Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/ydkx2cr2r9
The Population of the Town of Omiš and its Suburb according to the Census from 1799
Josip Celić
; Ive Senjanina 16b, Zadar, Croatia
Abstract
The article presents hitherto unpublished census of the population of the town of Omiš and its suburb of 1799. Social structure of Omiš is analysed and presented: from members of nobility and bourgeoisie to commoners. The census is analysed in regard to structure and organisation of families and households, and to a limited extent the paper gives insight into demographic characteristics. Members of clergy: secular priests and regular clergy (two female monastic houses) are described in different ways: through belonging to different social orders and according to their ways of living. The census contributes to the more precise picture of Omiš and its suburb at the end of the eighteenth century – in the period of the First Austrian administration in Dalmatia. The census was composed in Italian language for administrative purposes: it was of limited scope, momentary and individual. It is not possible to fully determine its immediate purpose. Based on the listings of resident population, structure of the population regarding belonging to social orders, from communal nobility, bourgeoisie, commoners to members of the clergy, is presented. The census provides exact number of houses, individual families and households created by married couples, widowers or widows, with children or without them. Within such units, the number of members residing together with household heads, both those related to them by kinship or other connections (mostly service). The data are presented in tables and prove that most of the families had character of simple stable family and its household, typical for Dalmatian urban society of the time. Singles (of both genders) are also included in the census, creating their own households. The church of Omiš is also presented, members of clergy to whom belonged secular priests and members of female monastic institutions, but without Franciscan friars existing in Omiš. However, by the analysis of this secular census, made upon the old format different of the “modern” ones characteristical for later periods, has been given only a modest contribution to better understanding of the society of Omiš at the end of the eighteenth century.
Keywords
Omiš; Dalmatia; 1799; the First Austrian administration; census of population; historical demography
Hrčak ID:
195444
URI
Publication date:
29.12.2017.
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