Metadata: 4th Notarial Office of Porto
Collection
- Country:
- Portugal
- Holding institution (official language):
- Arquivo Distrital do Porto
- Postal address:
- Rua das Taipas 90, 4050-598 Porto
- Phone number:
- 00351 220046200
- Web address:
- http://www.adporto.dglab.gov.pt/
- Email:
- info@adporto.dglab.gov.pt
- Reference number:
- PT/ADPRT/NOT/CNPRT04
- Title:
- 4th Notarial Office of Porto
- Title (official language):
- 4.º Cartório Notarial do Porto
- Creator/accumulator:
- 4.º Cartório Notarial do Porto
- Date(s):
- 1546/1922
- Language:
- Portuguese
- Extent:
- 34.17 linear metres (1,072 books and 312 bundles)
- Type of material:
- Textual Material
- Physical condition:
- Poor
- Scope and content:
- This fonds comprises documentation that resulted from the activity of the 4th Notarial Office of Porto. Besides public deeds, wills, and certifications, the fonds also contains trade records since the 16th century, which witness the flourishing trade in Early Modern Porto and the commercial networks in which merchants of the city took part. In the 16th and 17th centuries, New Christian merchants were a significant part of the mercantile elite of Porto who operated in the Atlantic trade. Therefore, records from the 4.º Cartório Notarial do Porto fonds, in particular the 3rd series, testify to the activity of New Christian traders and businessmen, such as Bento Fernandes, Simão Vaz, Domingos Lopes Vitória, Miguel Gomes Bravo, Diogo Henriques or Simão Lopes Torres. The businesses of the Porto New Christian mercantile elite spread over the Atlantic islands, Brazil and North European commercial centres such as Antwerp, Amsterdam, or cities of Southwestern France. Therefore, these notarial records also contain evidence on the economic and social relations between Portuguese New Christians and Portuguese Jews in the diaspora communities. Amândio Barros transcribed most of the records from the 16th century in the second volume of his PhD thesis (2004), which is available online.
- Archival history:
-
Initially, the notarial archives were under the custody of the notary himself. After the inauguration of the Republic in Portugal in 1910, the records began to be transferred to the National Archives. Following the creation of district archives in 1916, the notarial fonds were gradually relocated to these new institutions. At present, the Portuguese legislation stipulates that notarial records more than 30 years old should be transferred to the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo or the respective District Archive.
In 1931, the Arquivo Distrital do Porto was founded. The 4.º Cartório Notarial do Porto (formerly, the 1.º Cartório Notarial do Porto, PO-1º) was incorporated on July 12, 1932, by the notary Eduardo dos Santos Maia Mendes.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The term "notário" (notary) was only established by law in 1899 and replaced the designation "tabelião", the person responsible for recording every public instrument - an office that dated back to the 13th century at least.
The Decree of 23 December 1899 created thirteen notarial offices in the "comarca" (district) of Porto, seven of them in the city. A new division occurred in 1928, with the implementation of fifteen notarial offices in the district (eight in the city of Porto). On 19 December 1949, a new Decree instituted nine offices in the city.
The 4.º Cartório Notarial do Porto was previously the first notarial office of the "comarca", whose fonds had the designation of PO-1º.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Bento Fernandes
- Diogo Henriques
- Domingos Lopes Vitória
- Miguel Gomes Bravo
- Simão Lopes Torres
- Simão Vaz
- Subject terms:
- Conversion to Christianity
- Seafaring
- Sephardi Jews
- Trade and commerce
- System of arrangement:
- Records are arranged chronologically. The first digit of the reference number of the storage units identifies the "old series" to which they formerly belonged. For instance, the former 3rd series (which comprises most of the records with material related to New Christian merchants in the 16th and 17th centuries) is identified as PT/ADPRT/NOT/CNPRT04/003/.
- Access, restrictions:
- Access to the records is conditioned by their state of conservation.
- Finding aids:
- Arquivo Distrital do Porto. 1993. Guia do Arquivo Distrital do Porto: uma experiência de tratamento documental – 1990/92. Porto: Arquivo Distrital do Porto.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://pesquisa.adporto.arquivos.pt/details?id=757151
- Yerusha Network member:
- Universidade Nova de Lisboa - Western Sephardic Diaspora Roadmap
- Author of the description:
- Carla Vieira, 2021