A History Of The Notary – Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The office of the notary public is commonly traced back to ancient Rome.  While this is going quite far back in time, it is possible the origins of the notary can be found even further in the past. In ancient civilizations, illiteracy was the norm and so the few who could read and write were valued members of society. One thinks of the scribe in ancient Egypt, for example, reproducing royal commands and sacred text in hieroglyphics. Nevertheless, the Latin origin of the word “notary” takes us on the road to Rome.

Brooke’s Notary (13^th ed.) has this to say:

 “The office has its origin in the civil institutions of ancient Rome. Public officials, called scribae, that is to say, scribes, rose in rank from being mere recorders of facts and judicial proceedings, copiers and transcribers to a learned profession prominent in private and public affairs. Some were permanent officials attached to the Senate and courts of law whose duties were to record public proceedings, transcribe state papers, supply magistrates with legal forms, and register the decrees and judgments of magistrates.”

Scribae were originally little more than literate clerks manning stalls in the market, but their importance and the complexity of their work grew over time. There was even a distinction between those handling financial transactions, “argentarii” and those dealing with other contracts, “tabelliones”.

 Marcus Tullius Tiro, born in the 1^st century BC as a slave but later adopted by Cicero as his son, is said to have developed a form of shorthand in which marks and signs, called “notae”, took the place of common words. This form of shorthand came to be called “Notae Tironinae”. Others adopted this convention. Plutarch said Cicero’s clerks were the first people to record speeches in shorthand. From this practice, the term “notarius” was born. In time, a notarius meant a registrar to a high government official, such as a governor.

One characteristic of Rome was its sophisticated legal system. Notaries, it can be assumed, played a vital role in the administration of that system throughout the empire. The importance of commerce to the empire, and with it, the need to document transactions, also influenced the development of notaries.

 The decline and the eventual collapse of the western Roman empire in the 5^th century AD also brought to an end the first chapter in the history of the notary. The re-emergence of the notary in the Middle Ages will be discussed in a later article.