Contribution to the Chronology of the Notary and Chancellors of Kotor in the 14th and Beginning of the 15th Centuries

Abstract

In contrast to the 12th and 13th centuries, the sources for the study of the Kotor notary in the 14thand 15thcenturies are significantly more numerous and diverse. In the first place, there are office notarial writings that have been preserved from the period 1326-1337, then the second half of the last decade of the 14th century, and, almost continuously, from the end of the second decade of the 15th century. Apart from them, individual documents created in the Kotor office during the 14th century have been preserved, which represent a very valuable source for studying the time when certain notaries worked in Kotor. An extremely important source for the study of this issue is the Grbalj cadaster which contains the notes of notaries and chancellors who drew up documents on the ownership of land holdings in Grbalj. Mentions of some Kotor notaries and the time of their activity can be found in the Dubrovnik archives of the 13th-15th centuries. A special type of source about Kotor notaries of the 14thand 15thcenturies contains their lists. One such can be found in the Zagreb copy of the Kotor Statute and contains a list of notaries from 1380 to 1487. The second one is the list of notaries and chancellors located in the National University Library in Zagreb. It is a particularly valuable source for the chronology of Kotor notaries from the second half of the 14th century, providing information about them until 1705. It brings the names of some hitherto little-known Kotor notaries from the beginning of the 15th century.