Signa e notę cautę et secretę : tracce di sé nei libri professionali dei notai dei secoli XIII-XV

We know medieval notaries especially thanks to the records and professional books they drew up. This point of view is conditioned by the archival preservation but, at the same time, it conditions our studies. In fact, reading records we can study some aspects of notarial activity – culture, career, clients –, but we rarely find out their private lives. The aim of this paper is to analyze some notarial records, books and registers to identify extravagant notes, marginal captions and probationes calami. These notes – notę cautę et secretę – often report unexpected biographical data that allow us to know the life of notaries and to define better their professional category.