Izvorni znanstveni članak
On Some Aspects of Care for Poor and Marginalised Individuals and Groups in Dalmatian Late Medieval Communes
Zoran Ladić
Sažetak
Based on the analysis of published and unpublished sources (in the first place wills and city statutes) for the history of four Dalmatian communes (Zadar, Trogir, Dubrovnik and Kotor) and relying on methodological models made by contemporary European medievalists, the author in this article discusses the issue of the attitude of the communal population towards the poor and other more or less marginalised strata of late medieval Dalmatian urban societies. Particular attention has been paid to individual care and to a certain extent also to that which was communal for poor individuals and groups during the period from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. Taking into account the character of the sources (wills), the following features are analysed in this article: a) hospitals, b) poor individuals (pauperes, pauperes Christi), c) orphans (orphani) and particularly poor orphaned girls (puelle orphane), d) illegitimate and adopted children (bastardi, illegitimi, adoptivi), e) slaves and servants (famuli, ancille, servi). The author dedicated particular attention to the analysis of the co-relations of gender and social position of those testators leaving bequests to the poor and marginalised, and the types of bequest left to them.
From the end of the thirteenth century the choice of the recipients of bequests in Dalmatian communes becomes very diversified. In contrast to the previous period, when the recipients of bequests pro remedio anime were exclusively Benedictine monasteries and nunneries, during the Late Middle Ages orphans, poor girls, illegitimate children, slaves, servants and hospitals became more and more frequently the recipients of such bequests. On the one hand, this was due to the economic development and changes of religiosity in Dalmatian communes, and on the other it was a consequence of a so-called “democratisation” in writing wills as a usual practice for members of all strata within urban society, who in turn became more and more sensitive to the increasing problem of poverty and marginalisation in bigger urban centres of late medieval Dalmatia.
The analysis also reveals interesting data related to the social structure of the testators making charitable bequests to the poor and the marginalised. Generally speaking, the individuals from all strata of communal society expressed equal solidarity towards all mentioned groups of recipients. In this respect a particular role was played precisely by the democratisation of the practice of writing wills mentioned above. It seems logical that the testators from social strata lower than the patricians (those styled as cives and habitatores) would be more sensitive to the needs of persons which were, for whatever reason, placed on the social margins, because they themselves might sooner or later face a similar fate. This would explain the relatively large number of charitable bequests donated by the testators belonging to these groups. However, the analysis also showed that the testators belonging to the patriciate also expressed equal charity towards the poor and the marginalised. The reason for such an attitude on the part of the patricians may be found in the changes in popular piety at that time. Specifically, during the eleventh and the twelfth centuries members of the urban elite were the strongest support to traditional, rather introspective, Christianity, best embodied through Benedictine monasticism, as individuals from that stratum showed also by rich testamentary bequests to particular Benedictine monasteries; however, in the thirteenth century, when the mendicants became popular, the patriciate stratum, always the first to accept new ideas (which may be understood also as a certain following of fashion), was the first to start richly endowing the newly established convents of the Franciscans and the Dominicans. Old Benedictine monasteries were further supported more from loyalty to the tradition, and because of networks of relations established during previous centuries between certain families and these monasteries, than from reasons of particular piety which was transferred to the mendicants. Taking into account the fact that the mendicants were bearers of the so-called “social Christianity” it does not seem strange that the testators from the ranks of patricians, as their faithful supporters, accepted the practice of charitable donations to the poor and marginalised groups and individuals as one of the basic themes of the new piety.
Ključne riječi
Dalmatia; the Middle Ages; medieval communes; social Christianity; the poor
Hrčak ID:
9388
URI
Datum izdavanja:
1.3.2003.
Posjeta: 2.942 *