Original scientific paper
The Bourgeois Families of the Arvatini and the Cavaletti – a Contribution to the Knowledge of the Social and Cultural History of Zadar in the Seventeenth and the Eighteenth Century
Lovorka Čoralić
; Hrvatski institut za povijest, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Ivana Prijatelj Pavičić
; Filozofski fakultet u Splitu, Split, Hrvatska
Abstract
The social and demographic history of Zadar, the capital of the Venetian province of Dalmatia, is an exceptionally attractive topic for research, but one that has still not been sufficiently discussed within the scholarship. During the period of the Early Modern Age, especially after the end of the Veneto-Ottoman wars at the beginning of the eighteenth century, Zadar was a city of dynamic moving of the population, the destination to which came individuals and families from different parts of the eastern Adriatic coast (and its hinterland), but also from the wider area of the Apennine Peninsula. This article, which presents only an excerpt from the social history of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Zadar, aims at presenting the development of two Zaratin bourgeois families of divergent origin. It deals with the Italian immigrant family of the Cavaletti and the native one (most probably originating in Zadar’s insular or continental hinterland) of the Arvatini (Hrvatinić), whose scions have been followed through their activities during the seventeenth and the eighteenth century. The article is made on the basis of the documents from the State Archive of Zadar (the archival series The Deeds of Zaratin Notaries, in the first place the testaments contained within it). The data on the first mentions of them and their agency in the Zaratin area have been discussed, and the focus of the article is directed towards the eighteenth century, when the agency of both families in Zadar was the most intensive. Following notarial contracts and testaments, their property, economic opportunities and activity have been assessed, as have – in the first place – the forms of their private communications with other Zaratin citizens (whether they were family, kin or friends). From the content of the analysed testaments, it is evident that both families had equal economic opportunities and a similar social standing, but they were rather different in terms of their self-consciousness and the image about themselves and their values. It is evident, namely, that the members of the Cavaletti family made the most of their social contacts with Zaratin bourgeois families who, like themselves, were by origin immigrants from Italy. Conversely, the Arvatini were, to judge from the frequency of their social and professional connections, in the first place directed towards native families (those from Zadar and those from the closest surroundings of the city). However, in the second half of the eighteenth century both families united by marriage in one of their branches. The testaments of Helen Cavaletti and her husband Julius Arvatini are an interesting testimony to life, relationships, and the closeness of and differences between these two, for the period, rather typical Zaratin bourgeois families. In the end, even though they themselves did not aim to be very close and connected, both families remain permanently united by the inscription on the altar of the Cavaletti family in the church of St. Chrysogonus, which was established by the Cavaletti (by the testament of Mary Zanchi Cavaletti in 1760) and completed by the efforts and support of her son-in-law Julius Arvatinija at the end of the eighteenth century. The altar in later times underwent certain changes and adaptations, but it is still a valuable testimony of the Baroque style in the church of St. Chrysogonus. At the end of the article transcripts of testaments (and codicils) of several members of the Arvatini and the Cavaletti families are given.
Keywords
Dalmatia; Zadar; the Republic of Venice; Early Modern Age; social history; history of population; family history; cultural history
Hrčak ID:
33611
URI
Publication date:
5.1.2009.
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