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Notarial Archives Relating to the Greek World: A Chaotic and Vastly Unexplored Wealth

Notarial deeds appeared in the Byzantine lands by the late Middle Ages, but in most areas of the Greek world the tradition died out after their integration into the Ottoman Empire.1 This, however, was not the case in regions that came to be either directly ruled by Venice (notably Crete and the Ionian islands), or under its strong economic and cultural influence (notably the Aegean islands of the Cyclades). The extant remains of this notarial activity are impressive. For example, abundant records – as yet largely unexplored – are to be found in the Ionian Islands,2 while significant numbers have survived in the major Cyclades (Naxos, Santorini, Andros, Syros and Mykonos).3 The wealth of material then is obvious, but the rest of the title of this report requires some explanation. I used a roundabout way to describe my object, rather than simply speaking of ‘Greek archives’ because a large part of the documents are dispersed in foreign collections. This partly explains the ‘chaotic’ element, in the sense that each location has its own system of classification and its own priorities. In archives and libraries such as those of Genoa, Malta or Marseilles, there are unknown numbers of dispersed notarial documents pertaining to Greeks, which require laborious and time-consuming searches to gather together. The notable exceptions, the State Archives of Venice, where the section “Notai di Candia” comprises some 300 fascicles containing records that the L’Homme. Z. F. G. 17, 2 (2006)