Chancellerie

Chancellerie is a term used to designate an office, department, or secretariat responsible for the drafting, authentication, and archiving of official documents, as well as for managing the affairs of a chancellor or head of government. The word is common in Francophone contexts and appears in historical and contemporary administrative speech across Europe.

Historically, the chancellerie was the central organ of administration in medieval and early modern states. The chancellor, often a senior cleric, ran the chancery, producing charters, diplomas, edicts, and diplomatic correspondence, and maintaining the realm’s seals and registers. The chancellerie functioned alongside other fiscal, legal, and diplomatic bureaus and served as the primary records office of the realm.

In modern governments, a chancellerie may be a department or secretariat that supports the head of state or government, coordinates policy and communications, and scrutinizes legal documents. Notable contemporary examples include the Swiss Federal Chancellery (Chancellerie fédérale in French), which assists the Federal Council and oversees interdepartmental coordination. Beyond state administration, the term is also used for the chancellery of a diocese or a university, where official acts, credentials, and archives are prepared and safeguarded.

The term has cognate forms in several languages, reflecting its Latin origin cancellaria: French chancellerie, Italian cancelleria, German Kanzlei, Spanish Cancillería, and Portuguese chanceleria. These forms point to a common medieval and early modern bureaucratic concept of a centralized office charged with writing, authenticating, and preserving official records.