Fonds HR-DADU-29 - Dicta Domini Rectoris; Detta (Expenditures of the Rector's Palace)

Identity area

Reference code

HR-DADU-29

Title

Dicta Domini Rectoris; Detta (Expenditures of the Rector's Palace)

Date(s)

  • 1543-1549, 1575-1580, 1583-1589, 1618-1640, 1653-1665, 1667, 1670-1682, 1684-1719, 1621-1626, 1628-1757, 1760-1761, 1763, 1765-1774, 1776-1777, 1779, 1782, 1804, 1808 (Creation)

Level of description

Fonds

Extent and medium

92 volumes; 1.7 linear metres; textual records

Context area

Name of creator

Archival history

Preserved interstate treaties and other documents from the 12th century provide enough data to conclude that the authorities would already at that time oversee the work of the public notary and the chancellery. Based on key provisions made during the 15th century, the central administration consisted of five offices located in the Rector's Palace, and these were: The Public Notary (legal private affairs), the State Chancellery (legal public affairs), the Judicial Chancellery (criminal justice affairs), the Office of the State Secretary (legal state affairs) and the Slavic Chancellery, which would eventually be transformed into the Turkish Chancellery. State secretaries oversaw the process of taking minutes of the sessions of the Senate, the Minor Council, as well as of those of the Major Council. In addition, they would also compile the entire state correspondence as instructed by the Senate and the Minor Council, create diplomatic codes, decipher diplomatic mail, and issue state documents, such as certificates of the citizenship of the Dubrovnik Republic. The influence of state secretaries increased so much since the 17th century that they could be considered as the main administrative officials of the Dubrovnik Republic.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

The fonds has been linked to the archive since its inception. In times of the Dubrovnik Republic, the books of the fonds were stored in the Rector's Palace. The books remained in the Rector’s Palace after the fall of the Republic (1808). The archives were consolidated in 1891 when they became available to researchers. The archive in the Rector's Palace has been functioning as an independent institution since 1920 and it was dislocated to the Sponza Palace in 1952, where it is still located today.

Content and structure area

Scope and content

The fonds covers the period from the middle 16th century to the beginning of the 19th century, and the data in the fonds are related to the expenditures of the Rector's Palace, i.e., the costs for which the Rector personally was accountable for. Since his term of office lasted only a month, the expenses listed were shown monthly. The expenses were checked by the so-called Deputati alla Detta, or elected members of the Minor Council. The list of ongoing permanent costs of the Palace changed over time and the expenses mostly concerned the related costs of Holy Masses held in the Chapel of the Rector's Palace, alms for various purposes, as well as the expenses for the organization of processions, Holy Masses, and celebrations of religious holidays. The data shows that the money was regularly allocated from the treasury of the Rector's Palace for the costs of lighting and various repairs. According to the data regarding prison expenses, the Rector's Palace would pay for the expenses of the arrest and escort of suspects, the treatment and maintenance of prisoners in need, the execution of sentences, and the burial of deceased prisoners. The soldiers of the Rector's Palace received salaries and compensation for clothes and straw mattresses from the treasury of the Palace. The expenditures of the state offices were also covered, such as the expenses for paper, parchment, bookbinding, ink, candles, and lighting oil. The expenses of the Republic stated in the last three decades show data on the financial support that was given to both Christianised Jewish and Orthodox believers. So-called Separate section of the volumes of this fonds lists the expenses of locksmiths, mostly related to the dungeons, and the extraordinary expenses, which mostly refer to the expenses of the stay of distinguished Ottoman guests in Dubrovnik. The treasury of the Rector's Palace also paid for the cleaning of the streets from various impurities and for the removal of dead animals, as well as for the costs of the postal service (couriers and shipping). Money was also allocated for the costs of anti-plague measures.


The fonds contains only a small amount of data on Jewish people. The references mainly relate to financial support provided for the maintenance of Christianised Jews and of those Jews who worked as state bookbinders. The information on the financial support that the state provided for Christianised Jewish women and men can be found in the documents from the last three decades of the 18th century. For example, according to the data, a certain Jewish woman Mande, the daughter of a Christianised Jew Antun Ambonetti (Samuel Ambonetti), also referred to in the documents as Mande Bonette, received through 1776/1777 the financial support of two grossetti per day (e.g., vol. 78, f. 41). There is also reference that a stretcher was paid once from the state treasury on which an unnamed Jewish woman was taken first to the archbishop and then to a convent (vol. 53, ff. 6v, 8). Moshe and Vital Fermi, and Baruch and Solomon Vitali are also referenced to as state bookbinders. The data shows that the Palace treasury also supplied offices at the Rector's Palace with paper and bound sheets of paper for writing as well as restored damaged books and documents between the late 17th century and the 80s of the 18th centuries. As for other data on Jewish people in this fonds, there are some minor references to Jewish craftsmen who, on several occasions, carried out various repairs in the Rector's Palace, (e.g., covering the table in the office of the Public Notary with leather and window repairing). The documents also show evidence that, while they were quarantined in Lazarettos and other quarantine areas, prominent Ottoman guests were treated by the Dubrovnik state and supplied with daily necessities. According to the data, the Jewish community of Dubrovnik were also involved in this custom, providing necessary pieces of furniture and other items for their stay. Several records showed that Jews received compensation for destroyed items from the treasury of the Rector's Palace. The money from the Palace treasury was also used to pay for the repairs of the keys and the entrance door to the ghetto.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

The fonds is fully accessible to researchers in accordance with the Ordinance on the work in the reading room of the State Archives in Dubrovnik and the Law on Archival Materials and Archives NN 61/18 (Pravilnik o radu u čitaonici Državnog arhiva u Dubrovniku and Zakon o arhivskom gradivu i arhivima NN 61/18).

Conditions governing reproduction

Taking photographs and scanning are allowed, for a fee.

Language of material

  • Italian

Script of material

  • Latin

Language and script notes

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Paper. The archival material is well preserved.

Finding aids

Građa za generalni katalog Državnog arhiva u Dubrovniku, box 17, folder 21. Josip Gelčić,»Catalogus i. r. Archivii Ragusini.« Glasnik Zemaljskog muzeja u Bosni i Hercegovini 22 (1910): 537-588.

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

State Archives in Dubrovnik

Existence and location of copies

The fonds has been completely transferred to microfilms, but the microfilms are not available to the users of archives.

Related units of description

Consilium Minus (HR-DADU-4)

Related descriptions

Publication note

Bogdan Krizman, »Mémoire Bara Bettere austrijskom generalu T. Milutinoviću o Dubrovačkoj Republici iz 1815. godine.« (Résumé: »Memoire« de Baro Bettera adresse au general autrichien T. Milutinović, sur la Republique de Raguse et datant de 1815) Anali Historijskog instituta JAZU u Dubrovniku 1 (1952): 423-464. Nella Lonza, »Svakodnevica Kneževa dvora u Dubrovniku u XVIII. stoljeću.« (summary: Everyday Life in the Palace of the Rector in the 18th Century Dubrovnik) Otium 2/1-2 (1994): 3-4.Vesna Miović, Nikša Selmani, »Turska kancelarija i Acta Turcarum od vremena Dubrovačke Republike do danas.« (Summary: Turkish Chancellery and Acta Turcarum from the period of the Dubrovnik Republic until the Present) Anali Zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku 45 (2007): 235-284. Relja Seferović, »Dubrovački knjižari 16. stoljeća u državnoj službi.« (Summary: The Librarii in Dubrovnik's Civil Service in the 16th Century) Arhivski vjesnik 51 (2008): 371-393. Rina Kralj-Brassard, »Detta presvijetlog i preuzvišenog gospodina kneza: troškovi Dvora u Dubrovniku od 16. do 19. stoljeća.« (Summary: Detta of the Illustrious and the Most Eminent Lord Rector: The Expenditure of the Rector's Palace in Dubrovnik from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century) Anali HAZU Zavoda za povijesne znanosti u Dubrovniku 52/1 (2014): 131-160.

Notes area

Alternative identifier(s)

Old reference code

Fonds of the Dubrovnik Republic and the territory of the former Republic under the French Administration, series 6

Access points

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Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

Rules and/or conventions used

Descriptions of fonds, series and sub-series are made according to the ISAD (G) standard (general international standard archival description).

Status

Level of detail

Dates of creation revision deletion

2021

Language(s)

  • English

Script(s)

Sources

Archivist's note

Description prepared by Vesna Miović (Fonds, Series, Subseries) Croatia [The Institute for Historical Sciences in Dubrovnik, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (CASA)] Translation to English by Zrinka Friganović Sain

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