Notitia Dignitatum

The Notitia Dignitatum (Latin for "The List of Offices") is a document of the late Roman Empire that details the administrative organization of the Eastern and Western Empires. It is unique as one of very few surviving documents of Roman government and describes several thousand offices from the imperial court down to the provincial level, diplomatic missions and army units. It is usually considered to be up to date for the Western Roman Empire in the 420s and for the Eastern or Byzantine Empire in the 390s. However, no absolute date is given in the text itself and omissions complicate deriving an absolute date from its content.

There are several extant 15th and 16th-century copies (plus a color-illuminated 1542 version). All the known and extant copies of this late Roman document are derived, either directly or indirectly, from Codex Spirensis, a codex known to have existed in the library of the cathedral chapter at Speyer in 1542 but which was lost before 1672 and cannot now be located. That book contained a collection of documents (of which the Notitia was the last and largest document, occupying 164 pages) that brought together several previous documents of which one was of the 9th century. The heraldry in illuminated manuscripts of Notitia is thought to copy or imitate no other examples than those from the lost Codex Spirensis.

The 1542 copy, made for Otto Henry, Elector Palatine, was revised with "illustrations more faithful to the originals added at a later date," and is held by the Bavarian State Library.

The most important copy of the Codex is that made for Pietro Donato (1436), illuminated by Peronet Lamy.

For each half of the empire, the Notitia enumerates all major "dignities" (i.e. offices) in its gift, often with their location and even their exact officium (staff, enumerated except for the most junior). These are organised by:

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