Royal DonationClotaire II

This papyrus charter (625) is the oldest document preserved in the French National Archives. It confirms a donation made to St Denis Abbey by Dagobert, a Merovingian noble. Though partly degraded, it still bears Clotaire II’s signature and royal monogram with the invocation in Christi nomine . Attached to another sheet for preservation, it reflects both the rarity and fragility of papyrus in early medieval Europe.