What is a Notary Public? A notary public is a public officer appointed and commissioned by the Governor whose function is to administer oaths (or affirmations); to take acknowledgments; to attest to the trueness of photocopies of certain documents; and to perform other duties specified by Florida law.

A notary is a public official responsible for independently verifying signatures and oaths. Depending on how a document is written, a notarization serves to affirm the identity of a signer and the fact that they personally executed their signature. A notarization, or notarial act, officially documents the identity of a party to a document or transaction and the occasion of the signing that others can rely upon, usually at face value. A notary's authentication is intended to be reliable, to avoid the inconvenience of having to locate a signer to have them personally verify their signature, as well as to document the execution of a document perhaps long after the lifetime of the signer and the notary. An oath is a sworn statement. In most cases a person will swear that a written statement, oral statement, or testimony they are about to give is true. A notary can document that the notary administered an oath to an individual.

Before a person can perform notarial acts as a notary public, he or she must receive a commission as evidence of authority to perform those acts. Notaries are appointed by the Governor and commissioned by the Secretary of State (§26-1-10). Applicants must take the oath of office found in the South Carolina Constitution, which is included in the notary public application (§26-1-40). The application must be signed with pen and ink and the signature of the applicant must be acknowledged by a person authorized to administer oaths (§26-1-40). The date of your signature and the date of the notarization must match. You cannot notarize your own signature on the application or at any other time. The bottom part of the application is to be completed by your legislative delegation. The application fee is $25.00, made payable to the Secretary of State's Office. Once you have completed the application, you will mail it along with the fee to your county's legislative delegation office to be processed.

I n Arizona, a notary public is a public officer commissioned by the Secretary of State to perform notarial acts, as defined in the Arizona Revised Statutes (see Chapter 5). A notary, in essence, serves as an impartial witness pursuant to A.R.S. § 41- 328(B). Government offices, businesses and the public rely on the accuracy and integrity of notaries public. This means the notary should take the required steps to authenticate signatures and ensure that all notarizations are properly completed and performed. Many documents require a notarization in an effort to deter fraud, to prove the authenticity of the signature and to ensure that a signature was made willingly and not under duress. Therefore, it's essential that a notary accept a valid form of identification, as defined in statutes, to determine that a signer is who he or she claims to be. Because the prevention of fraud and deception is central to the notary's role, it is essential that a notary have no conflict of interest when notarizing a document.

A fast-growing legal system and economy in medieval and early modern Rome saw a rapid increase in the need for written documents. Brokers of Public Trust examines the emergence of the modern notarial profession—free market scribes responsible for producing original legal documents and their copies. Notarial acts often go unnoticed, but they are essential to understanding the history of writing practices and attitudes toward official documentation. Based on new archival research, Brokers of Public Trust focuses on the government officials, notaries, and consumers who regulated, wrote, and purchased notarial documents in Rome between the 14th and 18th centuries. Historian Laurie Nussdorfer chronicles the training of professional notaries and the construction of public archives, explaining why notarial documents exist, who made them, and how they came to be regarded as authoritative evidence. In doing so, Nussdorfer describes a profession of crucial importance to the people and government of the time, as well as to scholars who turn to notarial documents as invaluable and irreplaceable historical sources. This magisterial new work brings fresh insight into the essential functions of early modern Roman society and the development of the modern state.