Original scientific paper

The Zadar Canon – Giovanni Campsi from Zadar

Lovorka Čoralić

Abstract

Immigrant groups of diverse national and religious origins constituted an important element of the social and everyday life of cities during the time of Venetian rule over the eastern Adriatic coast. The city of Zadar – the leading administrative, political, economic and cultural center of the Venetian region of Dalmatia – is an exemplary case of a city renowned for the diversity of its early Medieval population and the survival of immigrant groups from the Venetian territory from Furlania to Creta. This finds ample confirmation in extant sources. The theme of the article is the priest Giovanni Campsi, born into a Catholic family in Skadar, student of the Illyrian college in Loreto, a doctor of law, a close associate of the Zadar archbishop Vicko Zmajević and the canon of the Zadar chapter for more then forty years. Going by the traces found in archival sources, primarily the fund of Records of the Zadar Notary in the State Archives in Zadar, the article describes his relations with the Church institutions of the city of Zadar of the time, with prominent individuals as well as with members of the Albanian immigrant groups which settled in Zadar in the 18th century. The article emphasizes Campsi’s integration into all the elements of the social and Church life in Zadar and in the end it points to the need of a more detailed investigation of the life and the activity of members of foreign national groups in the capital city of Dalmatia during the period when it was absorbed into the Venetian state administration. As an appendix the article publishes canon Giovanni Campsi’s testament and its supplement (codicil) drawn up in 1775 which are stored in the notary records of the Zadar State Archives.

Keywords

Giovanni Campsi; canon; Zadar; Skadar; XVIIIth century

Hrčak ID:

8713

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/8713

Publication date:

1.11.2005.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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