At 07:13 19.11.97 -0400, you wrote:
>
>>I am writing an article on Leon Battista Alberti and
>>I find that after his studies in law at Bologna, he became an Apostolic
>>Abbreviator. Exactly what is/was that office? What duties did it entail?
>>What did it have to do with the Curia, for whom he worked?
>
>Milton was *Secretary of Briefs to Princes* to the Commonwealth
>Government ca 1650. Was Alberti making ABstracts of BRIEFS ie a sort
>of recording clerk?
>
>This is a guess: I do not know the answer.
No, abbreviatores usually did not 'make abstracts' of already existing
texts, they assisted notaries in drawing up new documents, by producing the
concepts for these documents. Abbreviatores Apostolici were members of the
Cancellaria Apostolica, working for the Protonotarii.
Otfried
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