Literal Contract

In the Literal or Written Contract, the formal act by which an Obligation was superinduced on the Convention, was an entry of the sum due, where it could be specifically ascertained, on the debit side of a ledger.

This epoch is synchronous with the period at which the famous Roman classification of Contracts into four sorts—the Verbal, the Literal, the Real, and the Consensual—had come into use, and during which these four orders of Contract constituted the only descriptions of engagement which the law would enforce.

The Literal Contract comes next and here all formalities are waived, if proof of the agreement can be supplied from the rigid observances of a Roman household.

Literal contracts, or obligations created by writing, are made by transcriptive entries of debit or credit in a journal.

here the obligation is not Literal but Real, for it is invalid unless money has been actually paid, and payment of money constitutes a Real obligation.

Another Literal obligation is that created by chirographa and syngraphae, or written acknowledgements of debt or promises to pay, unaccompanied by stipulation.