Le notaire, animal politique et parlant. Jalons pour une histoire des représentations de la fonction notariale (XIIIe-XIVe s.)

Abstract

In Thirteenth and fourteenth century Europe and Italy, the notarial function was the object of a complex process of ideological symbolization, well fitted to the role played by the notarial milieu either in the communal space, or in the laical and ecclesiastical courts. After the emergence of ars dictaminis, the growth of ars notariae boosted the formation of these representations of the notary as a “speaking political animal”. This paper tries to show how a comparative analysis of a variety of sources (prologues of Artes notariae , of notarial statutes, ludic correspondence between notaries...) allows us to explore the ways through which a complex set of metaphorical representations of the notarial figure was created in Italy and France, thus symbolizing the auto-representation of the notaries as creators of a social link based on communication and contract.