Cartulary of Fixed Points

Description

The Cartulary of Fixed Points is a bound register maintained under the authority of the School of Fixed Points, collating inscriptions of junction points, stabilized stairwell endpoints, and transit apertures as recorded in the Central Registry of Fixed Points. It comprises four volumes (Alpha through Delta), each covering a discrete span of the Tower's vertical extent, and is consulted primarily for the certification of movement between floors.

The Cartulary is frequently confused with The Cartulary of Fixed Corners, which records interior angles rather than points. The two are reconciled against the Central Cartulary at irregular intervals; the last such reconciliation produced eleven corrections and one unresolved dispute, catalogued under the Sixth Concordance, Annex 9.

Composition and custody

Volumes Alpha and Beta are held at the Central Vellum Repository. Volume Gamma, which covers the middle transits, is held at the Registry itself and is not permitted to leave the floor on which the Registry stands. Volume Delta, covering the upper extent, has not been seen by any clerk outside the School since the recension of Year 412.

Custody of the Cartulary rotates among four Senior Inspectors of the School, each serving a Fixed-Cycle of three years. The rotation was instituted after the Vorl succession disputes, during which two Inspectors each claimed the seal of Volume Beta concurrently for a period of nineteen months.

Inscriptions

Each inscription follows a fixed form: point designation, floor number, bearing, date of inscription, and the name of the certifying Inspector. Junction Points are inscribed in red, stabilized stairwell endpoints in black, and Transit Apertures in a blue that has faded inconsistently across the four volumes.

The Cartulary distinguishes itself from the Tome of Fixed Points in that the Tome records the scholarly reasoning behind fixity, while the Cartulary records only the outcome. The School holds that fixity is solely a product of cartographic decree, and the Cartulary's authority derives entirely from having been inscribed — not from any property of the point itself.

A point that has been inscribed and later found to have moved is not deleted. It is struck through with two horizontal lines and annotated with the date of the failure. The struck-through entries remain in the Cartulary in perpetuity.

Disputed entries

Several points recorded in Volume Gamma are disputed by readers of the Atlas of Unfixed Points, Vol. VII, which contends that the stairwells in question were never truly stabilized. The School maintains that the Atlas records points that were never properly certified, and that the disagreement is one of scope rather than fact.

The most prominent dispute concerns a point designated 7-19-C, inscribed in Year 401 and struck through in Year 404. The School holds that the point's failure was procedural. The Atlas holds that the point never existed. Both cite the same passage of the Fixed Ladder Index.

Under the Third Concordance, Annex 4, a struck-through entry may be reinstated by a majority of Inspectors. Under the Fourth Concordance, reinstatement requires unanimity. The two provisions have not been reconciled.

"A point that has moved is a record of a point that was once still, and the record is not diminished by the movement."

— Tome of Fixed Points, folio 33

Reconciliation

The Cartulary is reconciled with the Central Cartulary whenever the Central Cartulary is itself revised. Because the Central Cartulary is revised more often than it is read, the reconciliation is a standing obligation that has never been fully discharged. The School's position is that partial reconciliation is sufficient for administrative purposes; the Office of the Central Cartulary disagrees in writing, and has done so since Year 389.

Clerks assigned to reconciliation work are reminded that a bearing recorded in Volume Alpha may not be cited against Volume Delta without first obtaining the countersignature of two Inspectors. This rule was added after an incident in the winter of Year 407, in which a single clerk's citation was used to justify the closure of three stairwells that turned out to be open.