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The medieval work Obsidio Iadrensis (The Siege of Zadar) as a historical source on the naval power of Venice in the 14th century

Sandra Begonja


Puni tekst: hrvatski pdf 349 Kb

str. 81-139

preuzimanja: 1.370

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Sažetak

This article presents the structure and functioning of the Venetian military using the example of the siege of Zadar from 12 August 1345 to 21 December 1346. The research was conducted on the basis of a textual analysis of the work Obsidio Iadrensis (The Siege of Zadar) as the primary source that describes the wartime events in that period. In the course of research, use was made of existing data on the siege of Zadar in 1345-1346 which remained recorded in individual Venetian and Hungarian narrative sources and in the decisions of the Venetian Senate from the State Archives in Venice (Archivio di Stato di Venezia). The objective of the completed research was to determine the key data contained in the work Obsidio Iadrensis for descriptions of the military and naval power of the Venice in the fourteenth century. The intent of this analysis is to ascertain the quantity of data and its credibility in relation to other sources which speak of the same event. Research has shown that the data in Obsidio Iadrensis pertaining to the Venetian preparatory military and diplomatic activities are meagre and do not provide sufficient insight into the extensive military preparations undertaken by the Venetian authorities. However, Obsidio Iadrensis is the only historical source that contains transcripts of the doge’s official letters to the denizens of Zadar, which testify to the existence of a secret plan by the Venetian authorities to send an army against Zadar. The decisions of the Venetian Senate also attest to this. The data on the Venetian
command are also scant and do not provide enough insight into the overall Venetian military organization. The most important data in Obsidio Iadrensis are those which pertain to the description of military operations (battles and military tactics) and the military potential of the Venetian military (personnel, military equipment and arms).
The process of identification of specific military terminology, military equipment and arms described in the work constituted to an attempt to determine as precisely as possible the military terminology which refers to the number and types of individual units in the Venetian army and the Venetian fleet, siege engines and devices and
defensive fortifications. The data so derived demonstrate that Obsidio Iadrensis is a valuable source of data on the appearance of individual types of medieval Venetian ships and their manner of operation (purpose), the construction and position (location) of siege engines and devices and defensive fortifications. Even though the results of research into these data from Obsidio Iadrensis have yielded a limited understanding of the overall organization and functioning of the Venetian military against the people of Zadar (which is understandable, since Obsidio Iadrensis is in fact the testimony of an unidentified Zadar writer on these wartime events), it is nonetheless an exceptionally high-quality example of a medieval wartime chronicle that can significantly contribute to new scholarly knowledge on maritime warfare in medieval Europe.

Ključne riječi

High Middle Ages; Zadar; siege of the city; military history; history of the medieval city; Venice; 14th century

Hrčak ID:

131237

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/131237

Datum izdavanja:

22.12.2014.

Podaci na drugim jezicima: hrvatski

Posjeta: 3.870 *