Du notaire instructeur au juge d’instruction: un parcours d’histoire des institutions judiciaires en Toscane de l’Ancien Régime à la Restauration

The present essay tries to identify the path leading to the creation of an investigating Judge in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. According to the inquisitorial procedure of early modern age, the investigation, considered as an art and not as a science, was left in charge of notaries and chancellors. In the local courts, the Vicario pronounced only on the opening of a special inquisition. During the Restoration, it was re-established the old judiciary system and only in 1838, through a general reform, it was established an investigating judge and a Chamber in charge of deciding on the indictment. The reform of 1849 was a further step towards the mixed procedure and the creation of an investigating judge. This was however opposed by a large part of the Tuscan legal culture, which remained linked to an approach providing for a judge-lawyer, which only qualifies material facts in lure and gives the relevant judgement.