Early modern Italy has sometimes been described as a notarial culture (Burke 1987) and with continuous series of notarial books going back to the 1570s, Ascoli provides a good example. Despite relatively low literacy rates (at most 20% in the early 18th century), its citizens made full use of literacy and numeracy. Contracts of all sorts were registered - house and land leases and sales, partnerships, acts of protest, council meetings and decisions, witness statements, building contracts, wills, acts of emancipation, dowry contracts, charitable bequests. Indeed, this extensive use of literacy is reflected in the generally high quality of surviving documentation, such as estate records, ecclesiastical registers, personal diaries, maps, plans of houses and estates.
Throughout the early modern and modern periods, Ascoli had one or more resident, state registered, notaries whose acts are publicly witnessed by a locally appointed royal official, the Regio Giudice ai Contratti. These officials were experts in local custom, and in cities like Ascoli, whose customary statutes were heavily influenced by Lombard legal traditions, often acted as mundualdi (legal guardians or tutors to women and minors). Until the introduction of the French civil code and the increasing professionalisation of notaries in the 19th century, access to a notary was quite widespread in Ascoli. For example, throughout the 18th century about 60% of all marriages had a formal notarial contract. There is some evidence to suggest that people who were unable or unwilling to draw up a formal legal contract, nevertheless made a written record of dowry provisions which could be formally registered in the case of subsequent disputes.
Succession to notarial office is usually from father to son, occasionally from father-in-law to son-in-law, or from mother's brother to sister's son. Under the ancien regime, notaries had lower status than doctors in law and much of their training was provided by local apprenticeships. Although annual inspections ensured that notaries were fairly responsive to changes in the law, substantial sections of their acts were copied from formulary books. The ownership and control of both consultable (for a fee) notarial records and formularies was an important and much contested part of family patrimonies.
The widespread recourse to notaries for life-course contracts reflects the uncertainty and extreme variability of legal and customary practices in early modern Italy. National law places some constraints on inheritance and dowry practices but the autonomous statutes of particular towns and cities provide a great deal of flexibility and variation. In the early modern period, Puglia alone has at least five different dowry systems, drawing on three quite distinct legal traditions: Roman, Lombard and Norman French. With the introduction of standardised civil codes after 1808 and the increasing costs of notarial services, recourse to notaries declined sharply and their employment was increasingly restricted to local elites and communal authorities.
Despite a long-standing notarial tradition throughout south-western Europe, these sources have for the most part been neglected by anthropologists, although they are being increasingly used by social and economic historians. This neglect is particularly unfortunate. For the earlier period at least, these contracts provide invaluable insights into the dynamics of family life and the values and aspirations of a wide range of citizens of different social standing. Although heavily formularised, the 'non-legal' central sections provide almost uniquely detailed verbal accounts (sometimes in dialect based language) of the aims, intentions, tastes and protests and objections of ordinary men and women.
Burke, P 1987 The historical anthropology of early modern Italy. Cambridge University Press
de Stefano, F.P. 1979 Romani, Longobardi e Normanno-Franchi della Puglia nei secoli XV-XVII: Richerche sui rapporti patrimoniali fra conuigi. Jovene, Napoli
de Stefano, F.P. 1986 La prammatica 'de antefato' nella dottrina e nella prassi della Puglia: Richerche sui rapporti patrimoniali fra conuigi. Jovene, Napoli
Four example contracts illustrate aspects of marriage and dowry.