Protocolo

In Spanish law. The original draft or writing of an instrument which remains in the possession of the es-oribano or notary. White, New Recop. llb.

8, tit 7, c. 5, § 2.

The term "protocolo," when applied to a single paper, means the first draft of an Instrument duly executed before a notary,— the matrix,—because it is the source from which must be token copies to be delivered to interested parties as their evidence of right; and it also means a bound book in which the notary places and keeps in their order instruments executed before him, from which copies are taken for the use of parties interested.

Downing v. Diaz, 80 Tex. 436, 16 S. W. 53.