ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses to prove di nobilt that begins with a consideration of the institution which carried them out, the ways in which this was done and the nature of the evidence which was thrown up by these investigations. Firstly, the Avogaria investigations were equally passive. The contrast arises in the second part is their investigations during which the Avogadori selected an independent group of witnesses and interrogated them in order to elucidate the claims made by oral testimony in support of a supplica. The prove di nobilt took place in the offices of the Avogaria di Comun in the Ducal Palace, close to one of the corridors linking the palace with the prison across the Bridge of Sighs. The new law purported to tighten up the conditions according to which marriages by patricians were to be registered with the Avogaria di Comun, requiring all such marriages to be registered within 15 days by two senior notaries at the magistracy.
