Chapter Dinde to Diptych of D by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Diplomatic Cold (A). An excuse to get over a disagreeable engagement. Mr. Healy M.P. (1885) said that Lord Hartington and Mr. Gladstone had "diplomatic colds," when they pleaded indisposition as an excuse for not giving addresses at public meetings in which they were advertised to speak. The day after the meetings both gentlemen were "much better."

Diplomatics The science of palæography - that is, deciphering old charters, diplomas, titles; investigating their authenticity and genuineness, and so on. Papebröch, the Bollandist, originated the study in 1675; but Mabillon, another Bollandist, reduced it to a science in his work entitled De re Diplomatica, 1681. Toustain and Tassin further developed it in their treatise entitled Nouveau Traité de Diplomatique, 1750-1760.

Diptych [diptik ]. A register folded into two leaves, opening like our books, and not like the ancient scrolls. The Romans kept in a book of this sort the names of their magistrates, and the Roman Catholics employed the word for the registers in which were written the names of those bishops, saints, and martyrs who were to be specially commemorated when oblations were made for the dead. (Greek, diptuchos, folded in two.)

"The Greeks executed small works of great elegance as may be seen in the diptychs or ivory covers to consular records or sacred volumes used in the church service." - T. Flaxman Lectures on Sculpture iii. p. 98.