11. Notarial deed in Armenian script

This deed is indicative of the established presence of Armenian merchants in seventeenth-century Amsterdam, and presumably of the wide-reaching business that they conducted from the city. In addition, it signifies that it was possible to obtain notarial deeds written entirely in the Armenian script and language in Amsterdam, either by specialised clerks who had mastered the language, or by the notary’s Armenian clients themselves, vouched for by a translator, and ratified by the notary. The actual contents of this deed are unknown. The material history of this document is traceable to a particular event in the history of the notarial protocol archives: together with many others, it sustained fire damage during the 1762 fire in the city hall, where these archives were housed at the time. This is the reason for the gash in the middle of the document.

(Tessa de Boer and Ramona Negrón)