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Abstract: The paper presents the results of a study and inventory of the archive of the offices of the Trenta Notai Capitolini(Thirty Capitoline Notaries), an extraordinarily important source for historical research on Rome from the beginning of the 16th to the middle of the 19th centuries. On the basis of the analysis of the notarial protocols, the key stages that preceded the formation of the Thirty Capitoline Notaries in 1586 are reconstructed. Through the examination of the 15th century statute law, pontifical legislation and notarial documentation, traces emerge of the ancient College of the Capitoline Notaries (Collegio dei Notai Capitolini), whose origins go back to the 14th century. It is found that the Conservatori collected the notarial protocols together in a specially constituted archive at the Campidoglio in 1562. This important move was the fruit of a fecund dialogue between Pope Pius IV and the Conservatori, whose decision it was to concentrate in their palace the entire output of those Roman lay notaries who acted as secretaries to the Capitoline tribunal. It was followed, in 1586, by the bull of Sixtus V which completely reorganised the College of the Capitoline Notaries, founding a new «College of the Thirty Offices» (Collegio di Trenta Uffici) and making them saleable. It authorised the Capitoline Notaries to keep all their acts, starting from the beginning of the 16th century, in their own offices. Finally, the paper examines the diplomatic practices of the 16th-century notaries, the whereabouts of the thirty offices in the different regions of the capital, and the regular clientele of some of these.