exposition

n. DiplomaticsThe beginning of the substance of the text that provides background to the circumstances that cause the document to be written.

Citations

Duranti 1998, p. 146 The substance of the text is usually introduced by the exposition, that is the narration of the concrete and immediate circumstances generating the act and/or document. In documents resulting from procedures, whether public or private, the exposition may include the memory of the various procedural phases, or be entirely constituted by the mention of one or more of them.