Definition
An archaic Law French term for a chirograph: a written legal instrument that was authenticated by being written out in duplicate (or occasionally triplicate) on a single sheet of parchment, with the copies then separated by cutting through a word or decorative pattern inscribed across the middle. Each party retained one part, and the matching cut edges or letters served as proof of authenticity. The term appears primarily in early English legal records and medieval treatises and has no operative meaning in modern law.
Common Confusion
CYROGRAFFE and CHIROGRAPH are the same instrument. Cyrograffe is simply the Law French rendering of the Latin-derived chirograph. Researchers encountering cyrograffe in a medieval or early common law source should treat the terms as interchangeable. Confusion arises because later legal dictionaries indexed only one form or the other, and a researcher unfamiliar with both spellings may fail to locate cross-references. Additionally, the physical object described — a bipartite or tripartite deed cut apart — is sometimes called an indenture in later practice, though the mechanisms of authentication differ. Do not conflate cyrograffe with indenture without confirming the specific document type.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is almost exclusively a finding problem. It appears in early English legal records, Year Books, and medieval treatises in Law French, and will not be found in modern statutory or case law. Researchers working in the medieval or early modern English common law corpus should be alert to variant spellings: cyrograffe, cyrographe, cyrograf, and chirograpff are all attested. Burrill indexes the term with a terse cross-reference to chirograph and cites Britton — one of the earliest systematic treatments of English common law, composed circa 1290 — indicating the term's currency in the formative period of common law pleading.
The research trap is indexing. A corpus search for cyrograffe alone will miss the bulk of substantive discussion, which appears under chirograph and, in later sources, under indenture or deed poll. Work outward from the chirograph entry in every historical dictionary on the shelf before concluding that the source material is thin. Burrill's cross-reference to Britton (c. 21) is a reliable anchor: that chapter addresses the formal requirements for written instruments, and the surrounding text provides procedural context for how these split documents functioned as proof in early English courts.
No jurisdictional variation is meaningful here: the term belongs entirely to the English common law tradition and does not appear as a live legal concept in any modern common law jurisdiction.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary gives the entirety of its entry as a cross-reference: "A chirograph, (q.v.) Britt. c. 21." This is characteristic of Burrill's treatment of Law French variants — he acknowledges the term for indexing purposes but declines to duplicate the substantive discussion he provides under chirograph. The practical implication for researchers is that Burrill's chirograph entry, not this one, carries the analytical weight.
Other major historical dictionaries, including Jacob's Law Dictionary and Tomlin's Law Dictionary, do not separately index cyrograffe, folding all discussion into chirograph or indenture entries. Cowell's Interpreter, which attends carefully to Law French terminology, similarly handles the concept under chirograph. The absence of independent treatment across sources confirms that cyrograffe functions as a terminological variant rather than a distinct legal concept. No historical dictionary surveyed introduces a meaning for cyrograffe that diverges from chirograph.