Preliminary communication
Old measures in stone in Dalmatia 13th–18th centuries
Marija Zaninović-Rumora
orcid.org/0000-0002-8983-6562
; Institut for Historical Sciences of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zadar, Zadar, Croatia
Abstract
The author deals with stone measures and measures carved in stone in Zadar, Šibenik, Trogir, Split, Hvar, Korčula, Dubrovnik and Kotor, dating 13th–18th centuries. Measures and rules regarding their application are stated in Statutes of Dalmatian communes dating from the 13th and the 14th centuries, as well as in late-Mediaeval and Early-modern archival material from the archives in Zadar, Dubrovnik and Kotor. They have moreover been preserved until today in squares or museums of Dalmatian towns and settlements. The author analyses and compares the preserved stone measures and their measuring values with Venetian measures of the same period, as well as with the results achieved in Croatian historical metrology, Croatian and European art history, and historiography. Particular stone carvings are not measures, but architectonic parts of buildings or churches – for instance in Zadar, Trogir and Korčula. The text is accompanied by figures, photographs of preserved measures, or drawings and layouts thereof. The author argues that stone measures, hollow measures, carved as measures for length, represent not only important material remains for the study of old measures and pre-metric measuring systems, as well as of the history of economy, but also valuable cultural-artistic monuments. This paper is a contribution to the research and study of mensurae antiquae Croaticae.
Keywords
Late Middle Ages and Early-modern; Dalmatian communes; historical metrology; stone measures for length and volume
Hrčak ID:
170572
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2016.
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