Enforcing agreements: notaries and courts in early modern Rome

This study suggests that the existence and extension of credit networks in early modern Pome must be viewed in the context of currency scarcity as well as with regard to commercial development in the early sixteenth century and the policies pursued by successive Popes. The development of credit networks, coupled with the desire to lower the costs of transactions, acted to constrain formal expression in legal documents. In these circumstances, litigation emerged as a way of establishing the terms of the transaction. Appeal to the courts filled lacunae which had been created by deliberate vagueness in the terms of the transaction. The courts established rights which had intentionally remained unexpressed or left vague to allow the parties time and grounds to secure a more advantageous settlement.