Definition of Charta

In old English law. A charter or deed; an instrument written and scaled; the formal evidence of conveyances and contracts. Also any signal or token by which an estate was held. The term came to be applied, by way of eminence, to such documents as proceeded from the sovereign, granting libarties or privileges, and either where the recipient of the grant was the whole nation, as in the case of Magna Charta, or a public body, or private individual, in which case it corresponded to the modern word "charter." In the civil law. Paper, suitable for the inscription of documents or books; hence, any instrument or writing. See Dig. 32, 52, 6; Nov. 44, 2.
—Charta communis. In old English law. A common or mutual charter or deed; one containing mufual covenants, or involving mutuality of obligation; one to which both parties might have occasion to refer, to establish their respective rights. Bract, fols. 33b, 34.
— Charta cyrographata. In old English law. A chirographed charter ; a charter executed in two parts, and cut through the middle, (scinditur per medium,) where the word "cyrograph-um," or "chirographum," was written in large letters. Bract, fol. 34; Fleta, lib. 3, c. 14, § 3.
—Charta de foresta. A collection of the laws of the forest, made in the 9th Hen. III. and said to have been originally a part of Magna, Charta.
—Charta de una parte. A deed-poll.
—Charta partita. (Literally, a deed divided.) A charter-party. 3 Kent, Comm. 201.