Notaries in Venetian Crete: Social Mobility and Linguistic Mediation in a Multicultural Environment

The essay offers an overview of the notarial profession in Venetian Crete (1204-1669): the consistency of the archival material, the development of the notarial profession in a context of assimilation between two legal and linguistic traditions, the distinction between notaries in the service of the state and free professionals. Special attention is reserved for the complex issue of the language and of linguistic mediation, and for the possibilities of social mobility offered by a notarial career either in state administration or in the free market.