Izvorni znanstveni članak
From Croatian Military History – Croati a cavallo and Soldati Albanese, Their Confraternity and Sources on Its Activity from 1675 to the Middle of the Eighteenth Century
Lovorka Čoralić
Nedjeljka Balić Nižić
Sažetak
In the period of the Early Modern Age, particularly during the Veneto-Ottoman wars, the city of Zadar was, as the capital of Venetian province of Dalmatia, one of the most important military outposts of the Serenissima on the eastern Adriatic coast. Within the city and its closest surrounding operated, since the beginning of the sixteenth century, numerous and according to their complexion diversified military contingents. This article deals with elite Venetian overseas military units (oltramarini), called by the sources as Croati a cavallo (Cavalleria Croata) and Soldati Albanesi, as well as with their common confraternity of St. Jerome, founded in 1675 in Zadar. The confraternity unified members of Croatian light cavalry, who were by their origin principally from the Zadar’s area (those parts of it which fell under the Ottoman rule), and whose commanders were prominent personalities of Zaratin and Croatian military and social history (the scions of the families of the Posedarski, Begna, Detrico, and so on), as well as those of infantry and cavalry units originating from the Venetian province of Albania (the area of present-day Montenegrin and Albanian littoral), who might by their ethnic compound be either Albanians or Croats or Montenegrins. The confraternity from its very foundation had enthusiastic support of the general proveditore of Dalmatia and Albania, as well as of other central bodies of provincial administration. In the years following its foundation, the confraternity built its own chapel in the church of St. Simon, still standing and ornate by the altar piece with the depiction of St. Jerome, the protector of the association. In the article, the statutory regulations (Matricula) of the Confraternity regulating rules for entering the association, ways of choosing members of its officialdom and their rights and prerogatives, charitable activity of the confraternity and its efforts for the building and adornment of the confraternity’s altar) are analysed in details, as well as documents recorded from its foundation until the middle of the seventeenth century (confirmations of its privileges and new rulings issued by the Venetian general proveditori of Dalmatia and Albania, and so on). The article concludes that the history of the confraternity is only an aspect of the history of military units operating in Early Modern Age Dalmatia (particularly in Zadar) and emphasises necessity of more comprehensive research of Dalmatian military history of the Veneto-Ottoman wars. At the end of the article, the transcript of the manuscript Matricula of the confraternity of Croatian and Albanian soldiers is given.
Ključne riječi
Dalmatia; Albania; Republic of Venice; Zadar; military history; Veneto-Ottoman wars; Early Modern Age; confraternities
Hrčak ID:
7481
URI
Datum izdavanja:
22.12.2006.
Posjeta: 5.019 *