Atti dei notai

Country

IT

Name of institution (English)

State Archives of Ferrara

Name of institution (official language of the state)

Archivio di Stato di Ferrara

Language of name of institution

ita

Contact information: postal address

Corso della Giovecca 146, 44120 Ferrara

Contact information: phone number

0039 0532206668

Contact information: web address

http://www.asferrara.beniculturali.it/

Contact information: email

as-fe@beniculturali.it

Reference number

Atti dei notai

Type of reference number

Archival reference number

Title (English)

Notarial records

Title (official language of the state)

Atti dei notai

Language of title

ita

Creator / accumulator

Notai del distretto di Ferrara

Date(s)

1334/1869

Language(s)

ita

lat

Extent

26 folders, 8,157 bundles, 486 volumes and 363 files

Type of material

Textual Material

Physical condition

Satisfactory

Scope and content

The Atti di notai fonds comprises over 10,000 unit pieces from the first half of the 14th century to the late 19th century. The fonds is divided into series corresponding to the notarial archives of Ferrara, Codigoro and Comacchio.
These notarial records are an essential source to report the settlement and activity of Iberian New Christians and Jews in Ferrara, in particular in its golden age, between the 1530s and the 1550s. Some of the highest figures of the Western Sephardic Diaspora in the 16th century left trace in the notarial records of Ferrara. It is the case of the Mendes Benveniste family and its entourage, whose pieces of evidence are numerous in this fonds. Mateus and Frade (2003) listed some records related to this family, and Leoni (2011) provided abstracts and transcriptions of notarial records related to the Mendes Benveniste and other members of the "nação portuguesa" (Portuguese nation) of Ferrara. Some interesting records regarding Beatriz Mendes (alias Beatriz de Luna, alias Grácia Naci) were also transcribed in Mateus and Vieira (2016). Other protagonists of the Sephardic community of Ferrara in the first half of the 16th century also have expression in this fonds, such as Samuel Usque (see, for instance, Giacomo Conti, matr. 584, pp. 2-5), Yom Tob Atias, alias Jerónimo de Vargas (see documents published in Salomon, 2010), Joseph Negro, alias Ibn Iahia (will in G.B. Codegori, matr. 283, pc. 4), Sebastião Rodrigues Pinto (several documents referred in Leoni, 2011), and the Abravanel family (see Leoni, 1997; will of Samuel Abravanel in G.B. Codegori, matr. 582, b. 23S). Grazziani Secchieri (2012) used notarial records to locate the residence of Sephardic Jews in Ferrara in the middle of the 16th century. A search on the records of notaries operating in Ferrara in the 1530s-1550s will surely be fruitful to identify the vitality of the Sephardic community settled in this city during its golden age under the Estense domain.

Archival history

The Atti dei Notai fonds was incorporated into the Archivio di Stato di Ferrara since 1959, through seven acquisitions: five from the Archivio Notarile Distrettuale (District Notary Archive) of Ferrara, one from the Archivio Storico Comunale (Municipal Historical Archive) of Argenta and one from antiques market.
The acquisition of the oldest acts (from 1334 to 1856) from the Archivio Notarile Distrettuale by the Archivio di Stato was formalised in 1959. These documents belonged to the Archivi Notarili Mandamentali of Ferrara, Codigoro and Comacchio. The transfer process of these documents occurred under the condition that they remained in the original deposits in the Castello Estense (Este family's castle) until the newly established Archivio di Stato (founded in 1955) had the conditions to receive them in its facilities. In 1959, 17,703 units were delivered to the Archivio di Stato. In 1970, the archive incorporated the remaining units of notarial acts of the Notary Archive of Argenta, which had been destroyed on April 12, 1945. These documents were then in the Archivio Storico Comunale of Argenta.
Over the following years, the Archivio Notarile Distrettuale deposited other records within the Archivio di Stato: 308 units from 1857 to 1869 in 1976; 665 units from 1827 to 1887 in 1988; 287 units from 1845 to 1897 in 2001; and 364 units from 1959 to 1907 in 2008. In 2011, a single document of notary Niccolò De Vincentiiis (1458) was found on the antiques market and acquired by the Archivio di Stato.
We would like to thank the Archivio di Stato di Ferrara, in the persons of its director Davide Guarnieri and its archivist Raffaela Scolozzi, for this information.

Administrative / Biographical history

The exercise of the notary service dates back to the municipal constitution (later state constitution), and it was regulated by the Ferrara statutes established by Obizzo II in 1287. Further regulations of the office were established by Borso in 1456, Ercole II in 1534, Alfonso II in 1567, and the papal legate in 1624 and 1690. Following the Napoleonic legislation (regulation June 17, 1806), a general notarial archive was established in Ferrara and subsidiary archives in Codigoro and Comacchio. This decision was taken with the aim of concentrating all records of notaries who had ceased their activity.

(source: Archivio di Stato di Ferrara: catalogue)