Original scientific paper
The 1750 Glagolytic Mandate regarding the Lineup of Territorial Army on the Zadar Isles
Grozdana Franov Živković
orcid.org/0000-0003-1787-0849
; Institute of Historical Research, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zadar
Abstract
The Venetian army consisted of two parts: a professional army whose soldiers were enlisted on a voluntary principle, similarly to other professional armies in Europe during the early modern period, and territorial forces (forza territoriale). The latter had a role in military defence and keeping order, and were mobilised in cases of danger of war. Men capable of bearing arms had to complete different military exercises, among which were line-ups for various designated places.
The Venetian government established territorial forces in their territory on the example of the system existing previously (the so-called lige and posobe, later sučije, system). It was easiest to organise the natives for the defence of their villages. In order to keep discipline in territorial forces, from time to time line-ups of military units were organised in villages on particular isles, and military exercises were held.
However, the line-ups also provided opportunities for disorder. The main problem was keeping order among individuals and villages involved in private feuds. Captains and lower officers were often dismissed because of their inability to deal with such problems. Because of that, on 4 May 1750 the Venetian sindici issued a mandate determining the order of line-ups of villages obligatory for all members of territorial forces. It also regulated rules of conduct during the exercises, in order to prevent disorder and conflict. An exemplar of this mandate is kept in the Državni arhiv u Zadru (the State Archive of Zadar) in the archival series of the Lantana family. The document lists places of line-ups for particular isles. Besides its content, the mandate is also important because it shows that the Venetian authorities used Croatian vernacular and Glagolitic script, besides Italian, for official purposes, something that may be demonstrated also by many other documents of the period kept in different archival series of the State Archive of Zadar and other archives.
The article also provides details of the everyday life and mentality of the denizens of the Zadar isles in the period under research.
Keywords
territorial forces; the sindici; archival series of the Lantana family; Glagolitic cursive; Zadar; the Zadar isles; the Republic of Venice; the eighteenth century; military history
Hrčak ID:
168305
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2015.
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