Definition
Placitum nominatum (Latin: "the named or appointed plea-day") is a historical common law term referring to the specific day formally appointed for a criminal defendant to appear before the court, enter a plea, and make his defense. It designated a fixed, named date in the judicial calendar by which the accused was required to present himself and respond to the charge against him.
The companion term placitum fractum ("the broken plea-day") described the situation in which that appointed day had passed without the defendant's appearance — that is, when the defendant had failed to appear as required.
Common Confusion
The broader Latin term placitum appears throughout medieval and early modern legal records in multiple senses: a plea, a court session, a judicial proceeding, or a cause. Placitum nominatum is a specific technical subset of this larger term. Researchers encountering placitum in records should not assume the specialized procedural meaning of placitum nominatum without the nominatum qualifier or equivalent contextual indication.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is encountered almost exclusively in pre-modern English criminal procedure and in glossaries derived from that tradition. Researchers working with early English court records, plea rolls, or procedural treatises will find it used to describe a specific calendared obligation rather than a general concept of pleading. Its appearance in a record signals a formal procedural moment: the defendant was not merely summoned but had been given a named date carrying specific legal consequences upon default.
The connection between placitum nominatum and placitum fractum is operationally significant. A notation of placitum fractum in a historical record indicates that the defendant failed to appear on the appointed day, which typically triggered consequences such as forfeiture, outlawry proceedings, or other sanctions depending on the period and jurisdiction. Researchers examining early criminal rolls should treat the two terms as paired — the one establishing the obligation, the other recording its breach.
Because these terms appear primarily in Latin court records and Latin-language procedural glossaries, the risk of mistranslation or mistaken identification is real. Placitum in general usage could refer broadly to a plea, a pleading, a court, or a judicial proceeding depending on context. The modifier nominatum (named, appointed) is what distinguishes this specific procedural moment from placitum used in its more general senses.
Rapalje & Lawrence's entry usefully cites Leg. H. 1, c. xxix. and Cowell as authorities. The reference is to the Leges Henrici Primi, the early twelfth-century compilation of English law associated with the reign of Henry I, and to John Cowell's Interpreter (1607), one of the foundational early modern English legal dictionaries. Researchers tracing the term's usage should consult both sources directly; the Leges Henrici Primi is available in scholarly editions, and Cowell's Interpreter is accessible in early modern print and facsimile.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary and Rapalje & Lawrence are in close agreement. Both identify placitum nominatum as the appointed day for a criminal defendant to appear and plead; both cite Cowell as the authoritative source. Rapalje & Lawrence adds the companion term placitum fractum and the Leges Henrici Primi citation, making it the more substantively useful entry for historical research.
Neither source provides extended discussion of procedural consequences following non-appearance, nor do they address how the appointed day was set, by whom, or how it interacted with other procedural requirements of early English criminal process. Researchers needing that context will need to move beyond dictionary sources to procedural histories of the common law, including Maitland's work on the early common law and scholarship on the Leges Henrici Primi specifically.
It is worth noting that Rapalje & Lawrence's entry also contains the beginning of an entirely separate entry (PLAGIARIST/PLAGIARY), reflecting the dictionary's original print format. Researchers using that source should not conflate the two entries.