The explicit (from
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
''explicitus est'', "it is unrolled", as applied to
scrolls) of a text or document is either a final note indicating the end of the text and often including information about its place, date and authorship or else the final few words of the text itself. In the first case, it is similar to a
colophon but always appearing at the end of the text. In the second case, it corresponds to the
incipit, the first few words of a text.
References
Latin literary phrases
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