“ Occasionally also an agreement between two or more powers takes the form of a protocol, rather than a treaty, when the intention is to proclaim a community of views or aims without binding them to eventual common action in support of those views or aims ”

“ Thus, too, the word prothocollare was devised for the process of drawing up public acts in authentic form (Du Cange, Glossarium lat. s.v. Protocollum) . The use of the word protocollum for the introductory and other formulae in the medieval diploma (see Diplomatic) thus explains itself as implying a recorded usage in such matters. ”