Original scientific paper
A Contribution to the Knowledge of Punishing Methods in the Dubrovnik Republic
Ilija Mitić
; Institute for Historical Sciences of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Dubrovnik, Croatia
Abstract
Nine methods of punishing offenders were provided in the Dubrovnik Statute of 1272. Besides capital punishment and imprisonment, other ways of punishing were stated there, such as: mutilating, corporal punishment, public display of the accused at the whipping post, ostracism, losing the citizenship, penalties, and others decided by the Rector. These were not the only punishing forms, as for particular cases other sentences were passed. They became unwritten law regulations through a long practice, and in some way they were a contribution to the Statute ones. Torture was applied in Dubrovnik, not only to make offender confess his guilt, but also as one of the methods of punishing, from the middle of the 17th century on, in particular.
Torture was executed in the same way on the whole of the Republic territory. It was known as »rope end«. According to the Statute prisons were located in the building of the Republic authorities, in the Rector’s Palace. There were prisons in other places and on the islands, too. The courts rarely made use of lifelong imprisonment; they rather punished offenders on life-long banishment from the territory of the Republic. That diminished the needs both for additional prisons and maintaining expenses. The members of patrician families were imprisoned in special prisons situated in fortresses. Besides state prisons there were church prisons for priests and monks either in the Bishop’s Palace or in various monasteries.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
243095
URI
Publication date:
20.6.1985.
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