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Country
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NL
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Name of institution (English)
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Amsterdam City Archives
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Language of name of institution
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dut
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Contact information: postal address
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Vijzelstraat 32, 1017 HL Amsterdam
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Contact information: phone number
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0031 202511511
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Contact information: email
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stadarchief@amsterdam.nl
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Reference number
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5075
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Type of reference number
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Archival reference number
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Title (English)
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Notarial Archives / Archives of Amsterdam notaries
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Title (official language of the state)
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Notariële Archieven / Archief van de Notarissen ter Standplaats Amsterdam
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Language of title
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dut
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Creator / accumulator
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Notariële Archieven
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Date(s)
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1578/1915
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Language(s)
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dut
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Extent
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c. 3,500 linear metres (c. 28,000 storage units)
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Physical condition
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Poor
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Scope and content
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The Archief van de Notarissen ter Standplaats Amsterdam fonds comprises notarial records produced by notaries operating in Amsterdam from 1578 to 1915. Copies of notarial deeds before 1578 can be found in other fonds, especially in the archives of ecclesiastical and municipal institutions and some family archives.
The notarial deeds include different types of documents, such as wills, contracts, transactions of goods and properties, inventories of inheritances for minors or absent heirs, etc., resulting in more than 28,000 records.
As Amsterdam was the home of the major Sephardic community in 17th-century Europe, including several well-known families of merchants and businessmen involved in the long-distance trade, this fonds provide extensive information on the daily life and economic activities of the members of this community.
In 1967, in the first issue of the Studia Rosenthaliana, E. M. Koen and W. C. Pieterse started to publish transcriptions of notarial deeds from this fonds related to Portuguese Jews in Amsterdam from 1578 to 1639, the year when the three Portuguese Jewish congregations of Amsterdam were merged in one, the Kahal Kados Talmud Torah. This endeavour lasted for 46 issues of the journal until 2001 and covered 886 records of 58 notaries. Besides the transcription of the original Dutch documents, it also includes English abstracts. Therefore, this publication is a good starting point for exploring the Amsterdam Notarial Archives in search of information regarding the Western Sephardic Diaspora.
Unfortunately, there is no similar resource for later years. However, it is possible to identify some notaries whose records contain more comprehensive information related to Portuguese Jews. It is the case of Jan Volkaertsz Oli: volumes 1525-1526 contain 661 contracts signed by Portuguese Jewish merchants from 1638 to 1676. These records show the importance of the commercial activity developed by Jewish merchants in Amsterdam in the 17th century. The registers of other notaries, such as Adrien Lock (records from 1647 to 1680), Pieter Padthuijsen (1656 to 1707), Dirk van der Groe (1670 to 1720), and others also comprise hundreds more similar documents related to Portuguese Jews. Jonathan Israel was one of the several scholars who used the notarial records of this fonds to trace the trajectory of the Portuguese Jewish community of Amsterdam in the 17th century. Therefore, the reading of his works mentioned below could be helpful in identifying the Amsterdam notaries who worked more closely with Portuguese Jewish merchants after 1639. As said before, for an earlier chronology, the reading of the records published in the Studia Rosenthaliana is recommended.
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Archival history
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In 1656, the city government of Amsterdam ordered that "closed" protocols (those produced by notaries who resigned or died) must be brought to the city hall to be stored in a guarded and locked room. Before this date, the old notarial documents were more dispersed, some of them kept by the notaries' families or sold to their successors.
In 1652 and again in 1762, a fire struck inside the city hall. Burning papers were reportedly thrown into the canals, and numerous notarial documents were lost. About 850 of the 30,000 protocols in the Amsterdam City Archives show proof of heat damage. Also, some of the 16th- and 17th-century notaries reveal large chronological gaps in their documentation, which suggests the loss of high volumes of records, probably in the sequence of the fires.
Following King Louis Napoleon's regulations in 1806, the Dutch national government centralised the safeguard for the whole archival documentation produced in the Netherlands. However, it is uncertain whether the Archief van de Notarissen ter Standplaats Amsterdam (Archive of the Amsterdam notaries) has ever been physically moved out of Amsterdam.
The Archive of the Amsterdam notaries has been in the custody of the Amsterdam City Archives for the last hundred years. Efforts have been undertaken to make this fonds more accessible. For the period before 1800, it is estimated that between 5% and 8% of notarial deeds have been made arranged on personal names, professions, business and geographical names. The period from 1578 to 1620 has been made reasonably well accessible. The deeds from the years 1701-1710 are almost entirely put on cards on professions, business subjects and geographical names.
In 1961, the Parnassim of the Portuguese Jewish congregation decided to undertake research on primary sources related to the history of the community, including the notarial archives of Amsterdam. The documents with mentions concerning Portuguese Jews were noted and transcribed on index cards. Since 1963, this project was funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Pure Scientific Research. The intention was to publish these materials in the Studia Rosenthaliana, which took place from 1967 to 2001.
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Sources:
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UNESCO - Memory of the world register
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Koen, E. M., and W. Chr. Pieterse. 1967. “Amsterdam Notarial Deeds pertaining to the Portuguese Jews in Amsterdam up to 1639 (second instalment).” Studia Rosenthaliana 1: 109-115.
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Inventaris van het Archief van de Notarissen ter Standplaats Amsterdam
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Administrative / Biographical history
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Public notary was introduced in the Netherlands between 1250 and 1350. Two elements played an important role in this development: firstly, the itinerant notaries from Southern Europe, some of whom operated independently, while others worked in the papal legates' retinues; and secondly, the notaries who worked for ecclesiastical judges and officials. Although the latter worked for imperial, ecclesiastical and papal authorities, they were also authorised to provide independent services.
Until the 16th century, town magistrates, the "schepenen" (aldermen), had the power to grant legal value to deeds and contracts. However, the unification of the Netherlands under the Burgundian and later the Habsburg regime brought significant changes to the register of public acts and contracts. In the 1530s, Emperor Carlos V's ordinances raised the practice of drafting formal legal documents into public offices. Then, contracts produced by notaries obtained the same legal status as those made by aldermen. From then on, notaries were entitled to provide legal services and ensure the liability of a wide range of contracts, including property and assets transactions, shipping and loan contracts, business partnerships, last wills and testaments, marriage contracts, etc. Then, the public registration of contracts and deeds gradually shifted from the aldermen to the notaries. However, this shift took a long time in certain types of acts. For instance, in Amsterdam, only in the late 18th century were most loan contracts drafted by notaries instead of aldermen.
The Reformation and the Dutch Reform did not induce revolutionary changes in the notary. However, the Reformation made it impossible for notaries to work under papal authority. The profession became secularised: lay notaries replaced clerics. Only those who belonged to the Reformed Church were admitted: the notary, as a public office, was not open to Catholics. Still, the essence of the profession was unaffected by these developments. A notary remained a clerk certified and appointed by the public authorities who provided authentic documents.
During the French dominium (1795-1813), the proposal for the abolition of the public notary never gained serious consideration. Actually, the revolutionaries found the notary indispensable as a provider of legal services to the people and a guardian of legal certainty. However, certain changes did ensue from the Revolution, in particular, as a result of the Ventôse Laws of 1803. On March 1, 1811, the Ventôse Law entered into effect in the Netherlands, normalizing the notarial legislation and extending the notary office to territories that were as yet unacquainted with it. The Ventôse Law remained on the statute books until July 9, 1842, when the Notaries Act replaced it. The Notaries Act retained the status of notaries as public officers appointed by the Crown but introduced some changes. For instance, it held out the prospect of enforcing fixed fees. Thus, it introduced more government control than the Ventôse Law, which stated that the fee should be agreed between notary and client. From the moment it entered into effect to the beginning of the 20th century, the 1842 Act was sometimes the target of harsh criticism. In addition, notaries were also incensed at the competition they were facing from informal representatives, the so-called "zaakwaarnemers" (business agents). Such representatives performed numerous tasks that lay within the notary's working field but for which the latter had not been granted exclusive competence, such as legal transactions that did not require an authenticated deed.
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Sources:
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Cappon, Kees. 2011. “Dutch Notaries: Do They Have a Future? How the Historical Foundations of the Civil Law Can Help Survive a Modern Crisis.” Journal of Civil Law Studies 4 (2): 569–90.
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Gelderblom, Oscar, Mark Hup, and Joost Jonker. 2018. “Public Functions, Private Markets: Credit Registration by Aldermen and Notaries in the Low Countries, 1500–1800.” In Financing in Europe, Marcella Lorenzini, Cinzia Lorandini and D’Maris Coffman, 163–94. Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58493-5_7.
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System of arrangement
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The notarial Archives are divided by notaries. In some cases, the notarial deeds are divided in types of documents.
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Author of the description
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Kevin Soares, 2022
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Bibliography
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Antunes, Cátia, and Filipa Ribeiro Da Silva. 2011. “Cross-Cultural Entrepreneurship in the Atlantic: Africans, Dutch and Sephardic Jews in Western Africa, 1580-1674.” Itinerario 35 (1): 49–76. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0165115311000052.
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Bernfeld, Tirtsah Levie. 2011. “Sephardi Women in Holland’s Golden Age.” In Sephardi Family Life in the Early Modern Diaspora, edited by Julia Rebollo Lieberman, 178–222. HBI Series on Jewish Women. Waltham, Mass Hanover,: Brandeis University Press; Published by University Press of New England.
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Bernfeld, Tirtsah Levie. 2012. “Matters Matter: Material Culture of Dutch Sephardim (1600-1750).” Studia Rosenthaliana 44: 191–216.
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Bernfeld, Tirtsah Levie. 2012. Poverty and Welfare among the Portuguese Jews in Early Modern Amsterdam. Oxford; Portland: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9781786949837/type/BOOK.
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Blamont, Jacques. 2000. Le Lion et Le Moucheron. Paris: Odile Jacob.
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Cohen, Julie-Marthe. 1998. “Notes on David Henriques de Castro Dzn (1837-1890).” Studia Rosenthaliana 32 (2): 195–97. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41482385.
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Cohen, Julie Marthe. 2004. “The Inventory of Ceremonial Objects of the Portuguese Jewish Community of Amsterdam of 1640.” Studia Rosenthaliana 37: 225–307. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41482494.
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Emmanuel, Isaac S., and Suzanne A. Emmanuel. 1970. History of the Jews of the Netherlands Antilles. 2 vols. Cincinnati, OH: American Jewish Archives.
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Fuks-Mansfeld, R. G. 1984. “Bevolkingsproblematiek In Joods Amsterdam In De Zeventiende Eeuw.” Studia Rosenthaliana 18 (2): 134–142. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41481549.
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Green, Tobias. 2005. “Further Considerations on the Sephardim of the Petite Côte (Xve-XVIIe Siècles).” History in Africa 32: 165–83.
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Hagoort, Lydia. 1997. “The Del Sottos, A Portuguese Jewish Family in Amsterdam in the Seventeenth Century.” Studia Rosenthaliana 31 (1–2): 31–57.
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Hagoort, Lydia. 1998. “Persons of a Restless Disposition: Conflicts between the Jewish Merchants Lopo Ramires and Manuel Dias Henriques and the Parnassim of the Portuguese Nation about the Inheritance of Rebecca Naar.” Studia Rosenthaliana 32 (2): 155–72.
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Israel, Jonathan I. 1980. “Some Further Data on the Amsterdam Sephardim and Their Trade with Spain During the 1650s.” Studia Rosenthaliana 14 (1): 7–19. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41481325.
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Israel, Jonathan I. 1984. “An Amsterdam Jewish Merchant of the Golden Age: Jeronimo Nunes Da Costa (1620-1967), Agent of Portugal in the Dutch Republic.” Studia Rosenthaliana 18 (1): 21–40.
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Israel, Jonathan I. 1985. “Manuel López Pereira of Amsterdam, Antwerp and Madrid: Jew, New Christian, and Advisor to the Conde-Duque de Olivares.” Studia Rosenthaliana 19 (2): 109–26.
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Israel, Jonathan I. 1987. “Duarte Nunes da Costa (Jacob Curiel), of Hamburg, Sephardi Nobleman and Communal Leader (1585-1664).” Studia Rosenthaliana 21 (1): 14–34. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41481641.
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Israel, Jonathan. 1990. Empires and Entrepots: The Dutch, the Spanish Monarchy, and the Jews, 1585-1713. London; Roncevert: Hambledon Press.
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Israel, Jonathan. 1994. “Lopo Ramirez (David Curiel) and the Attempt to Establish a Sephardi Community in Antwerpen 1653-1654.” Studia Rosenthaliana 28 (1): 99–119. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41482274.
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Israel, Jonathan. 2002. Diasporas within a Diaspora: Jews, Crypto-Jews, and the World of Maritime Empires (1540-1740). Brill’s Series in Jewish Studies, v. 30. Boston, MA: Brill.
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Koen, E. M. 1968. “Duarte Fernandes, Koopman Van De Portugese Natie Te Amsterdam.” Studia Rosenthaliana 2 (2): 178–93.
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Koen, E. M. 1970. “The Earliest Sources Relating to the Portuguese Jews in the Municipal Archives of Amsterdam up to 1620.” Studia Rosenthaliana 4 (1): 25–42.
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Melkman, J. 1969. “Mozes Zacuto En Zijn Familie.” Studia Rosenthaliana 3 (2): 145–155.
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Nahon, G. 1976. “Les Rapports des Communautes Judeo-Portugaises de France Avec Celle d’Amsterdam au XVIIe et au XVIIIe Siecles.” Studia Rosenthaliana, 10 (1), 37–78.
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Offenberg, Adri K. 2012. “The First Jewish Poem in Praise of the City of Amsterdam by David Jesurun, ‘El Poeta Niño.’” Studia Rosenthaliana 44: 217–220. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44713681.
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Pieterse, W. Chr. 1973. “Abraham Lopes Colaso En Zijn Zoon Aron, Kooplieden te Amsterdam en Bayonne van ca. 1700 tot 1774.” Studia Rosenthaliana 7 (1): 1–7.
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Roitman, Jessica Vance. 2014. “Portuguese Jews, Amerindians, and the Frontiers of Encounter in Colonial Suriname.” New West Indian Guide 88 (1–2): 18–52. https://doi.org/10.1163/22134360-08801003.
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Schorsch, Jonathan. 2004. Jews and Blacks in the Early Modern World. New York: Cambridge University Press.
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Schorsch, Jonathan. 2005. “Blacks, Jews and the Racial Imagination in the Writings of Sephardim in the Long Seventeenth Century.” Jewish History 19 (1): 109–35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10835-005-4360-0.
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Schorsch, Jonathan. 2009. Swimming the Christian Atlantic Judeoconversos, Afroiberians and Amerindians in the Seventeenth Century. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004170407.i-574.
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Swetschinski, Daniel M. 1979. “The Portuguese Jewish Merchants of Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam: A Social Profile.” PhD dissertation, Waltham: Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Brandeis University.
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Swetschinski, Daniel M. 2000. Reluctant Cosmopolitans: The Portuguese Jews of Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam. London; Portland: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization.
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Vlessing, O. 1996. “The Jewish Community in Transition; from Acceptance to Emancipation.” Studia Rosenthaliana 30 (1): 195–212.
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Published primary sources
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Garel, Michel. 1987. “La Première Carte de Terre Sainte en Hébreu (Amsterdam, 1620/21).” Studia Rosenthaliana 21 (2): 131–39.
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Israel, Jonathan I. 1985. “Manuel López Pereira of Amsterdam, Antwerp and Madrid: Jew, New Christian, and Advisor to the Conde-Duque de Olivares.” Studia Rosenthaliana 19 (2): 109–26.
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Israel, Jonathan. 1989. “Sephardic Emigration into the Dutch Republic, 1595-1672.” Studia Rosenthaliana 23: 45–53. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41481727.
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Israel, Jonathan I. 2002. “The Republic of the United Netherlands until about 1750: Demography and Economic Activity.” In The History of the Jews in the Netherlands, edited by J. C. H. Blom, R. G. Fuks-Mansfeld, and Ivo Schöffer, 85–115. Oxford; Portland: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization.
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Koen, E. M., W. Chr. Pieterse, and S. Hart. 1967-2001. “Amsterdam Notarial Deeds pertaining to the Portuguese Jews in Amsterdam up to 1639 (second instalment).” Studia Rosenthaliana 1–35.
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Salomon, Herman P., and António Faleiro. 1997. “The Case of Luís Vaz Pimentel Revelations of Early Jewish Life in Rotterdam from the Portuguese Inquisition Archives.” Studia Rosenthaliana 31 (1–2): 7–30. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41482352.
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Nahon, G., and J. R. Pereire. 1976. “Les Rapports des Communautes Judeo-Portugaises de France Avec Celle d’Amsterdam au XVIIe et au XVIIIe Siecles.” Studia Rosenthaliana 10 (2): 151–88.
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Salomon, H. P. 1983. “The Portuguese Background of Menasseh ben Israel’s Parents as Revealed Through the Inquisitorial Archives at Lisbon.” Studia Rosenthaliana 17 (2): 105–146.
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Winkelman, P. H. 1983. Bronnen voor de geschiedenis van de nederlandse oostzeehandel in de 17e eeuw. 3 vols. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
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Zwarts, Jacob. 1929. De Eerste Rabbijnen En Synagogen van Amsterdam : Naar Archivalischen Bronnen / Door Jac. Zwarts. Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberger.
