In the civil law. Contracts having a proper or peculiar name and form, and which were divided into four kinds, expressive of the ways in which they were ‘formed, viz.: (1) Real, which arose ex re, from something done; (2) verbal, ex verbis, from something said; (31 literal, ex literis, from something written; and (4) consensual, ex consensu, from some-thing agreed to. Calvin
Source: Black’s Law Dictionary 2nd Ed (1910)
