Venetian possessions in the Eastern Mediterranean

The article chronicles the diasporic life of the Cyprus-born Ethiopian priest Yoḥannǝs (1509–65), who, after traveling far and wide across Europe and to Portuguese India, eventually settled in Rome and served the papacy for over two decades. Rare language skills and a cosmopolitan coming of age enabled his remarkable ecclesiastical career as an agent of the Counter-Reformation. Shortly before an untimely death, Yoḥannǝs became the second black bishop and the first black nuncio in the history of the Roman Church, rare appointments that would not be accessible to black Africans again until the 20th century. His unique experience represents a significant addition to the available historiography on blacks in early modern Europe and calls into question some commonly held assumptions in African diaspora studies.

PhD Dissertation, The Catholic University of America. Published as
Monograph: Electronic Journal for Oriental Studies III (2000) #5.
           

An analysis of the 91 surviving letters written by Bartolomeo Minio between 1479 and 1483, gives an exceptional amount of information about personalities, stratioti, and relationships with the Ottoman governors of the Morea.

Historical Investigation of European Earthquakes, vol. 1 Materials of the CEC Project “Review of Historical Seismicity in Europe”, edided by Massimiliano Stucchi with the collaboration of Jean Vogt, Milano, CNR – Istituto di Ricerca sul Rischio Sismico, 1993, 195-206 (in collaboration with Vicky Kouskouna and Kostas C. Makropoulos).

The Rena Andreadis icon collection is one of the best known private collections of its kind. It contains Greek icons ranging from the 14th to the 18th century, covering a wide geographical area from Constantinople and mainland Greece to Crete and the Ionian islands. Among them are celebrated works which have frequently been on display to specialists and the general public in exhibitions both in Greece and abroad, and others which are still unknown. The subject matter of the works is particularly varied, combining the most widespread and popular subjects of portable icon painting with others, more unusual, which were dominant in particular regions and periods.

From every point of view the Andreadis collection offers a panorama of Greek portable icons and an opportunity to discover the elements they have in common and the multiformity of expression which distinguishes them.

The book was published in English and in Greek.

“Jewish Women in Venetian Candia: Negotiating Intercommunal Contact in a Premodern Colonial City, 1300-1500.” In Religious Cohabitation in European Towns (10th-15th Centuries), eds. John Tolan and Stéphane Boissellier, 293-309. Turnhout: Brepols, 2015.

The present article investigates the interplay between the institutional framework of the Venetian Stato da mar and the commercial practices in the early modern Adriatic. Using the example of the city of Zadar, then known as Zadar and the capital of Venice’s dual province of Dalmatia-Albania, the following issues are discussed : In a first step the integration of the merchants into the social fabric of urban society is discussed, placing special emphasis upon the interactions between the judicial framwork as detailed in the city’s statutes and business practices. In the second part, a number of examples drawn from the protocol books of Zadar’s notaries, preserved in the Croatian State Archive in Zadar, is presented to illustrate the intricacies of commercial exchange in sixteenth-century Dalmatia.

This chapter analyzes the Venetian system of justice as a tool for social and political control. Given that the main juridical procedures, trials, and enquiries in the Serenissima were concerned with the question of consensus, I aim to show how the endurance of Venetian institutions was not the result of a conscious patrician attempt to control social tensions, but rather a consequence of the fact that both the practical tools of law and the moral rhetoric pertaining to the constitution were widely shared among Venetians. After a brief outline of the main features and dynamics of the Venetian juridical system, I analyze the use of itinerant justice, when Venetian judges and magistracies were sent to the overseas dominions. Itinerant justice, I argue, was a political tool that helped contain and solve the contradictions that were generated by a theory of an expanding superior state and a practical reality where a personal view of jurisdiction was still dominant. Finally, I examine the relationship between private and public spheres of justice by testing the juridical reaction of the patrician body when republican symbols were questioned.

This paper investigates practices of cultural exchange using 17th-century Venetian Crete and its capital city Candia (modern Heraklion) as a case study. It explores the material goods of the dowries assigned to brides during 1600-1645, focusing on the Venetian female garment vestura.

Les différents types de navigation vénitienne tels que les galères, les coques et les petits bâtiments privés n'étaient pas distincts les uns des autres. Ils se complétaient et se concurrençaient mutuellement. L'analyse détaillée des fréquentations vénitiennes du port d'Alexandrie montre comment les dif-férents types de navigation furent imbriqués et comment non seulement politique et exigences économiques, d'une part, mais aussi des facteurs exogènes comme les vents, d'autre part, déterminaient l'organisation de la navigation .

From: _Critical Analysis of Law_ 3 (2016): 114-132. For the whole volume of excellent articles, see: http://cal.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cal/index.
ABSTRACT: Although medieval rabbinic law generally forbade Jews from suing their co-religionists in state courts, this practice was widely accepted among some Mediterranean Jewish communities. This study focuses on one such community, the Jews of Venetian Crete's capital city of Candia, during the century following the Black Death (ca. 1350-1450). Court records indicate that Candiote Jews quite often sued each other in Venice's colonial courts. Unlike many other medieval Jewish communities, the rabbinical leadership of Candia took this intra-Jewish litigation as a given. Moreover, these leaders themselves ac-cessed Venetian justice to sue fellow Jews. Among the factors that motivated Jewish use of the Venetian court was a special accommodation given to Cretan Jews: when litigation in the colonial court dealt with Jews' marriages or divorces, judges were obligated to ad-judicate according to Jewish law. Many Candiote Jews utilized this personal law privilege, and the Venetian court actively implemented it. The Catholic judges of the colonial court in Crete learned about Jewish law mostly from the litigants themselves, and not from a panel of rabbinic experts, giving these Jewish litigants significant agency in shaping not only the outcome of their marriage and divorce cases but also the government's understanding of Jewish law.

This study focuses on the figure of Giovanni Matteo Bembo and, especially, on his relationship with the island of Cyprus. Bembo was a learned Venetian aristocrat and nephew of Cardinal Pietro, whose famous Asolani take place at the court of Caterina Cornaro, former queen of Cyprus. Giovanni Matteo Bembo had a long and successful career, both as a military man and as an administrator of the Venetian possessions on the Italian mainland and overseas. He was sent to Cyprus with different appointments, including that of Captain of Famagusta from 1546 to 1548, during which time he was in charge of the most important military stronghold of the island. While in Famagusta he promoted a sophisticated plan of urban renewal, which entailed major works at the city walls, the building of a new aqueduct and the establishment of a series of monuments in the main square of the city. Among these were two granite columns and a marble sarcophagus that, according to contemporary sources, was said to be the ancient tomb of Venus, first queen of Cyprus. The article concludes by offering a preliminary explanation of the political and ideological motivations underlying the apparently bizarre interpretation of this ancient artefact..

On two occasions, in 1436 and 1444, diplomat and antiquarian Cyriac of Ancona visited Athens and sketched the city's antiquities. Most famous is his drawing of the Parthenon's west facade, which he depicted not as it was-the entrance to a Catholic church with a high tower of reused ancient marble-but as he wanted it to bean ancient temple in pristine condition. 1 In 1458, the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II also ascended the citadel of Athens and 'from the ruins and the remains, he reconstructed mentally the ancient buildings, being a wise man and as a great king, and he conjectured how they must have been originally'. 2 That, in any case, was the report of the contemporary chronicler Kritovoulos of Imbros, who had not been with the sultan when he visited the recently conquered city. Mehmed's interest in drawing and in maps is well-attested and the Constantinopolitan historian Doukas even depicts the Conqueror sketching the walls of the Queen of Cities as he prepared his final assault. 3 We might quite plausibly imagine the Ottoman prince, like Cyriac some twenty years earlier, sketching the Parthenon, or perhaps a more distant view of the acropolis with its impressive Frankish defences. Neither Cyriac's nor Mehmed's admiring visits to Athens did much to stimulate antiquarian pilgrimage to Athens in the fifteenth century. Adapting Henri Pirenne's comment on America, 'discovered by the Norsemen and then forgotten, because, in the eleventh century, the world had as yet no need of it,' it seems that the world 1 Copies of Cyriac's sketch survive; see the excellent studies by Howard, 'Responses' and Tanoulas, 'Through the broken looking glass'. Also, Tanoulas, Τὰ Προπύλαια, 40-41, 310-314. 2 Kritovoulos, Histories, 3.9.5-6, tr. 136. Inserted after 'a wise man', the marginalium 'and a Philhellene' is found at 3.9.6, lines 27-28 of the unique manuscript dedicated to the sultan and kept in his private library.

This essay examines the everyday life of Šime Budinić (1530/35-1600) and his assumed family ties from the 1540s to 1565. Scholarly attention so far has focused on his later theological and humanistic endeavours, and little is known about his formative years and the decade he spent working as a notary. Based on new archival evidence, this essay adds to our knowledge about him and provides new insights into the early life and times of this Dalmatian humanist.
Combining previously unknown primary sources written by Budinić and his fellow notaries, the present contribution utilises approaches developed by social historians during the last quarter of the twentieth century (microhistory, Alltagsgeschichte) to reconstruct the extent and depth of Budinić's interactions. This approach unearthed new evidence of the Budinić family's possessions and ties to Zadar's urban elites. Investigation of the notarial records revealed a complete absence of archival evidence linking Šime to the rest of the Budinić family, which suggests that Šime Urlić's initial interpretation may be deemed more plausible than Stjepan Antoljak's later amendments. In addition, this approach is used to reconstruct Šime Budinić's »topography of everyday life«, his activities revealing a number of points of departure for future research within (and beyond) the Venetian Adriatic.

Migration and Ethnicity in the Venetian territories of the Eastern Mediterranean, 13th-15th cent., in: Μigration histories of the medieval Afroeurasian transition zone. Aspects of mobility between Africa, Asia and Europe. 300-1500 c.e.,  Johannes Preiser-Kapeller – L. Reinfandt – Y. Stouraitis (eds), Leiden/Boston (BRILL) 2020, 193-221.
https://brill.com/view/title/55556

Državni arhiv u Zadru najznačajniji je hrvatski arhiv za proučavanje prošlosti Dalmacije u vrijeme mletačke uprave. Budući da je Zadar u to vrijeme (i nakon toga, do 1918. godine) bio upravni centar Dalmacije, u Arhiv generalnog providura, a kasnije u Arhiv dalmatinskog Namjesništva u doba austrijske uprave, smještani su povijesni spisi s područja cijele Dalmacije. U radu se u uvodnom dijelu prikazuje historijat i razvitak današnjeg Državnog arhiva u Zadru, od prvog spomena arhiva krajem srednjega vijeka, preko osnutka Arhiva generalnog providura 1624. godine do arhiva dalmatinskog Namjesništva u 19. stoljeću. Donosi se prikaz fondova i zbirki koji su nastali u vrijeme mletačke vladavine, a od osobitog su značenja za višedisciplinarna istraživanja. Riječ je o 34 fonda i zbirke, što ukupno čini 420 dužnih metara gradiva i 770 različitih katastarskih karata. Osim naznake količine, prikazan je i sadržaj pojedinih arhivskih cjelina. Znanstveni doprinos ovog preglednog rada, objavljenog i referiranog na talijanskom jeziku na međunarodnom znanstvenom skupu, ogleda se u sažetom prikazu historijata zadarskog arhiva s naglaskom na vrijedno arhivsko gradivo iz razdoblja Mletačke Republike koje se čuva u Državnom arhivu u Zadru.

The legation sent by Pope Eugenius IV to Constantinople in 1437 played a critical role in the long diplomatic efforts towards a reunification of the Latin and Greek Churches, and paved the way for the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438–1439). With some exceptions, such as the later Cardinal Nicholas Cusanus, the members of the delegation have not received wide attention. This paper presents a biographical analysis of all those involved – the nuncios, the financiers and the galley commanders – and their relationship to the Pope. The findings provide new insight into Eugenius IV’s diplomacy towards the Byzantines, as well as Cusanus’s place in it. Cusanus’s presence added conciliar legitimacy, but the key functions were in the hands of a core team of Venetians – including non-patricians – who had prior experience in Constantinople and a personal connection to the Pope.

This study researches an individual group of templon screens, which are found at three Cretan churches of the 14th/15th c. This group displays typological and morphological features, which seem to break with the tradition of the middle Byzantine templa and to suggest the influence of a Latin architectural model. The specific Cretan group has much in common with façades of choir partitions (tramezzi), mostly of Italian origin. Despite the absence of sufficient archaeological evidence concerning the existence of tramezzi at the Helladic area, the written sources suggest the presence of such installations at the Latin churches of Crete, thus reinforcing the possibility of cultural and cultic exchanges between the Latin and the Orthodox populations of the island during the Late Medieval period.

The article announces the discovery of Sonetti di messer Anibal Lucio Lesignano, scritti a diversi, a collection of poems written in Italian by Hanibal Lucić (1485-1553), one of the leading poets of the Croatian Renaissance. Until now, scholars have known only one book by Lucić, his Croatian collection entitled Skladanja izvarsnih pisan razlicih, published posthumously by Hanibal’s son Antun. Like Skladanja, Lucić’s Sonetti were published in Venice in 1556, in a beautiful quarto edition produced by Francesco Marcolini, the printer of Skladanja. The article describes this hitherto unknown publication and explains how it was discovered. An edition of the book’s contents is provided at the end of the article in the hope that Lucić’s Italian verse will be studied by scholars on both sides of the Adriatic, and beyond. Lucić’s Sonetti constitute an important document in the essentially multilingual history of the European Renaissance in this part of the world, and they remind us how our focus on national literatures has in some cases rendered the multilingual aspects of the Renaissance tradition practically invisible.

Βυζαντινές οικογένειες σε βενετικό περιβάλλον: Οι οικογένειες Γαβαλά και Γιαλινά στη βενετική Κρήτη (13ος-14ος αι.)
Οι στρατηγικές των μεγάλων βυζαντινών/ελληνικών οικογενειών στη βενετική Κρήτη κατά τον 13ο και 14ο αι. είχαν ως πρωταρχικό στόχο τη διατήρηση ή και την ισχυροποίησή τους στο νέο πολιτικό, κοινωνικό και οικονομικό περιβάλλον. Αν εξαιρέσουμε τον πλέον δυναμικό τρόπο επίτευξης του στόχου αυτού, δηλαδή τις επαναστάσεις, τότε οι κύριες στρατηγικές ήταν από τη μια οι επιγαμίες τόσο μεταξύ των οικογενειών αυτών όσο και με τις νέες βενετικές οικογένειες, και από την άλλη η αστική οικονομική δραστηριότητα. Με τον τρόπο αυτό κατόρθωσαν να διατηρήσουν ή και να ενισχύσουν την έγγειο ιδιοκτησία τους, καθώς και να αυξήσουν τον πλούτο τους. Οι ελληνικές οικογένειες επέδειξαν την απαραίτητη προσαρμοστικότητα, αν και όχι όλες στον ίδιο βαθμό. Έτσι, δεν μπορούμε να μιλάμε για ενιαία στρατηγική των μεγάλων ελληνικών οικογενειών, αλλά για στρατηγικές που υιοθετούνται από κάθε ελληνική οικογένεια ξεχωριστά, ή ακόμη και από έναν κλάδο της ίδιας οικογένειας.

Famagusta Maritima: Mariners, Merchants, Pilgrims and Mercenaries
presents a collection of scholarly studies spanning the thousand year history of the port of Famagusta in Cyprus. This historic harbour city was at the heart of the Crusading Lusignan dynasty, a possession of both Genoa and Venice during the Renaissance, a port of the Ottoman Empire for three centuries, and in time, a strategic naval and intelligence node for the British Empire. It is a maritime space made famous by the realities of its extraordinary importance and influence, followed by its calamitous demise.

Contributors are: Michele Bacci, Lucie Bonato, Tomasz Borowski, Mike Carr, Pierre-Vincent Claverie, Dragos Cosmescu, Nicholas Coureas, Marko Kiessel, Antonio Musarra, William Spates, Asu Tozan, Ahmet Usta, and Michael Walsh.

This article sheds light on the character of the Venetian rule in Dubrovnik
in the first decades of the thirteenth century, drawing a parallel with the governmental models in other Venetian dominions after the Fourth Crusade. The predecessors of Count Giovanni Tiepolo (1237-1238) held their public office (comitatus) under some sort of lease. A wealth of documents regarding Count Giovanni Dandolo (1209?-1235) has helped trace the count’s social background
(including his kin relations with Doge Pietro Ziani), along with the
family business activities in the eastern Mediterranean at the end of the twelfth century. Prior to the opportunity to lease the office of Ragusan count, Dandolo was engaged in trade in Syria, and together with his brother Marco leased the collection of revenue in the Venetian colonies in Acre and Tyre, but eventually faced insolvency. The reconstruction of the income from his Ragusan countship suggests that his profit gains may have approximated 20% where in low risk and negligible investment costs were the main benefits. It appear likely that Dandolo developed his private business activities while on duty in Dubrovnik, in the same manner as he had done on the former leased functions. The article is also reconsidering old and offering new interpretations of the Ragusan political situation of the time under the influence of international powers in the Adriatic, Mediterranean and Dubrovnik’s hinterland. There is good reason to assume that the term guerre mentioned in the documents does not refer to the supposed attack of Stefan, Grand Župan of Serbia, but to the pirates of Omiš, whose activity represented a biggest challenge to the maritime traffic. In the 1230s Dubrovnik defined its relations with a number of rulers and despots from its immediate hinterland and wider Balkan inland (Serbian kings Radoslav and Vladislav; Andrija, Count of Hum; Bulgarian emperor John II Asen; Manuel Angelos, Despot of Thessaly; and Michael II Angelos,
Despot of Epirus), yet its fate was largely determined by the power relations in the eastern Mediterranean, in which Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen and Emperor John III Vatatzes of Nicaea played an important role. A detailed textual and comparative analysis of the first two agreements (pacta) with Venice from 1232 and 1236 has shown that, contrary to the dominant historiographic paradigm, they were not drafted after crushed rebellions and that in many elements they proved less harmful to the Ragusan side than hitherto interpreted. The texts of these agreements are virtually the same, and were modelled
on the agreement signed between Venice and Zadar in 1204 or early 1205. Count Dandolo’s departure from Dubrovnik in 1234 marked the beginning of an interregnum which extended to 1237, while the unsettled property issues of his descendants with the Ragusan commune dragged on for years. Upon Dandolo’s death, Venetian authorities did not lease the office of Ragusan count to a new holder, as they were preparing a new administrative arrangement (regimen), in which the office of Ragusan count was to be filled by state officials elected to a two-year term.

Na temelju raznovrsnih vrela ispituje se karakter mletačke vlasti u Dubrovniku u prvim desetljećima 13. stoljeća i uspoređuje s upravnim modelima na drugim mletačkim posjedima. Zahvaljujući obilju dokumenata vezanih uz kneževanje Giovannija Dandola (1209?-1235) utvrđuje se knežev socijalni background, rekonstruiraju njegovi prihodi od dubrovačke funkcije i razmatraju mogući poslovni interesi. Ujedno se preispituju stari i nude neki novi pogledi na dubrovačku političku situaciju toga doba pod utjecajem međunarodnih silnica na Jadranu, Sredozemlju i u kopnenom zaleđu. Analiziraju se i interpretiraju prva dva sporazuma s Venecijom (1232, 1236) i razlozi za njihovo zaključenje, uz osvrt na historiografsku tezu o dubrovačkim pobunama protiv mletačke vlasti.

Often treated as Crime History’s proverbial ‘poor relation’, I am arguing that extrajudicial settlements were not restricted to the privileged and more fortunate social groups. Instead, I demonstrate that such settlements were in fact more diffused throughout the Venetian Commonwealth, and, as such, they may even be considered characteristics of everyday life that transcended social, economic, and geographical provenances. In doing so, I am addressing the following main questions: (a) what constitutes such ‘infrajudicial’ dealings and (b) how could this concept, derived with respect to Old Regime France (Benoît Garnot), be made useful in the context of the Republic of St Mark, long considered one of the prototypes of pre-modern ‘rule of law’? (c) How and under which circumstances may additional differentiations such as class, education, and gender be useful categories of inquiry? By juxtaposing experiences and practices of Venetian subjects from all social backgrounds, new insights into a field of research dominated by traditional approaches derived from legal history stand to be gained.

Gavriil Seviros, arcivescovo di Filadelfia a Venezia, e la sua epoca. Atti della Giornata di studio dedicata alla memoria di Manussos Manussacas (Venezia, 26 settembre 2003), a cura di D. G. Apostolopulos (Convegni 9), Venezia, Istituto Ellenico di Studi Bizantini e Postbizantini di Venezia, 2004, 71-95 (In Italian).

This article deals with the concept of Understanding and Non-Understanding between the Habsburg, Venetian and Ottoman cultures. Focussing on a helmet produced in Venice for Sultan Suleiman in 1532, I demonstrate that its iconography uses papal and imperial symbols to articulate ideas of the Sultan as a universal ruler in an ancient Roman sense. This means that Venetians and Ottomans must have been mutually aware of each other’s social imaginaries and of the helmet’s symbolic implications. Nevertheless, in the Venetian context, neither pictorial nor textual representations ever referred to this symbolic meaning. Instead, representations of the helmet were used to stage Venetian economic power. I argue that this concealment of the meaning originally intended by the Ottomans could be described best as deliberate Non-Understanding.

Der Aufsatz behandelt das interkulturelle Verstehen und Nicht-Verstehen von Herrschaftsvorstellungen. Im Zentrum steht ein 1532 in Venedig für den osmanischen Sultan Süleyman I. gefertigter Helm, der über die Indienstnahme kaiserlich-päpstlicher Insignien den Sultan als  Universalherrscher in antik-römischer Tradition präsentierte. Die verwendete Symbolik setzt dabei sowohl auf osmanischer wie auf venezianischer Seite ein wechselseitiges Verständnis der  gesellschaftlichen Vorstellungen des jeweiligen Gegenübers voraus. In den zahlreichen venezianischen Darstellungen des Helmes werden die osmanischen Herrschaftsvorstellungen allerdings von einer Vorstellung venezianischer Größe und Handelsmacht überblendet. Dieses Überblenden der osmanisch intendierten Objektaussage wird als ein absichtsvolles Nicht-Verstehen-Wollen gedeutet.

Cyprus is an island repeatedly referred to as a melting pot and a crossroad between the East and the West. This paper questions the notions of East and West in the art of Lusignan Cyprus, where East is traditionally identified with Byzantium and West with Western Europe. Examples from icons, frescoes, mosaics, manuscripts as well as minor objects, such as pilgrim flasks and censers, circulating in the Eastern Mediterranean in the 13th and 14th century, demonstrate that a variety of visual traditions and influences, which circulated widely between the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and that of Cilician Armenia, have been assimilated in the Cypriot art of the early Lusignan period.

Mentre l'impegno dell'Ateneo cresce in modo costante sia sul piano delle iniziative scientifiche, sia su quello delle attività culturali aperte al territorio, sta per avviarsi un nuovo progetto di collaborazione tra il settore Teatro della Biennale di Venezia, diretto da Maurizio Scaparro, e Ca' Foscari per lo svolgimento del Laboratorio Internazionale del Teatro, dedicato al tema del "Mediterraneo". Dopo il primo approccio di scambio, che ha avuto luogo nel 2006, in occasione del secondo centenario della morte di Carlo Gozzi, l'anno scorso le due istituzioni hanno ottenuto un successo davvero esaltante con la promozione del Campus Universitario "Carlo Goldoni", legato alle celebrazioni per i trecento anni dalla nascita del commediografo veneziano. In pieno luglio 2007, mentre Venezia era percorsa dai consueti anonimi gruppi turistici, più di ottocento giovani provenienti dalle Università italiane, europee e mediterranee hanno animato con i loro dibattiti e la loro partecipazione le lezioni mattutine, gli incontri pomeridiani e gli spettacoli serali della rassegna teatrale. Chi ha vissuto dall'interno tale esperienza può testimoniare come l'idea di Scaparro di ripartire dalla formazione del pubblico sia stata intesa come un'apertura formidabile per la comprensione di uno dei fenomeni costitutivi della teatralità moderna attraverso il rilancio della riflessione criticainterpretativa. Quest'anno la proposta di Scaparro investe una rosa di questioni, raccolte sotto l'ala della civiltà del Mediterraneo, questioni che rimbalzano da una sponda all'altra del nostro mare, come filoni di una riscoperta necessaria dei legami antichi tra culture e popoli vissuti per secoli in un intricato sistema di scambi.

Ein recht häufig benutztes Motiv in der diplon"ratischen Sprache des späten Mittelalters und der beginnenden Ner.rzeit vr'ar vor dem Hintergrund der osmanischen Bedrohung: Das chrisl liche Abendland (bzw. Europa) sei von Glaubensleinden unrzingelt, die sie fortwährend be-sttirmten. Beschützt u'erde die lateinische Kultr-rrgemeinschaft an ihren Grenzen durch Völ-ker, deren grLrndlegende existenzielle Funktion in der Glaubens-, Ziviiisations-und Kultur-verteidigung 1iege. An den äußersten Enden des Abendlandes ausharrend. seien sie wie Boll-werke oder Vormauern der Christenheit bzw. der jeweiligen dahinter liegenden Länder. An den Grundgedanken der Dornir.ro-Efltkt-Theorie anknüpfbnd lautete eine immer wiederkeh-rende Botschafl der an der Schwelle vorr-r Mittelalter zur Frühen Neuzeit lbrmulierten Boll-werksargumentationen: Gerieten die ungarischen, r,enezianischen, polnischen, kroatischen etc. Vormauern den Ungläubigen. Häretil<crn oder Schismatikern in die Hände, so fielen mit ihnen auch die dahinter liegenden Länder und der Untergang der ganzen christlich-abendlän-dischen Kulturgemeinschaft sei so gut rvie besiegelt. I Die Exklusion der christlich-orthodoxen Welt von der als ,,wahre" Christenheit verstan-denen latinitus konnte aber je nach politischer Wetterlage '-auch aufgehoben und ins ge-naue Gegenteil urngekehrt werden. So u,'urde etwa mit dem militärischen Vordringen der Osmanen auch den orthodoxen Balkanbevölkelungen eine Vorpostenrolle zugesclrrieben. Grenzgesellschaften, wie etwa die Bulgaren oder die Serben, wurden ab dem 14. Jahrhundert a1s wichtige Pul}'erzonerr der ungarischen Krone gegen die osmanische Expansion verstan-den. Es waren aber vor allem die Donaufürstenttjrlrrer Walacliei und Moldau, die im 15. und tiühen 16. Jahrhundert für sich das Bild einer die (westliche) Christenheit schützenden Mauer beanspn-rchten und als solche auch weitgehend betrachtet wurden.r Wird in belletristischen, populärwissenschaftlichen aber auch wissenschafilichen Werken von den Donaufürstcntümern als den glaubensver-teidigenden Vorposten des Christentums geschrieben, so geschieht dies zurneist im Zusammenhang rnit Vlad III. dem P1ähler (ca.

This article analyses the influence of the “myth of Rome” among Italian intellectual and academic élites during the Mussolini’s era. This myth, that used to be the main vehicle of the fascist ideology towards the popular masses, affected the scientific writings of an important Venetian jurist and historian, Bruno Dudan (1905-1943), whose opera was made up of a significant corpus of articles and monographies dedicated to the history of the Republic of Venice and its institutions, with a peculiar focus on the maritime colonies of the Serenissima. By examining the language and the recurring themes of these publications, it will be attempted to de-construct the interpretative pattern which Dudan adopted for justifying the original “romanity” – and the consequent “italianity” – of the Slavic and Greek territories which once had been subjected to Venice and then had become the target of the project of military expansion towards the Eastern Mediterranean pursued by the Mussolini’s regime. The result of this analysis is an original mythography that in some way was contradictory to the fascist propaganda, because of its complex intertwining with Dudan’s personal ideals, the spread of the Irredentist claims of his era and the long-standing memories of the “myth of Venice”: along with these elements, in Dudan’s view the “myth of Rome” constituted not only an ideological frame but also a genealogical background.

Institutional and privet navigation in the medieval Mediterranean is a matter with problematic issues that go beyond the specific sphere of navigation and economic history to plunge into institutional history. The first thing to do was to delimit terms –public and privet navigation, navigation line– that, to begin with, respond more to a contemporary treating than to a medieval sense. On the other hand, the equation that identified public navigation with state patronage was revealed simplistic because it is reductive and does not respond to the reality of navigation systems practised by the maritime powers of the medieval Mediterranean. Besides, a profound discussion that carried out the breakup with the Italian-centrism that has monopolised the question was necessary because of the difficulty that involves to take Italian models –and the Venetian one in particular– as an absolute reference in matters of public intervention in navigation.
To sum up, the present volume is born with the vocation that it will be a relevant contribution to a complex matter, in which new sources and new perspectives are changing models that are obsolete and, above all, have revealed themselves unsuitable to analyze the reality of the institutional involvement and its interaction with privet initiative in the navigation that characterized the medieval Mediterranean.

U članku se razmatraju zbivanja u Krku potkraj 15. stoljeća te se na temelju reinterpretacije prije otkrivenih, kao i novopronađenih arhivskih dokumenata, objašnjava slijed izgradnje i uređenja javnih prostora i pripadajućih građevina. Također se govori o stanju upravnih građevina tijekom mletačke uprave u Krku i načinu na koji su održavane.