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Title
Date(s)
- 18th century (Creation)
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Subseries
Extent and medium
200 boxes; textual records
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Scope and content
The subseries contain correspondence between the Dubrovnik authorities and the authorities of Spain, Portugal, Austria, Russia, the Ottoman Empire, and the states of the Apennine Peninsula during the 18th century. It also contains correspondence between the Dubrovnik authorities and Dubrovnik consuls, confidants, business, and diplomatic representatives in the cities of the afore mentioned areas, as well as the correspondence between Dubrovnik authorities and local authorities in the territory of the Dubrovnik Republic, and the correspondence between the authorities and the French consuls and Austrian residents in Dubrovnik. Most letters sent by the Dubrovnik authorities to the mentioned addressees are also in the series Litterae et Commissiones Levantis (HR-DADU-8.1) and Litterae et Commissiones Ponentis (HR-DADU-8.2). The subseries also contains a collection of court investigations, as well as some very interesting testimonies and denunciations made to the Minor Council.
The subseries is considered to be very important for researching the attitude of Dubrovnik state, church, and judiciary authorities towards Jewish people. It also provides information on various forms of cooperation between Dubrovnik and foreign Jews with the Dubrovnik Republic. The subseries contains some letters from Abram Bussara, the administrator of the Dubrovnik consulate in Algeria (vol. 3191, vol. 3194 / I, vol. 3194 / II). References to Bussara could also be found in other letters from Algeria (which are mainly to be found in volume 3194 / II). There are several documents in which Jews are referenced to by church authorities, for example in the letters written by the Archbishop of Dubrovnik to the Dubrovnik Jewish Community, in his discussions on Jewish converts, as well as in an extensive study written by Dubrovnik theologians on the Talmud and other religious Jewish books (vol. 1, vol. 2909 / I, vol. 3060 / III). The subseries also contains some letters that Jews living mainly in Bosnia, Serbia and Albania wrote to their relatives, friends, and business partners in Dubrovnik. In these letters there are references to the military and political situation in the areas where they lived. This information was considered as very valuable and was forwarded by the Jews of Dubrovnik to the Minor Council. In this way, private Jewish letters ended up being stored in the Rector's Palace and, consequently, in the Dubrovnik archives (e.g., vol. 3176, no. 148). These denunciations also include reports of some Dubrovnik Christians against Jewish people, as well as a small number of various reports filed by some Dubrovnik Jews. In the volume Proofs and Testimonies before the Minor Council, there are references primarily about problems concerning trade, as well as the payment of rent for the ghetto (vol. 3177). The subseries also includes letters submitted by Dubrovnik Jews to the Minor Council. The topics of these letters are diverse: from the constructions in the ghetto to the advice on coinage (e.g., vol. 3187 / II, no. 57). The requests the Jews made to the Minor Council also concern other various topics: from requests for release from prison to requests made by the Jewish community to reduce the taxations imposed at the time of the plague epidemic (e.g., vol. 3358-3360). The subseries also contains several name-lists of Dubrovnik Jews and ghetto inhabitants (vol. 3190 / I, vol. 3192), as well as a list of items found in an apartment of a certain Vito Vitali in 1786. Some correspondence between Jews and the inhabitants of Dubrovnik has also been preserved, and, among those documents, there is a letter in Hebrew (vol. 3278, no. 162). References to Jewish people can also be found in documents on political and criminal investigations, such as: charges of stealing chalices from the church on Lastovo, insults of the archbishop, inappropriate relations with a Christian woman on the island of Lopud, offensive remarks made about the Christian faith, smuggling of playing cards, and espionage (vol. 3397- 3401). Most Jewish people referenced to in this subseries are members of Dubrovnik Jewish families such as Ambonetti, Coen, Forte, Janni, Levi Mandolfo, Luzzena, Maestro, Pardo, Terni, Tolentino, Vitali. Other references to Jews are expected to be found in the correspondence of the authorities of the Republic with the Holy See and consular and diplomatic representatives in Rome and Istanbul.
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Finding aids
Građa za generalni katalog Državnog arhiva u Dubrovniku, box 8, folder 1. Luka Ćurlica, Protocollo generale dell antico archivio di Ragusa, 1851, vol. 4.
Allied materials area
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Jovan Radonić, Acta et Diplomata Ragusina, IV.2, Beograd: SKA, 1942. Ilija Mitić, »Dubrovački konzularni predstavnici u Sjevernoj Africi.« Naše more 1 (1962): 29-30. Miroslav Pantić, »Izbor dokumenata o dubrovačkim jevrejima od sredine XVII do kraja XVIII veka.« Zbornik Jevrejskog istorijskog muzeja 1 (1971): 341-402. Ilija Mitić, Konzulati i konzularna služba starog Dubrovnika (summary: The Consuls and the Consular Service of Old Dubrovnik), Dubrovnik: Historijski institut JAZU u Dubrovniku, 1973. Lucio Lume, L’archivio storico di Dubrovnik con repertorio di documenti sulle relazioni della repubblica di Ragusa con le città marchigiane, Roma: Archivio di Stato, 1977. Miljenko Foretić, »The Ragusan (Dubrovnik) Republic and the Spanish War of Succession (1701-1714).« Dubrovnik Annals 2 (1998): 29-54. Vesna Miović, Dubrovačka diplomacija u Istambulu (summary: Diplomatic Activities of the Republic of Dubrovnik in Istanbul), Zagreb - Dubrovnik: Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku, 2003. Relja Seferović, »Dubrovački teolozi o židovskoj zajednici u prvoj polovici 18. stoljeća.« (summary: Theologians of Dubrovnik on the Jewish Community in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century) Anali Zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku 44 (2006): 139-188. Relja Seferović, »Dubia et Consulta: mišljenja državnih teologa Dubrovačke Republike u 17. i 18. stoljeću.« (summary: Dubia et Consulta: Opinions of the State Theologians of the Dubrovnik Republic in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century) Anali Zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku 48 (2010): 243-300. Lovro Kunčević, »Janus-faced Sovereignity: The International Status of the Ragusan Republic in the Early Modern Period.«, in: The European Tributary States of the Ottoman Empire in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, ed. Gábor Kármán and Lovro Kunčević. Leiden - Boston: Brill, 2013: 91-121. Vesna Miović, »Diplomatic Relations between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Dubrovnik.«, in: The European Tributary States of the Ottoman Empire in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, ed. Gábor Kármán and Lovro Kunčević. Leiden - Boston: Brill, 2013: 187-208. Vesna Miović, Židovski rodovi u Dubrovniku (1546-1940) (summary: Jewish Families of Dubrovnik (Ragusa), 1546-1940), Zagreb-Dubrovnik: Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku 2017.
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Dates of creation revision deletion
2021
Language(s)
- English