Urban Elites of Zadar
Dalmatia and the Venetian Commonwealth (1540-1569)
by Stephan Karl Sander-Faes
Paperback (Published)
(October 2025)
ISBN: 9791254699140
Price: $55.00
On back order
This book examines the economic, geographical and social mobility, as well as everyday life – including crime history and material culture – of the inhabitants of the city of Zadar between the battles of Preveza (1538) and Lepanto (1571). The city, then known as Zara, was the capital of Venice’s dual province of Dalmatia and Albania, a major hub for commerce, communication and exchange and a vibrant port city connected to the wider Mediterranean world. Considered a period “not marked by any events worthy of the attention of posterity” by the French historian Pierre Daru two centuries ago, a view mirrored by most scholars since, this book offers the first in-depth foray into everyday life, widely understood, along the frontiers of Latin Christendom during the apogee of Ottoman dominance in the 16th century. In a first step, quantitative and qualitative analysis of the humble procura contract details the quintessential qualities for the functioning of Renaissance communication and its foundational role in the economic, legal and social affairs in and across the Adriatic. In a second step, the book examines Zadar’s property markets, with particular attention to price changes in the city and its jurisdiction, including real estate transactions on the islands off the coast. The third and fourth parts focus on life in the bustling streets of Zadar, as well as the diverse interaction of its inhabitants – nobles, citizens, residents and foreigners alike. Relaying information about extrajudicial settlements, and drawing on testaments and codicils, a more vivid and socially inclusive reconstruction of urban life in the Renaissance Adriatic emerges.
"
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Text, Spelling and Translation
- Glossary of Select Key Terms
- Abbreviations
- Preface to the 1st Edition
- New Perspectives for an Important Adriatic Centre by Gherardo Ortalli and Bernd Roeck
- Preface to the 2nd Edition
- Introduction
- 1. The Setting
- 1. Venice's maritime state, 1358-1570
- 2. Administration
- 3. Economy
- 4. The Adriatic context
- 5. ""Zara is the metropolis and key""
- 6. Zadar under Venetian rule (1409-1570)
- 2. Zadar's Society: Spatial, Social and Occupational Fault Lines
- 1. Zadar and trans-Adriatic communication
- 2. Procura networks in central Dalmatia
- 3. Economic, legal and social incentives
- 4. Secular and ecclesiastical elites
- 5. Intellectual elites
- 6. Ecclesiastical activities
- 3. Actors: Political, Ecclesiastical and Economic Elites
- 1. Political elites: Venetians and the local nobility
- 2. Ecclesiastical elites: convents, hospitals and parish churches
- 3. Economic elites: actors, merchants and commodities
- 4. Zadar's Property Markets, 1540-1569
- 1. Property sales (emptiones)
- 2. Land grants and planting concessions (concessiones)
- 3. Rental and leasehold arrangements (locationes)
- 5. Crime, Punishment and Arbitration Settlements
- 1. Settling out of court in Dalmatia: exemplary cases
- 2. Settling out of court in Zadar: a quantitative analysis, 1540-1569
- 3. Kinship ties and legal disputes: Grisogono vs. Tetrico
- 6. Zadar's Urban Elites and Their Material Culture
- 1. Geographical and social mobilities
- 2. Material culture: testaments and inventories
- 7. Zadar's Elite Residents and Citizens
- 1. Venetians
- 2. Zadar's elite citizens
- 3. Croats and Jews
- 8. Topographies of Everyday Life and Zadar's Cityscape
- 1. Microhistory, Alltagsgeschichte and topographies of everyday life
- 2. Topographies of everyday life in 16th-century Zadar
- 3. Two case studies: Simon Budineus and Hieronymus Cortesius
- 4. Zadar's cityscape
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Units of Measurement
- List of Toponyms in Zadar's Jurisdiction
- Maps of Zadar and Its Jurisdiction
- Sample Transcripts
- Bibliography
- Index
"
- By (author) Stephan Karl Sander-Faes
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