A concise inventory of archival document collection notaries of Pula during Venetian rule (1626-1797/1826/)

Abstract

After an introduction that deals with the concept of »notary public« and the history of the office of the notary public in general, the A describes the activities of notaries public in the Istrian area and the state of conservation of notary books on the territory under the competence of the Historical Archive in Pazin. After that the A presents the development of the office of the notary public in Pula, data on the persons that contributed to the collection of documents, their professional activities, the »curriculum vitae« of extant documents and the methodology of its classification. The A. then presents a review of the state of conservation of documents, of the language and script. The A. particularly stresses the importance of the documents in the collection regarding the abundance of extant data on demographic variations and ethnic conditions, the economic situation, social and national structure and origin of the inhabitants of Pula and its surroundings. The documents in this collection can be very useful in the study of the juristic and economic history, the history of the health service, art, ethnology, philology and other sciences. The main part of the paper represents a concise inventory in which the notaries public are recorded in chronological order beginning with the oldest document. The name and last name of the notary public are followed by his place of residence, the quantity of documents and the time span. The documents of each notary public are divided into two groups: bound volumes (quadernae) and loose sheets. The bound volumes are arranged according to the following order: protocols of documents between living persons, minutes of documents between living persons, protocols of testaments and minutes of testaments. Loose sheets are grouped in two: documents between living persons and testaments. In the end the A. gives an alphabetical and cronological index, an alphabetical list of notaries according to their domicile and.a list of documents that should undergo reparation. We point out that this paper was originally written as part of the exam for gaining the title of »Higher Achival Technician«, and is here published unchanged.