- A capitulary (medieval Latin capitularium) was a series of legislative or administrative acts emanating from the Frankish court of the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties, especially that of the first emperor, Charlemagne. They were so called because they were formally divided into sections called capitula (plural of capitulum, a diminutive of caput meaning "head(ing)", i.e. 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 compose capitularies was Lambert in 898. In 827 Ansegisus, abbot of St. Wandrille at Fontenelle made the first codex of capitularies. Early editors chose to republish this collection of Ansegisus and Benedictus as they found it. The distinguished French scholar, Étienne Baluze, who led the way to a fresh classification. In 1677 he brought out the "Capitularia regum francorum", in two folio volumes, in which he published first the capitularies of the Merovingian kings, then those of Pippin, of Charles and of Louis the Pious, which he had found complete in various manuscripts. After the date of 840, he published as supplements the unreliable collection of Ansegisus and Benedictus Levita, with the warning that the latter was quite untrustworthy (see Pseudo-Isidore). He then gave the capitularies of Charles the Bald, and of other Carolingian kings, either contemporaries or successors of Charles, which he had discovered in various places. (wikipedia.com)