Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Period; Early Modern Time; Jeopardising and Defending Honour in the Mid-
dle Ages and Early Modern Time; Military History and Homeland War.
For the first time, there was a separate Student Workshop at the Con-
gress. Two Round Tables were also held: The Croatian History – when does it
begin? and Croatian historiography (2010–2015) as well as a presentation of
the book by Prof. Dr Mithad Kozličić and Branko Kasal Study of History in
Zadar 1956–2016. As a part of the Congress and co-organised by the Town of
Nin, on 6th October 2016 Prof. Dr Mirjana Matijević-Sokol (Faculty of Huma-
nities of the University in Zagreb) gave an open lecture under the title Font –
Višeslav – Nin.
When organising the Congress, the aim was always to give it an interdi-
sciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary angle. This approach has
been well recognised by the numerous foreign participants: Bulgaria (Institute
of Balkan Studies of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia), Hungary
(Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest; Faculty of Humanities of the
Eötvös Loránd University, Central European University, Budapest), Macedo-
nia (Faculty of Educational Sciences, Goce Delcev University, Štip), Ger-
many (University of Augsburg; Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Ki-
el), scholarship students from the NEWFELPRO in Rijeka, then colleagues
from Poland (Jagiellonian University, Krakow), Serbia (Institute of History,
Belgrade; Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade), Bosnia and
Hercegovina (Faculty of Humanities of the University of Sarajevo), Slovenia
(Institute for Ethnic Studies, Ljubljana; University of Primorska, Koper), Italy
(European University Institute, Florence) etc.
Full information about the Congress is available via the links below:
https://sites.google.com/site/hrvatskinacionalniodbor/
http://www.historiografija.hr/
Tomislav GALOVIĆ
209
Иницијал 5 (2017) 207–220 Initial 5 (2017) 207–220
the Croatian Middle Ages: Urban Elites and Urban Space” (URBES), finan-
ced by the Croatian Science Foundation. The scientific board of the conferen-
ce consisted of: Stanko Andrić, Irena Benyovsky Latin, Zrinka Pešorda Var-
dić, Nenad Vekarić and Danko Zelić, while Irena Benyovsky Latin, Zrinka
Pešorda Vardić and Bruno Škreblin dealt with organisational issues. With the
exception of two participants who spoke in Croatian (Ivica Prlender, Ante Bi-
rin), the conference was held entirely in English, so that foreign participants,
outside the former Yugoslav space, could follow the presentations. The inter-
national character of the conference was confirmed with the participation of
historians and art historians from Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Austria and Hun-
gary. Italy did not have its representatives as they were objectively prevented
from coming, although their participation had been envisaged.
The conference, held all the time in the Golden Hall of the Croatian In-
stitute of History in the Zagreb Lower Town, began with the introductory
word of Irena Benyovsky Latin. She touched upon the importance and role of
newcomers in life, economic development and social dynamics of medieval
urban settlements, expressing hope that the Triennale would serve as a chance
to present new knowledge and results of the current research into the urban hi-
story of Croatia in the Middle Ages.
Four participants took part in the first section titled The Town and the
Newcomers: Comparative Cases. Katalin Szende from Central European Uni-
versity in Budapest presented the paper Natives or Newcomers? “Slavs” in
the Towns of Medieval Hungary. She analysed the difference between the na-
tive Slavs and those who came later, the regions where the Slavic presence
was stronger (Slovakia and southern areas), and the intensification of migrati-
ons after the Ottoman conquest of Bulgaria and Serbia. She emphasised the
existence of dominantly Slavic settlements (e.g. in the suburbs of Buda or
Srpski Kovin) and mixed settlements (Gradec, Žilina, Rožnava), including mi-
ning centres where the Slavic population played an important role. The speci-
ficity was reflected in the language and alphabet, with church communities
acting as an integrative factor. This concerned primarily the Catholic Slavs,
while the Orthodox Slavs came too late to have a special status, which is why,
for instance, Bulgarians in Braşov found it hard to integrate. Professor Erman-
no Orlando, a researcher and lecturer in Venice, Sienna and Vienna Univer-
sity, could not attend the conference. His presentation Dalmatians and Slavs
in Venice during the Late Middle Ages: Between Integration and Assimilation
was read by his young colleague from Vienna Fabian Kümmeler. According
to Orlando’s assessment, the Slavs made up somewhat less than 5% of inhabi-
tants of Venice. Those were mostly newcomers from maritime towns in east-
ern Adriatic, which were often under Venetian rule. They were an important
factor of the revival of the population, most often serving as labour force, ser-
vice staff, temporary servants, but also as slaves. Integration took place in ti-
me and could be accelerated through mixed marriages with the native popula-
210
Scholarly Life Научни живот
tion (particularly women). The language was preserved, but not consistently.
Foreigners committed somewhat more crimes than the native population, but
no special measures were introduced against them.
The two final presentations in this section were held by two historians
from Slovenia. Janez Mlinar from the Ljubljana Faculty of Philosophy talked
about Newcomers in Ljubljana: Possible Comparisons. The importance of
Ljubljana grew as of the 13th century. By the late 15th century, it became an
important civitas. At the beginning, the newcomers were mainly clerks (usu-
ally castellans) of the town masters, who settled there permanently from Ca-
rinthia, Gorizia, Tyrol, Friuli, Austria, Bavaria, Czechia, Silesia. The Florenti-
nes were also coming from Italy and Jews were coming from Friuli. The Gori-
zian counts were the first to bring the Italians, while the Habsburgs brought
people from the maritime lands (Trieste and the environs) and other Carinthi-
ans. Integration was fast. Latin and German were publicly used languages.
The Jews were the only victims of non-tolerance, in the 16th century. Darja
Mihelič (Scientific-Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences
and Arts, Ljubljana) presented the topic of Economic Newcomers in Medieval
Piran and Their Inclusion in the Urban Setting. She analysed the development
of Piran based on notary documents starting from the 14th century. The main
newcomers were those from Istria, Italy and the Slavic hinterland. At the time
of the Turkish incursion, migrations from Dalmatia and Herzegovina intensi-
fied. Most newcomers came from Koper, Isola and Trieste – those were ma-
inly craftsmen and entrepreneurs. Italians dealt mainly with masonry and salt
trade (as well as newcomers from Pag), construction and specialised professi-
ons (barbers, shoemakers). The author emphasised the examples of integrated
families of foreign origin – Peroni (Florence) and Caviano (Venice).
The second section was titled Norms and Practice Concerning the
Newcomers. All participants were from Croatia. Ivan Majnarić (Catholic Uni-
versity of Croatia, Zagreb) presented the paper: The Social Position of Newco-
mers from the Hinterland in Eastern Mediterranean Cities: Norms vs. Practi-
ce. He analysed the administrative and social status of newcomers, re-exami-
ning the terms cives, forenses and habitatores. He underlined the changes that
took place in the 13th and 14th centuries through the statutes of cities and clo-
sing of city councils. The commoners were outside power, but were mutually
stratified. At the beginning, in notary documents, a civis was a noble, and a
habitator was any other inhabitant, while later a difference was made between
the terms civis and nobilis civis. Some Croatian nobles from the hinterland,
who were even very powerful, were habitatores and cives, but not nobiles ci-
ves in cities. Zoran Ladić from the Institute for Historical and Social Sciences
of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb talked about Foreig-
ners in the Late Medieval Poreč, Labin and Buzet: Terms Used to Identify Fo-
reigners and Immigrants, giving examples from northern Istria. Limiting him-
self primarily to the material from Poreč, he re-examined the meaning of
211
Иницијал 5 (2017) 207–220 Initial 5 (2017) 207–220
terms civis, habitator and villicus in this commune, emphasising that the titles
egregius, circumspectus, spectabilis and providus vir are insufficiently exami-
ned, as well as the epithet “ser”, and asking whether they meant reputation,
erudition or something third. Most newcomers in Poreč were from the city
district, as well as from Croatia and Dalmatia. The number of newcomers
grew at the time of Ottoman conquests. There is also information about arri-
vals from Italy and Kotor. Some inhabitants stayed there temporarily, due to
work, while it also happened that the commune was inviting people, particu-
larly after epidemics. Men were the most numerous, and the term forenses
was rare. Tomislav Popić’s presentation (Department for Croatian Studies of
Zagreb University) was titled Court Trials Involving Foreigners in Late Medi-
eval Zadar, focusing on court practice and the position of foreigners. Local in-
habitants could not represent foreigners in complaints against other represen-
tatives of the local population. Foreigners were subject to restrictions when
buying real estate, and there were also court martials for foreigners in transit.
After the deposal of the Venetian authorities in Zadar, the Hungarian authori-
ties nominated four professional judges, who were Italians trained for the job,
as well as notaries who often acted as lawyers. The patricians, however, con-
ducted civil suits without having special formal education.
The third section, Networking Strategies began with the presentation of
Marija Karbić (Croatian Institute of History, Department for the History of
Slavonia, Srijem and Baranja), titled Forenses, aduene and novi concives no-
stri in the Medieval Urban Settlements of the Sava-Drava Interamnium. Emp-
hasising a different position of settlements in the civitates category compared
to those considered oppida, dr Karbić gave examples of free royal cities such
as Gradec and Varaždin, as well as Ilok whose statute contained elements of
the so-called tavernical law. There were permanently inhabited foreigners and
those in transit. Many of them were traders. Despite restrictions to the rights
to trade, criminal law was equal for everyone, with differences in the level of
some penalties. The conditions for acquiring citizenship were the possession
of real estate, faith, length of stay and financial independence. Marriages with
reputable locals were the catalyst for obtaining citizenship. The presentation
of Zrinka Pešorda Vardić (Croatian Institute of History) – The Social “Net-
working“ of Newcomers in Dubrovnik during the Late 14th and in the 15th
Centuries was devoted to the social position of newcomers to Dubrovnik. Ar-
rival to the city of St Blaise was supported, but not a massive one. The majo-
rity of newcomers were labourers, craftsmen, traders, clerks and experts (ma-
gisters). More affluent citizens (cittadini) were mainly traders from the hinter-
land (Serbia, Bosnia, present-day Montenegrin littoral). Their arrival was in-
tensified from the second half of the 14th century. They could not become pa-
tricians or marry them, but there was social networking among them, which is
how they introduced an equal degree of endogamy. Many genealogies from
the 15–18th centuries have been preserved, mainly for the groups of antunini
212
Scholarly Life Научни живот
and lazarini. The author gave networking examples in the families of Cotrugli
(from Kotor), Salimbene (from Venice), Brungnoli (from Mantova), Kasela
(from Rudnik in Serbia), Sfondrati (from Cremona). Acquiring citizenship
was generally linked to Catholicism, although the presence of other faiths (no-
tably Jews) was tolerated. The final paper in this section was presented by its
two authors Marija Mogorović Crljenko and Danijela Doblanović (Faculty of
Philosophy of Juraj Dobrila University in Pula). The paper was titled Newco-
mers in Rovinj during the Late 16th Century. The authors examined marriage
registers of Rovinj, determining the presence of foreigners and their origin.
Those were mostly newcomers from the immediate environs of the city and
wider areas of Venetian Istria. There were marriages between representatives
of the nobility and other citizens with newcomers (contrary to Dubrovnik) and
some of these marriages were arranged. The number of different types of ma-
rital gifts was determined – basadego (husband’s gift to the wife), dowry (gift
of the wife’s family to the husband) and contradote (gift of the husband’s fa-
mily to the wife) – and their amounts.
The first conference day was concluded with the fourth section titled
Newcomers as an Urban Elite. The section started with the presentation of
Zrinka Nikolić Jakus (Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences) –
Integration of Immigrants among the Dalmatian Nobility before the Mid-14th
Century. Relying on source materials from Zadar, Trogir and Split, the author
concluded that there was an influx from the hinterland in time as the number
of Slavic names and surnames was rising. Based on examples of the families
of Martinušić-Pečar (from the Šubić family), Contarini (who may have had
connections with Venice) from Zadar, and Viturri (of Venetian origin by the
female line), Andreis and Cipicco from Trogir, she showed that integration
was fast and that links with the domestic population and interests were above
the origin which was not particularly emphasised. It is therefore hard to assess
the number of newcomers from the hinterland. Marital links with the old elite
of cities accelerated the process of integration, while the maintenance of links
with the hinterland slowed it down. Bruno Škreblin (Croatian Institute of Hi-
story) presented his research Newcomers Serving as Judges in Medieval Gra-
dec (1350–1526). The richest and most influential newcomers were becoming
the political elite – councillors and judges. The majority were Germans, follo-
wed by Italians (including Florentines). Newcomers were also coming from
more important cities in the environs, as well as smaller centres and fortresses
(mainly the petty nobility and gradokmeti), particularly as of the 15th century.
Marriages with representatives of the elite were crucial for climbing the social
ladder. They were even more important than inheritance. Some older reputa-
ble men fared even worse than the successful and well-connected newcomers.
The Celjski were bringing Germans, and familiares of Ivaniš Korvin were
bringing people from the wider region. The openness to newcomers was also
an indication of a client system (favouring).
213
Иницијал 5 (2017) 207–220 Initial 5 (2017) 207–220
214
Scholarly Life Научни живот
215
Иницијал 5 (2017) 207–220 Initial 5 (2017) 207–220
usually labelled as habitatores, while the term cives was rare. Venetians did
not settle in villages, but did transact with peasants.
Section 7 – Newcomers and the Church had only two participants. Trpi-
mir Vedriš (Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences) analysed the
topic of Saints as Newcomers: Mechanisms of Adaption and the Appropria-
tion of Saintly Cults in Medieval Dalmatian Cities. Determining that saints –
protectors of cities mainly came from the sea and that the cults were usually
imported, Vedriš concluded that this took place primarily at the time of the re-
newed Byzantine presence on the Adriatic (8–10th centuries) and the transfor-
mation of fortresses and episcopal cities into open cities. New hagiographies
were compiled, which helped develop the awareness about the rootedness and
even the domestic character of the important saintly cults. The Francian influ-
ence, if any, did not persist in cities, unlike the hinterland. Relics and cults
were coming primarily from Rome and Constantinople. Dušan Mlacović (Lju-
bljana Faculty of Philosophy) spoke about Franciscan Rab in the 15th Cen-
tury. Comparing literature about Rab and disputes among local historians of
Croatian origin (Brusić) and Italian historiography (Prague), he concluded that
the Franciscan monastery in Rab was created in 1446 owing to efforts of a re-
presentative of the local community. Only compilations of non-preserved
Franciscan chronicles are known today, as well as sources that scantily recor-
ded the inflow of foreigners, stating that the largest inflow was recorded after
the plague of the 1450s and the fall of the Bosnian kingdom.
The last section was titled Newcomers and the Evolution of Urban Spa-
ce. The first paper – Newcomers and the Suburbia of Dubrovnik in the 13th
Century, was presented by Irena Benyovsky Latin (Croatian Institute of Hi-
story). The first newcomers to the Dubrovnik suburbs were explicitly recor-
ded in the 13th century. Most of them came from the city district and the im-
mediate hinterland, as well as from Italy. The wars with Serbia encouraged
the consolidation of cities, including parts of the suburbs, while the new impe-
tus to urbanistic organisation came from the fire of 1296. In time, the inflow
of the Slavic population from Hum and Bosnia (who were quickly assimila-
ted) was intensified, as well as the inflow of island inhabitants (e.g. from La-
stovo). Newcomers from Astareja in the later period were considered dome-
stic people. Particularly welcome were craftsmen, as well as experts and cre-
dit merchants (notably from Italy). In his presentation Newcomers and the
Formation of Urban Space in the Medieval Towns of Continental Croatia,
Ratko Vučetić (Institute of Art History) dealt with the development of medie-
val and early new century city space. He ascertained that suburbs originally
appeared in the areas around the city walls, followed by separated suburbs
around some churches that were sometimes fortified. There was also space for
trade and fairs, and in later period city parts with a military purpose appeared.
The author examined the urban development of Kaptol, Varaždin, Krapina,
Koprivnica, Križevci, Ilok and Osijek, with a special focus on the phases of
216
Scholarly Life Научни живот
Neven ISAILOVIĆ
217
ЧАСОПИС ЗА СРЕДЊОВЕКОВНЕ СТУДИЈЕ
ИНИЦИЈАЛ
INITIAL
A REVIEW OF MEDIEVAL STUDIES
UDC 93/94 ISSN 2334-8003
INITIAL
A REVIEW OF MEDIEVAL STUDIES
VOLUME 5
Editor-in-Chief
Srđan Rudić
Editorial Board
Lenka Blechová-Čelebić (Prague), Stanoje Bojanin,
Borislav Grgin (Zagreb), Sergey Ivanov (Moscow),
Gábor Klaniczay (Budapest), Esad Kurtović (Sarajevo),
Smilja Marjanović-Dušanić, Vojin Nedeljković,
Georgi Nikolov (Sofia), Paola Pinelli (Florence),
Danica Popović, Dejan Radičević, Srđan Rudić,
Irena Špadijer, Georg Vogeler (Graz)
Publishing Editor
Dragić M. Živojinović
Belgrade
2017
UDK 93/94 ISSN 2334-8003
ИНИЦИЈАЛ
ЧАСОПИС ЗА СРЕДЊОВЕКОВНЕ СТУДИЈЕ
КЊИГА 5
Главни уредник
Срђан Рудић
Редакциони одбор
Ленка Блехова-Челебић (Праг), Станоје Бојанин,
Борислав Гргин (Загреб), Сергеј Иванов (Москва),
Габор Кланицај (Будимпешта), Есад Куртовић (Сарајево), Смиља
Марјановић-Душанић, Војин Недељковић,
Георги Николов (Софија), Паола Пинели (Фиренца),
Даница Поповић, Дејан Радичевић, Срђан Рудић,
Георг Фогелер (Грац), Ирена Шпадијер
Одговорни уредник
Драгић М. Живојиновић
Београд
2017