L'ars notariae, una professione al servizio della signoria: il caso malatestiano

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, during the age of the communes and lordships, the notary in Fano, as in other urban contexts, took a significant role both in the production of writing and in the organization of the socio-economic and political life of the town. The notarial documents of the time preserved in Fano State Archive show that, after being granted the Pope’s permission to potestas faciendi notarios, the Malatestis encouraged the formation, the professional activity and the circulation of notaries, fostering the social and economic growth of the territories under their control. Hence, the political, military and legal affirmation of the Malatestis in the city’s tumultuous dynamics evolved at the same pace of the figure of the notary, including the notary’s technical and cultural role, as well as the methods of drafting, recording, validating and filing documents. This study examines the structure of notarial documents rogated in Fano during the fifteenth century, parallel to the development of the ars notariae as a profession serving the Malatesti signoria.