Original scientific paper
THE CITY COMMUNE IN MEDIAEVALS DALMATIA AND THE ANCIENT CITY POLIS
M. Mihajlović-Freidenberg
Abstract
The author starts with the statement that the ancient city commune has recently much been studied and that we are faced with a real explosion of interest for the earlier historical periods of the Dalmatian cities. A number of sources from those periods is accessible to scholars, and the history of the mediaeval Dalmatian cities presents a picture of real life, able to be compared with the phenomena of the European history.
A series of examples from the communal life in the cities of Zadar, Split, Trogir and Kotor, covering the period between 1260 and 1400 are quoted by the author. That was a period of a stirring development of all forms of life, a period of development of the city commune and administration. We learn the »Conslilium generale maius« of Dubrovnik for the first time in 1235, of Split in 1241, and of Zadar about 1260.
Municipal offices for keeping of documents, offices of public notaries, archives and other elements of city administaration have been established in the 13th century. The communal laws and statutes came into being at Split, Zadar, Trogir and Šibenik.
The article then covers the period of the autonomous cities, extending from 1100 to 1260, preceded by an earlier form of communes, which the author tries to prove. The beginning of that stage probably was in the second half of the 9th century.
Then follow sporadic data relating to the emergence of trades, market-places, fish-markets, etc., which period is called pre-communal by the author. These are no elected functions yet, and the city has nog yet its definite shape with regard to planning, architecture, etc. The author emphasizes the existence of tribunes in the mediaeval Dalmatian cities. The relation to land and the distribution of land among the citizens is specially presented. Examples are quoted in connection with land on the Peninsula of Pelješac, in Kotor, Trogir and Zadar. There is also some information about the colonization of Venetian citizens in Zadar.
The distribution of communal land in Split is also dealt with. This, according to the author, became a tradition in the city, and also a peculiar rustic way of life and consciousness.
The question why land takes such a significant place in the life of citizens is also answered by the author. The penetration of peasants into the cities from the Roman era on is widely described. According to M. Suić, who had made investigations in the environs of Dalmatian cities in order to find out whether there are traces of the Roman system of field walls, known as »agri centuriati«, established ten of thousands kilometres of such traces in the fields around Zadar, Split, Pula. That ancient agrarian practice survived many centuries.
The author then surveys the municipal services known from the ancient city statutes. The commune was constituted only by the members of the Major Council, i. e. the mobility, while the remaining citizens composed a body called »universitas«. The services were rendered without remouneration. The magistracy was divided into two categories: a higher one (the nobility) and a lower one (common people).
Closing his article, the author emphasizes that all the exposed characteristics of Dalmatian cities should be sought in analogy with the ancient polis.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
160308
URI
Publication date:
24.12.1980.
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