In Italy, a notary was required to prepare any type of legal transaction from marriage contracts to loans to land transfers. As such, this was a coveted position which brought wealth to a family. As only those with an education would be granted such a position, notaries were usually of the upper class. This job was often passed down through several generations of the same family.
The Notes section of the catalog entry details the types of documents normally contained within these registers or minute books. Another type of document I've seen quite often and which is not listed, is the Atti di Notarieta', prepared when a person had no birth or baptismal record and such document was required for marriage or other such event. These documents required seven witnesses to verbally state their knowledge of the person's birth and events surrounding it. These witnesses were often close friends or family to the person in question.
Name of Notary
|
Type of Records
|
Time Period
|
Giuseppe De Paoli
|
Registers
|
1638
|
Giovanni (Giovan)
Angelo De Paoli
|
Registers
Registers
Registers
|
25
February 1677-26 May 1680
28 May
1680-26 August 1685
26 June
1691-29 July 1697
|
Giuseppe
Maria Lucchese
|
Registers
Registers
|
1719
1727-39
|
Michelangelo
Lucchese
|
Minutes
Minutes
Minutes
Registers
|
16
September 1770-2 April 1771
21 April
1771-26 December 1775
1786-94
1771-94
|
Giovan
Domenico D'Onofrio
|
Minutes
Minutes
Minutes
Minutes
Minutes
Minutes
Minutes
|
2 June
1771-25 August 1775
1771-August
1785
11
September 1775-1794
1795-about
1810
1808-about
1820
1809-13
1814-21
|
Pietro
D'Onofrio
|
Registers
|
1771-about
1814
|
Above is a table that I created detailing the surviving pre-1800 notarial records of a town in the Lucca province. [The names of the notaries have been changed by request of the client for whom I was working.] This list is a good example of the gaps often seen between what was likely initially created and what still survives after several hundred years.
[i] Within the notarial records, the minutes are where
the notary takes down the specifics of the transaction in short form. He then creates a longer legal document, which was placed put in a
separate register.
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