Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.15291/misc.3614
Fanti oltramarini da Cattaro – The Soldiers from Kotor in Venetian Overseas Infantry Units (in the 18th Century)
Lovorka Čoralić
orcid.org/0000-0002-9333-7221
; Croatian Institute of History
Abstract
This paper is primarily focused on analyzing the share of the soldiers from Kotor in Venetian infantry units in Eastern Adriatic (Fanti oltramarini) in the 18th century. It is a result of years of research of the unpublished documents from the Archivio di Stato di Venezia (the lists made by the recruitment magistracy – Inquisitori sopra l’amministrazione dei pubblici ruoli). Based on these documents – the lists of infantry troops belonging to individual companies and regiments – the following fundamental aspects are analyzed: the method of entering particulars of the Kotor soldiers; their share in infantry and cavalry units; the timeframe of their military service (their mention in the documents); the share of the members of prominent noble families of Kotor among high-ranking officers (the Bolica, Buća, Paskvali and Vraćen families); the duration of their military service; and the dynamics of promotions in their careers. As the documents are very well preserved, the age structure of the Kotor infantrymen and their physical characteristics can also be analyzed. The final section of the paper analyzes the places where the lists of these infantrymen were made (Venice, Veneto, Dalmatia, Bay of Kotor and Greece) and the commanders of their regiments. And finally, the paper concludes that the Kotor soldiers constituted important part of the regional Eastern Adriatic regiments in the final century of the Serenissima. At the very end of the paper, a table including the names of all the hitherto known overseas infantrymen from that period can be found.
Keywords
Kotor; Venetian Republic; infantry; military history; history of the 18th century
Hrčak ID:
273680
URI
Publication date:
11.3.2022.
Visits: 721 *