Notary's Signet

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Notary's mark in the form of a simple, dotted cross by the Trento notary Malwarnitus from 1174
Notarial instrument Gerwin of Hameln dated March 5, 1445 with his notarial signet
Notary's signature of Augustin von Hammerstetten . Linz , 1490

The notary's signet (also known as Signum, Chyrographum, Symbolum, Merk, Piczetum, hantzeichen, mal, signetum, signetum publicum or signetum notarile ) was a personal identification mark and developed in the 11th and 12th centuries. It was equivalent to the seal , but was a mark made with the pen. It had the basic shape of an increasingly complicated cross on a pedestal. The place where the notarial signet was housed was still changing until the middle of the 13th century, following the Romanesque model on older documents, mostly at the top left of the document, then often at the end of the document as time went on. Since the 14th century it has always been at the end to the left of the authentication formula with the signature of the notary. Since the middle of the 15th century there were occasional stamps for the signet.

The signet was a manufacturing mark. With the signet, the notarial instrument was just as conclusive as the seal certificate .

It was not until the 17th century that a notary was officially awarded a seal. Before that, there was great variation among the signets. The signet rarely changed in the course of a career as a notary, at most when a notary received a papal authorization in addition to his imperial authorization (or vice versa).

A "doctrine of the notarial signets", analogous to heraldry , has not established itself despite approaches from the late 18th and early 19th centuries (which saw a notarial sign doctrine as a sub- discipline of drawing ). Therefore there is no generally recognized set of rules for their design. This also applies to the use of empty phrases as additions, as they appeared from the middle of the 14th century (mostly biblical, later also secular, e.g. " suum cuique " ). The Imperial Notarial Order of 1512 also did not contain any specific rules for signets.

The use of the notarial signet disappeared with the dissolution of the German Empire in 1806.

literature

  • Peter Rück (Ed.): Graphic symbols in medieval documents. Contributions to diplomatic semiotics. Sigmaringen 1996, ISBN 3-7995-4203-5
  • W. Schmidt-Thomé: Notariatssignet , in: Hand Wortbuch zur deutschen Rechtsgeschichte 3 (1984), Sp. 1049/50.
  • James M. Murray: Notarial Signs and the Diplomatics of Notarial Documents in Medieval Flanders. In: Graphic symbols in medieval documents. Sigmaringen 1996.
  • Notaries and notarial signs from the Middle Ages to the year 1600 from the holdings of the Bavarian State Archives , recorded and edited by Elfriede Kern with the assistance of Walter Jaroschka , Albrecht Liess and Karl-Ernst Lupprian, Albrecht Liess general editor (special publications of the General Directorate of the Bavarian State Archives 6) , Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-938831-12-0 . and follow-up volume: Functions and places of authentication, references, indices and supplements , compiled and edited by Elfriede Kern and Magdalena Weileder with the assistance of Karl-Ernst Lupprian and Susanne Wolf, general editor Susanne Wolf (special publications of the General Directorate of the Bavarian State Archives 8), Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-938831-41-0 .

Web links

Commons : Notarial Signet  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On the biographical profile of the notary Malwarnitus in detail Hannes Obermair , Martin Bitschnau : The traditional notes of the Augustinian canons of St. Michael ad Etsch (San Michele all'Adige) . In: Communications from the Institute for Austrian Historical Research . Volume 105 (1997), pp. 263-329, here: pp. 288-289.
  2. ↑ Johann Christoph Gatterer : Outline of Diplomatics . Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1798, Section Two: Drawing Studies - Main Part Two : Doctrine of Notaries Signs (Semiotica notarialis), p. 68 ff. (§ 66 ff.) .
  3. ↑ (Councilor) Feßmeier: plan of auxiliary historical sciences . from Anton Weber (bookseller), Landshut 1802, p. 110 ff. (§121 ff.) .