NOTARIUS - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

NOTARIUSAuthored

The Law Mind • 778 words

Definition

A Latin term designating a class of scribal and documentary officers whose functions evolved across Roman, feudal, and early English legal practice. The term has no single modern English equivalent but is the direct ancestor of the contemporary notary public.

In Roman law: A person — sometimes a slave — who recorded spoken words in shorthand (notis), whether dictated privately or spoken in a public proceeding such as a senate session or court hearing. The notarius could also serve as a drafter of written instruments including wills and conveyances. The role was functional rather than formally credentialed in the modern sense.

In feudal and medieval law: An officer attached to a magistrate or lord who reduced proceedings and instruments to writing. In this capacity the notarius overlaps substantially with the scrivener and the tabellion, handling the drafting of conveyances and other formal documents.

In old English law: A scribe or scrivener who prepared short drafts of writings and legal instruments. English usage treated notarius as the Latin equivalent of notary, and the term appears in medieval English legal documents in that sense.

Common Confusion

Notarius is frequently read as a direct synonym for the modern notary public, but the resemblance is largely ancestral rather than functional. The modern notary public is a credentialed officer whose primary role is authentication — witnessing signatures, administering oaths, and certifying documents. The Roman and medieval notarius was principally a drafter and recorder: someone who created documents, not someone who verified them. The authentication function that defines modern notarial practice developed later, through the ecclesiastical notary of the medieval church and the civil law tradition. Researchers encountering notarius in a classical or early medieval source should not assume the modern authentication role is present.

Why It Matters in Research

The chief research risk with notarius is anachronism. Modern readers importing the authentication-centered meaning of notary public into classical or medieval sources will misread the functional role being described. In Roman sources, a notarius may be a highly skilled professional or a literate slave performing a purely mechanical task; the term carries no inherent status marker without context.

In early English legal documents, notarius often appears in Latin instruments where the vernacular would use scrivener or notary. These terms are not always interchangeable: the English scrivener was typically a tradesperson, while ecclesiastical and civil law notaries held formal appointments with broader documentary authority. Cross-referencing these terms in the Law Mind corpus requires attention to the institutional context — a notarius in a church court record and a notarius in a private conveyance are operating in different legal frameworks.

The Burrill citation to the Digest (Dig. 29.1.40; 40.5.41.3; Cod. 7.7.1.5) provides entry points for Roman primary sources on the term. Researchers working on the history of legal professions or documentary practice will find notarius a useful node connecting Roman administrative history to the later civil law notariat and ultimately to Anglo-American notarial practice.

Historical Dictionary Support

The four source dictionaries agree on the core Roman meaning — shorthand writer, drafter of instruments — but vary in emphasis and depth. Burrill goes furthest in the Roman law direction, citing specific Digest and Code passages and noting the possibility that the notarius was a slave, a detail with significance for understanding the term's social rather than merely functional dimensions. Black's (both editions) and Bouvier move more quickly toward the English law application, treating notarius as essentially equivalent to notary and scrivener.

Bouvier alone gestures toward the transition point between notarius and the modern notary public, breaking off mid-entry with a reference to the notary public as an appointed officer — a structural choice that implicitly signals the genealogical connection the other dictionaries leave implicit. None of the historical dictionaries address the ecclesiastical notary tradition, which is a meaningful gap: the medieval church developed a sophisticated notarial system that heavily shaped civil law notarial practice and should be consulted by researchers tracing the line from notarius to modern continental and common law notaries.

Jurisdictional Note

Notarius as an active legal term belongs to historical and comparative research rather than current practice in any common law jurisdiction. In civil law countries, the notaire or notario preserves more of the drafting and documentary function of the Roman and medieval notarius than the Anglo-American notary public does. Researchers comparing notarial systems across jurisdictions should treat the civil law notariat as the more direct institutional descendant.

NOTARIUSmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

Lat. In Roman law. A draughtsman; an amanuensis; a short-hand writer; one who took notes of the proceed- ings in the senate or a court, or of what was dictated to him by another; one who prepared draughts of wills, conveyances, etc. In old English law. A scribe or scrive ner who made short draughts of writings and other instruments; a notary. Cowell.

NOTARIUSmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

the same effect as the indorsement “Not a true bill” or “Jgnoramus.” Lat. In Roman law. A draughtsman; an amanuensis; & short-hand writer; one who took notes of the proceedings in the senate or a court, or of what was dictated to him by another; one who pre pared draughts of wills, conveyances, etc. Im old English law. A scribe or scrivener who made short draughts of writings and other instruments; a notary. Cowell.

NOTARIUSmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

In Civil Law. One who took notes or draughts in shorthand of what was said by another, or of proceed- ings in the senate or in a court. One who draughted written instruments, wills, con- veyances, etc. Vicat, Voc. Jur.; Calvinus, Lex. In English Law. A notary. Law Fr. & Lat. Dict.; Cowel. NOTARY, NOTARY PUBLIC. An officer appointed by the executive or other appointing power, under the laws of dif- ferent states. Notaries are of ancient origin; they ex- isted in Rome during the republic, and were called tabelliones forenses, or persona publice. Their employment consisted in the drawing up of legal documents. They exist in all the countries of Europe, and as early as A. D. 803 were appointed by the Frankish kings and the popes. Notaries in England are appointed by the archbishop of Canterbury. 25 Hen. VIII. c. 21, § 4. They are officers of the civil and canon law; Brooke, Office & Pr. of a Notary 9. In most of the states, notaries are appointed by the governor alone, in others by the governor, by and with the advice of his council, in others by and with the advice and consent of the senate; in the District of Columbia they are appointed by the Pres- ident of the United States. As a general rule, throughout the United States, the official acts of a notary public must be au- thenticated by seal as well as signature; 10 Iowa 305; 49 Ala. 242; 12 III. 162. Their duties differ somewhat in the dif- ferent states, and are prescribed by stat- ute. They are generally as follows: to protest bills of exchange and draw up acts of honor; to authenticate and certify copies of documents; to receive the affidavits of mariners and draw up protest relating to the same; to attest and take acknowledg- ments of deeds and other instruments, and to administer oaths. Ordinarily notaries have no jurisdiction outside the county or district for which they are appointed; but in several states they may act throughout the state. By act of congress, Sept. 16, 1850, nota- ries are authorized to administer oaths and take acknowledgments in all cases where under the laws of the United States justices of the peace were formerly authorized to act. By act of Aug. 15, 1876, c. 304, notaries are authorized to take depositions and do all other acts in relation to taking testi- mony to be used in the courts of the United States, and to take acknowledgments and affidavits with the same effect as commis- sioners of the United States circuit courts may do. R. S. § 1778. They may protest na- tional bank circulating notes; R. S. § 5226 ; take acknowledgment of assignment of claims upon the United States; id. § 3477; and administer oaths of allegiance to per- sons prosecuting such claims; id. § 3479. By act of June 22, 1874, c. 390, notaries may take proof of debts against the estate of a bankrupt. By act of Feb. 26, 1881, c. 82, reports of national banks may be sworn to before notaries, but such notary must not be an officer of the bank; R. S. § 5211. By act of Aug. 18, 1856, с. 127, every secretary of legation and consular officer may, within the limits of his legation, perform any no- tarial act; R. S. § 1750. A statute which authorizes a notary public to commit for contempt a witness who has been duly sub- pœnaed to testify before him and who re- fuses to be sworn or give his deposition, is unconstitutional; 48 Pac. Rep. (Kan.) 574. The acts of notaries are respected by the custom of merchants and the law of na- tions. Their protest of a bill is received as evidence in the courts of all civilized coun- tries. Except in cases of protest of bills, the signature of a notary to an instrument going to a foreign country ought to be au- thenticated by the consul or representative of that country. The notaries of England have always considered themselves authorized to ad- minister oaths; and the act of 5 & 6 Will.

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