Quaternus contractuum

Bastardello of the notary Martino di Angelo de Cara, minuscule notarial writing, Latin language. Through the analysis of three archival units dating back to the fourteenth century, it is possible to follow the process of creation of the notarial document: the request of the contracting parties for the legal transaction made to the notary in the presence of judges and witnesses; the draft of the minute by the rogatory; the drafting in mundum on parchment carried out by the same with the following affixing of the notary signum and the signatures of the witnesses. These three phases are witnessed, respectively, by the bastardello of the Altamuran notary Martino di Angelo de Cara, from the minuta of a legal shop, also called imbreviatura, and from the final editing of the document on parchment. The bastardello is a paper notebook on which the notaries temporarily entered acts of different nature. In the minute of the document, was set what would then become the final document, with all the formulas and information provided, so that it then had legal validity. The final phase of the document formation process, in this case a testament drawn up on parchment by the notary Martino di Angelo de Cara in 1318, sees the affixing of the notary signum and the signatures of the judges and witnesses.