetuitas, typical of documents conferring privileges and rights that are not circumscribed by time: in perpetuum, ad perpetuam rei memoriam, p.p.), and the appreciation, a short prayer for the realization of the content of the document (feliciter, amen).
