Nella Lonza
From Lonza, Nella and Šundrica, Zdravko (eds). Odluke dubrovačkih vijeća 1390-1392 [Deliberations of the Councils of Dubrovnik 1390-1392]. Dubrovnik: HAZU, Zavod za povijesne znanosti u Dubrovniku, 2005. Pp. 7-26.
The ‘mixed’ registers covering the period prior to 1415 are particularly appreciated by those who study Ragusan medieval history, since they contain all the decisions of the three central governmental institutions which passed laws, conducted elections, presided in delicate judicial matters, and decided on an array of day-to-day issues. A historian in search of data on Ragusan trade with the Balkan hinterland or with Sicily, for example, or information on arms, construction works, diplomatic relations or urban everyday life will certainly consult these books first. Whether dealing with items of a general or particular nature, either noteworthy or common, sophisticated or trivial, the Reformationes not only afford a vast political landscape with distinctive outlines of the governmental structure, Ragusan institutions and the practice of decision-making, but also a colourful setting of the City and its neighbourhood.
The oldest books of the Reformationes (1301-1306, 1311-1314, 1318-1320, 1322-1333, 1336, 1343-1352, 1356-1367, 1378-1379) were published by the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts at the time) in the late nineteenth century within the Monumenta Ragusina Series, the transcripts being carried out by a number of collaborators whose
It seemed worthwhile to prepare the sources for print and make them accessible to those who cannot afford time-consuming research at the State Archives in Dubrovnik, but also to those who need a quick check of certain bits of information and thus spare them an exhaustive enquiry of the original volumes, as well as to novices in basic palaeographic skills.
In the early stages of my work on the Reformationes, Stjepan Ćosić, a colleague, called my attention to the papers of Zdravko Šundrica, bequeathed to the Institute for Historical Sciences in Dubrovnik by his wife Pavica Šundrica, which contained a number of typescripts from the Reformationes series. Actually, Šundrica’s transcriptions included what I myself had considered the first logical step: the unpublished parts of volume 28 from 1390 and volume 29. Once all of Šundrica’s transcriptions had been entered into the computer, special thanks being due to Snježana Kapetanić and Ljiljana Račić, I went through the second reading of the original, that is, I collated the transcription with the original from the State Archives in Dubrovnik, after which I gave the text its final shape and prepared it for print. I have also prepared an author, place-name, and subject index. Thus, this edition is the fruit of the combined efforts of two authors whose work on the same project is several decades apart and who have never met.
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Since I have no intention of elaborating the editorial procedure and the documentary standards in editions of the kind, I wish to draw attention to certain elements which tend to depart from current editorial practice, as well as to specific moments in which I had to choose between two opposing principles. In Dinić’s edition of the council registers from the 1380s, the original structure of the source was ignored and the decisions were rearranged in chronological order. In present edition, however, I took no such practice, as I consider the dates and indexes alone to be a sufficient device for cross-referencing among the same or similar items on the councils’ agenda. The decisions are thus ordered as in the original.
Contrary to the editorial practice witnessed in earlier printed volumes of the Reformationes, I decided not to leave out the text of the rejected counter- proposition, even if it were a mere negative variant of the accepted motion. I believe that its omission cannot be justified for reasons of saving space, since the omission would hinder the reader in following the decision-making procedure.
For the reader’s convenience, the letters ‘u’ and ‘v’ have been transcribed according to pronunciation, though the standards of documentary publication are not consistent on this subject matter. I longa is consistently transcribed as i; y is retained in the basic word forms, whereas in the suffixes it is replaced by i or ii. Variant spelling suspected to be drawn from the notary’s native idiom has been conveyed as such. Errors and infelicities in grammar and syntax (e.g. case error, lack of agreement of verb with subject but also preposition and case) will easily be spotted, so that only seldom are they flagged with an exclamation mark. Minor lapsus calami, corrected by the notary himself, have been omitted. Aberrations in the transcription of patrician surnames, which can by no means be attributed to the name variant but exclusively to the scribe’s error or his lack of familiarity with the local name pool, have been transliterated in a most similar form, accompanied by a note on the correction; this particularly concerns the Caboga family which one of the chancellors, probably led astray by an accent, keeps rendering as ‘Dacha Boga’. I tried to use as few redaction marks as possible so as to avoid an eventual clogging of the final draft. Short marginal notes in the original which concern the subject matter of each deliberation have been conveyed on the left to assist the modern reader in finding an entry of his interest. The presentation of the crossed-out parts was a particularly intriguing task. There may have been many reasons for crossing out a word or words: the clerk’s error, rejection of a motion (this information is redundant since the voting outcome itself testifies to the adopted motion), a candidate who had not received the necessary number of votes (also redundant), but also the name of a nominee who withdrew during the electoral procedure or was elected to some other office. Having put several different models to the test, I decided to place the crossed-out part in parentheses, differentiated by an editor’s mark.
The edition is furnished with three indexes: author index (index personarum), place-name index (index locorum), and subject index (index rerum). Whenever possible, the place names are accompanied by a modern form.
ABBREVIATIONS
p., pp., ip., ipp., yp., ypp. perperus, iperperus, yperperus (all case endings included)
duc. ducatus (all case endings included)
gr. grossus (all case endings included)
fol. folarus (all case endings included)
Pp. Prima pars, Prima pars est
Sp. Secunda pars, Secunda pars est
R. remansit, recepit
EDITOR’S MARKS
( ) redundancy
... lacuna in the original
[ ] interpolated by the editor
( cancell.) crossed out in the original
( adscriptum) addition in the original
( corr.) emended by the editor
in margine text in the margin
Translated by Vesna Baće
1The Ragusan chancery practice of keeping records in register form dates from the 1260s (notarial books, judicial acts). See Nella Lonza, “Srednjovjekovni zapisnici dubrovačkog kaznenog suda: izvorne cjeline i arhivsko stanje.” Anali Zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku 41 (2003): pp. 48-49; on similar yet somewhat earlier practice in the Italian towns, see Attilio Bartoli Langeli, “La documentazione degli stati italiani nei secoli XIII-XV: forme, organizzazione, personale”, in: Culture et idéologie dans la genèse de l’État moderne. Roma: École française, 1985: pp. 46-47. Viewed from the perspective of the Dubrovnik Statute of 1272 and its framing procedure, one may assume that the council decisions tended to be recorded after this year (for more detail on the drawing up of the Statute, see Nella Lonza, “Dubrovački statut, temeljna sastavnica pravnog poretka i biljeg političkog identiteta”, in: Statut grada Dubrovnika sastavljen godine 1272. Dubrovnik: Državni arhiv u Dubrovniku, 2002: pp. 16-19). It is certain that at least one register had existed prior to the oldest preserved from 1301-1303 (Odluke veća Dubrovačke Republike I, ed. Mihajlo Dinić. Zbornik za istoriju, jezik i knjiæevnost srpskog naroda, III.15. Beograd: SANU, 1951: p. 3).
2Odluke veća Dubrovačke Republike II, ed. M. Dinić. ZIJKSN, III.21. Beograd: SANU, 1964: p. 1.
3They are: Acta Consilii Rogatorum, ser. III (with a separate series IV, Secreta Rogatorum, which has not survived in full); Acta Minoris Consilii, ser. V; Acta Consilii Maioris, ser. VIII.
4Libri reformationum I-V. Monumenta spectantia historiam Slavorum Meridionalium, X, XIII, XXVII-XXIX. Zagreb: JAZU, 1879-1897. Ivan Krstitelj Tkalčić had copied most of the first volume, later completed by the Ragusan colleagues (P. Budmani and others). They produced the transcriptions of the second and the third volume. Josip Gelcich is known to be the editor of the fourth and fifth volume, having also collated the third volume.
5See the reviews of Konstantin Jireček in Časopis českého musea 59 (1885): 572-589 and Archiv für Slavische Philologie 19 (1887): pp. 585-598; Odluke veća Dubrovačke Republike I : p. 4. Irmgard Mahnken observes that “the distortion of the names is such that identification is hardly possible” (Dubrovački patricijat u XIV veku, I. Posebna izdanja, book 340. Beograd: SANU, 1960: p. XII).
6Odluke veća Dubrovačke Republike I; Odluke veća Dubrovačke Republike II; Reformationes for 1365, omitted from Monumenta Ragusina by mistake, were published by Dinić in: Iz dubrovačkog arhiva, I. ZIJKSN, III.17. Beograd: SANU, 1957: pp. 3-24.
7Odluke veća Dubrovačke Republike II: pp. 402-589.
8The Statute of Dubrovnik, I, 3 [16] (Statut grada Dubrovnika sastavljen godine 1272. Dubrovnik: Državni arhiv, 2002). See Nella Lonza, “Izborni postupak Dubrovačke Republike”. Anali Zavoda za povijesne znanosti u Dubrovniku 38 (2000): pp. 12-13.
9On this point, see the provision from 1381 in Liber omnium reformationum, VIII, 2 (“Liber omnium reformationum”, ed. Aleksandar Solovjev, in: Istorisko-pravni spomenici, I. Dubrovački zakoni i uredbe. ZIJKSN, III. 6. Beograd: SANU, 1936).
10Compare Odluke veća I: 6. His hand may be identified with certainty on the basis of his handwriting in Reformationes, vol. 28, f. 115r, and by comparing it with act no. 36 in the Diplomata et acta saec. XIV (ser. LXXVI). On Andreas’s career at the Ragusan chancery, see a brief depiction by Constantin Jireček, “Die mittelalterliche Kanzlei der Ragusaner”. Archiv für Slavische Philologie 26 (1904): pp. 190-191.
11For comparison, see act no. 51 in Diplomata et acta saec. XIV. On the basic biographical data, see C. Jireček, “Die mittelalterliche Kanzlei der Ragusaner”: pp. 191-192.
12The decision on his appointment to the post is to be found in Reformationes, vol. 28, f. 52v. C. Jireček quotes the wrong year of his appointment as chancellor, “Die mittelalterliche Kanzlei der Ragusaner”: p. 192.
13His hand may be identified by means of his own handwriting in Reformationes, vol. 29, f. 131r.
14Reformationes, vol. 28, ff. 41v-42r, 131v-132v.
15For a succinct introduction to patrician language practice, see Zdenka Janeković Römer, Okvir slobode: dubrovačka vlastela između srednjovjekovlja i humanizma. Zagreb-Dubrovnik: Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku, 1999: pp. 343-344, and the literature cited herein. I am grateful to Professor Furio Brugnolo (University of Padova) for his revision of the transcription of two fragments in Venetian.
16The chancellors tended to designate each decision copied from Reformationes into other legal collections by the letter ‘S’ (scriptum).
17Statut grada Dubrovnika I, 3 [16].
18Liber viridis, ed. Branislav Nedeljković. ZIJKSN, III.23. Beograd: SANU, 1984: cc. 71-79.
19Lastovski statut. Split: Književni krug, 1994: cc. 62-65.
20Compare Reformationes, vol. 29, ff. 1138r, 140v, 146v. The quorum was regulated as in Liber omnium reformationum, VIII, 2 from 1331.
21The quorum was regulated as in Liber omnium reformationum, VIII, 2 from 1331.
22A two-thirds majority was required, for example when deciding on raising the salary of the government officials (Reformationes, vol. 28, ff. 135rv, 140r). Cp. Philippus de Diversis, “Situs aedicificiorum, politiae et laudabilium consuetudinum inclytae civitatis Ragusii”, ed. V. Brunelli. Programma dell’I. R. Ginnasio superiore in Zara 1880-81. Zara: Tipografia Woditzka, 1881: p. 7.
23Dinić is mistaken in his interpretation of zeros, Odluke veća I: pp. 32-33.
24Although distinguished by shorter entries with no reference to the rejected counter-motions, the decisions of the Minor Council take up almost a half of the entire contents of the Reformationes published here.
25Statut grada Dubrovnika, VI, 68; cp. Reformationes, vol. 29, f. 51v.
26See Reformationes, vol. 28, f. 48v.
27See, for example, Reformationes, vol. 29, f. 87v.
28The minor Council, for example, decides to shift some issues to the Major Council but insists on retaining others (Reformationes 29, ff. 16v, 52r).
29For example, a series of entries on the enfranchisement will complete the list compiled by Irmgard Mahnken, Dubrovački patricijat u XIV veku, I: pp. 91-96.
30For example, there is an entry concerning a commission which, in 1392, was authorized to regulate landed estates and to draw up the cadastral register of the Pelješac Peninsula (Reformationes, vol. 29, f. 102rv). For further insights on the cadastral register, see Nenad Vekarić, Pelješka naselja u 14. stoljeću. Dubrovnik: Zavod za povijesne znanosti JAZU u Dubrovniku, 1989: pp. 18-19.
31This will most likely be the case with diplomatic relations, as the registers Lettere et commissiones for this time period are missing.
32“Zapisnici Velikog vijeća grada Splita. Libri Maioris consilii civitatis Spalati, 1352-1354, 1357-1359.”, ed. Jakov Stipišić and Miljen Šamšalović. Zbornik Zavoda za povijesne znanosti JAZU u Zagrebu 12 (1982): pp. 63-266; Consigli della Repubblica Fiorentina 1301-1315, I-II, ed. Bernardino Barbadoro. Atti delle assamblee costituzionali italiane dal Medio Evo al 1831, serie III, sezione 4. Bologna: Nicolo Zanichelli, 1921-1930; Deliberazioni del Maggior Consiglio di Venezia, I-III, ed. Roberto Cessi. Atti III, 1. Bologna, 1931-1950; Consigli del Comune di Prato 1252-1285, ed. Renato Piattoli. Atti III, 3. Bologna, 1940; Riformagioni della Repubblica di Lucca 1369-1400, I-II, ed. Antonio Romiti i Giorgio Tori. Atti, III, 2. Roma: Accademia nazionale dei Lincei, 1980-1985.
33Jakov Stipišić, Pomoćne povijesne znanosti u teoriji i praksi. Zagreb, 21985: 175-180; Giampaolo Tognetti, Criteri per la trascrizione di testi medievali latini e italiani. Quaderni della Rassegna degli Archivi di Stato, 51. Roma, 1982; Conseils pour l’édition des textes médiévaux, I. Paris: Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, École Nationale des Chartes, 2001. I am grateful to Danko Zelić for bringing these sources to my attention.
34Compare Reformationes, vol. 28, ff. 133r, 139r; vol. 29, ff. 88v, 126v.