Sources for the history of Svetvinčenat in the State Archive in Venice

Abstract

In this short but significant survey the A. explains - first of all - the difficulties she encountered searching for material on Svetvincenat in the State Archive in Venice. The main reason was that it was a small administrative unit, and moreover an autonomous fief in which the feudal lord had all civil and penal prerogatives, so that few questions came to higher administrative levels. Some data can be found in census lists, compiled for the whole Venetian territory only in the second half of the 18th century, but the main interest should be focused con family archives. Other useful collections, such as notarial, judicial and ecclesiastical, are not in the Venetian Archive. Then the A. sketches a brief history of the ownership of the fief, in order to conclude which family archives could hold material on Svetvincenat. She refers to the private archive of the Grimani family, today in the hands of the surviving successors, and the collection Grimani and Barbarigo in the Venetian Archive. Unfortunately, this collection has not yet been put in order, but the A. nevertheless lists some essential groups of documents that one can find in it. Although a final opinion of the collection can not be given - because the material is still in disarray - its importance is obvious for the richness of information relating to the still insufficiently known history of Svetvincenat.