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Country
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PT
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Name of institution (English)
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Porto District Archive
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Language of name of institution
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por
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Contact information: postal address
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Rua das Taipas 90, 4050-598 Porto
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Contact information: phone number
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00351 220046200
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Contact information: email
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http://www.adporto.dglab.gov.pt/
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Reference number
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PT/ADPRT/NOT/CNPRT04
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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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4th Notarial Office of Porto
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Title (official language of the state)
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4.º Cartório Notarial do Porto
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Language of title
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por
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Creator / accumulator
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4.º Cartório Notarial do Porto
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Date(s)
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1546/1922
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Language(s)
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por
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Extent
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34.17 linear metres (1,072 books and 312 bundles)
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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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This fonds comprises documentation that resulted from the activity of the 4th Notarial Office of Porto. Besides public deeds, wills, certifications, the fonds also contains trade records since the 16th century, which witness the flourishing trade in the Early Modern Porto and the commercial networks in which merchants of the city took part. In the 16th and 17th centuries, New Christian merchants were a significant part of the mercantile elite of Porto who operated in the Atlantic trade. Therefore, records from the 4.º Cartório Notarial do Porto fonds, in particular the 3rd series, testify the activity of New Christian traders and businessmen, such as Bento Fernandes, Simão Vaz, Domingos Lopes Vitória, Miguel Gomes Bravo, Diogo Henriques or Simão Lopes Torres. The businesses of the Porto New Christian mercantile elite spread over the Atlantic islands, Brazil and North European commercial centres such as Antwerp, Amsterdam, or cities of Southwestern France. Therefore, these notarial records also contain evidence on the economic and social relations between Portuguese New Christians and Portuguese Jews in the diaspora communities. Amândio Barros transcribed most of the records from the 16th century in the second volume of his PhD thesis (2004), which is available online.
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Archival history
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Initially, the notarial archives were under the custody of the notary himself. After the implantation of the Republic in Portugal in 1910, the records began to be transferred to the National Archives. Following the creation of district archives as of 1916, the notarial fonds were gradually relocated to these new institutions. At present, the Portuguese legislation stipulates that notarial records older than 30 years should be transferred to the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo or the respective District Archive.
In 1931, the Arquivo Distrital do Porto was founded. The 4.º Cartório Notarial do Porto (formerly, the 1.º Cartório Notarial do Porto, PO-1º) was incorporated on July 12, 1932, by the notary Eduardo dos Santos Maia Mendes.
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Administrative / Biographical history
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The term "notário" (notary) was only established by law in 1899 and replaced the designation "tabelião", the person responsible for recording every public instrument - an office that dated back to the 13th century at least.
The Decree of 23 December 1899 created thirteen notarial offices in the "comarca" (district) of Porto, seven of them in the city. A new division occurred in 1928, with the implementation of fifteen notarial offices in the district (eight in the city of Porto). On 19 December 1949, a new Decree instituted nine offices in the city.
The 4.º Cartório Notarial do Porto was previously the first notarial office of the "comarca", whose fonds had the designation of PO-1º.
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System of arrangement
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Records are arranged chronologically. The first digit of the reference number of the storage units identifies the "old series" to which they formerly belonged. For instance, the former 3rd series (which comprises most of the records with material related to New Christian merchants in the 16th and 17th centuries) is identified as PT/ADPRT/NOT/CNPRT04/003/.
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Access, restrictions
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Access to the records is conditioned by their state of conservation.
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Author of the description
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Carla Vieira, 2021
