Approximation to the situation of the clerks of council in the province of Malaga in the Spanish mid-seventeenth: a poor professional organization or professional sloth?

Abstract

The notary of chapter is a figure known enough by the Spanish historiography, however, its analysis suffers from a lack of studies for the Spanish eighteenth century in general and for the Malaga province especially. The study is based on original sources belonging to different files. Across the in-vestigation, we could have verified that these notaries were an important figure within the town council, since its main function was to leave a scriptural record of everything that happened in the city. This primordial work of this socio-professional collective in many occasions was not completed, since it has been possible to verify a certain professional indifference on the part of these notaries. There are nu-merous complaints filed before the town council for the lack of involvement of these professionals, while there are also numerous documents that lacked any legal value due to the lack of rubric of these notaries. All this indicates to us that it was a collective that enjoyed a great lack of organization in the accomplishment of its professional tasks.