Arranging and Describing the Gravisi Family Fonds at the Regional Archives Koper

Abstract

The description of the Gravisi family documents and the publishing of the corresponding archival inventory coincided with the 200th anniversary of the death of Girolamo Gravisi, a renowned Istrian scholar and one of the most distinguished members of the Gravisi family branch in Koper, whose work had influenced Istria for almost the whole of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Occupying 5.1 linear metres of shelving, the fonds includes documents created between 1440 and 1933 and offers a glance at a variety of records that bear witness to feudal relations between the landlords and the peasants in Pietrapelosa Marquisate as well as describe the spreading of the Gravisi family estate in Koper and its hinterland. Family documents of the 18th century, particularly the correspondence between the Gravisi family members and the intelligentsia of that time and the documents that they collected on Koper, Istria and Friuli, speak of the connections and extensiveness of the circling of ideas and knowledge at the time. Thus in addition to being one of the most important archival fonds for local history research, the Gravisi family documents are also a very valuable source for the study of cultural development in Istria, the Littoral and Central European territory in general. Since individual members of the family began to arrange their family documentation already in the mid 19th century and in view of the fact that these documents have so far been thoroughly researched by historians, their rearrangement and description presented that much of a challenge.