The term “matricula,” which is used inconsistently as a research term in the study of sources, denotes various types of written material. Entering English from Latin in the 16th century (matricula: “public register”), it has been used to refer to a number of forms of list-like registers, in particular lists of people.

The Latin word was found in ecclesiastical contexts in the Middle Ages, and tended to mean lists of the clergy at a church institution or of the needy in receipt of such an institution's permanent support. The expansion of literacy and government from the late Middle Age…