Diploma

An Instrument of writing, executed by a corporation or society, certifying that a certain person therein named is entitled to a certain distinction therein mentioned. It is usually granted by learned institutions to their members, or to persons who have studied in them. by a prince. They are so called, it is supposed, a duplicatis tabellis, to which Ovid is thought to allude (1 Arom. 12. 2. 27) when he says. Tunc ego vos duplices rebus pro nomine sensi (Sueton. in Augustum, c. 26). Seals also were called "diplomata."

Vicat.