Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.32728/h2022.01
Venetian podestàs, noble sorceresses and the Commune of Motovun: Critique, corrections and additions to the book Case against Diletta [Motovun 1271]. On the intersection between Roman, Canon, Customary, and Venetian Law by Dunja and Ivan Milotić (Pazin – Motovun: State Archives in Pazin – Motovun Municipality, 2022)
Josip Banić
; Sveučilište Jurja Dobrile u Puli, Hrvatska
Abstract
The author takes a detailed critical look at the latest monograph by Dunja and Ivan Milotić on the trial against the sorceress Dilecta held in Motovun in 1271, showingthat the work is full of serious technical, factual and interpretive errors, as well as methodological flaws, which completely invalidate the majority of the drawn conclusions. Following a detailed presentation of the book, the author corrects numerous incorrect statements and criticizes interpretive procedures, especially the position and role of notary Bonaventura, the jurisdictional position of the Commune of Motovun in relation to the Patriarchate of Aquileia and Venice, and the issue of the court process conducted against Dilecta in Motovun and against Thomas Michiel in Venice. Based on contemporary historiography and the analysis of relevant historical sources, both published and unpublished, it is concluded that: (1) Bonaventura was not a notary with papal authority who found himself in an uncertain position in Motovun with the arrival of the Venetian authorities, but that he was a notary with imperial authority who was employed as chancellor of the Motovun podestàs; (2) Motovun did not fall under the de facto rule of Venice in 1271, but first briefly in 1276 and then in 1278, as interpreted by traditional Istrian historiography; (3) both processes, the one led by Thomas against his wife Dilecta, and the one initiated by the Venetian authorities against Thomas, were most probably conducted properly, although no relevant minutes have been preserved due to the lack of surviving archival registers. Therefore, the authenticity of Dilectaʼs confession, which the Milotićs essentially declared to be a fictitious original, is completely rehabilitated. The work closes with appendices, two tables and critical editions of thirteen historical sources, eight relevant to the mechanisms of the elections of podestàs in the Istrian communes that recognized the secular authority of the patriarchs of Aquileia, and five for the case of the executed Dilecta.
Keywords
Istria; 13th century; Patriarchate of Aquileia; Venice; Sorcery; podestàs; communes; Motovun
Hrčak ID:
309010
URI
Publication date:
29.12.2022.
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