Print preview Close

Showing 114 results

Archival description
Series
Print preview View:

Apolitiae (Monetary transfers)

The series consists of books that comprise the period from the middle of the 16th century to the beginning of the 19th century, and is entitled Polizze Ordinarie, while Polizze Extraordinarie are also recorded a tergo. The content of the series primarily deals with the registration of various monetary transfers, i.e., payment of salaries, advances of salaries, and seemingly, also loans to all state employees of the Dubrovnik Republic, to church officials and to certain institutions such as the hospital Domus Christi and monasteries. All series of the fonds Apolitiae have not beenresearched at all so far, and thus their content is difficult to connect to other fonds and at this moment it is only possible to connect the content of this series with the series Strapazzo delle Polizze (HR-DADU-45.2). Each entry in this series contains a certain number, and a more detailed description of a specific monetary transfer can be found under this number in the series Strapazzo delle Polizze.


The reimbursement of a four-months' salary to a state surgeon Abraham in 1589 is probably the only reference to Jewish people in this series (vol. 6, f. 118).

Giumruch (Advance fees paid by the Dubrovnik Republic to the Ottomans)

There are no references to Jewish people in the series.
Starting in 1521, the Dubrovnik Republic paid customs duties at a flat rate (i.e. in advance) to the Ottomans on behalf of Dubrovnik merchants who traded in the European part of the Ottoman Empire. This customs duty was called giumruch (Turkish: gümrük) and amounted to 100,000 akches (aspers) per year. Special customs officers, so-called giumruchi, would travel around the trading settlements and colonies to collect this duty giumruch. The series consists of books that were kept based on the reports done by these officials and each book contains lists of merchants and the amounts of customs duties these merchants paid, or were obliged to pay, in several ten-year periods of the 16th and the 17th centuries.

Dohana (Customs duties and taxes)

The series consists of various books that can be divided into following groups according to the content of registers: registers of customs duties on merchandise (including name of the trader and the amount of customs; avere and dare), registers of collection of fees for the use of warehouses on the premises of the Customs House (name of the trader and the amount of fee per month; avere and dare), registers of debtors to the Customs House (name of the trader and the amount of the debt; avere and dare), registers of taxes on meat (gabella di carne); registers for the collection of duties and fees to owners of pubs, registers of goods disembarked from ships (including data on the port from which the ship sailed, the list of goods, the amount of customs duty), registers of customs duties on money deposits in Italian banks, registers of trade of goods stored in the warehouses of the Customs House, registers of collection of fees for selling ship shares, books of investigations kept by customs officers and judgements that were reached, books of expenditures of the Customs House, and various indexes made according to the first name of the person involved in the case (with a reference to the page number, but without information on the book these indexes refer to). Most registers contain documents on collection of customs, lists with names of debtors to the Customs House and documents providing data on collection of fees for the usage of customs warehouses. The first volume of this series is the Customs Statute of the Dubrovnik Republic from 1277.


The series is very important for researching trade affairs of Jews and for reconstructing their business network in the Balkans and on the Mediterranean Sea. References to Jewish merchants can be found in most of the above-mentioned registers of the series. The data provided in the registers of the series are very diverse: identifying the type of goods, ports, and cities from which the goods were delivered, amounts of customs duties, and amounts of collected fees for the use of warehouses, as well as the names of traders. There are many references to Jewish traders, especially in the documents that date from the 60s of the 16th centuries, and among various Jewish families referenced to in this period there are families such as Abeatar, Abensaxen, Abenun, Abuaff, Amariglo, Baruch, Cabiglio, Catinella, Cidi, Cussi, Coen, Danon, Del Rei, Dios, Ergas, Esperiel, Finzi, Lindo, Maestro, Miranda, Membre, Moscato, Oef (Ohev), Pappo, Pardo, Rodriga, Samaria, Sasso, Zacharia. Notable Jews from that period also referenced to in the series are Daniel Rodriga, Didacus Pyrrhus (Isaiah Coen) (e.g., vol. 10, ff. 108v, 109), Isac Ergas (the legal representative of Gracia Mendes) and his brother Samuel. An important fact that needs to be pointed out regarding this fonds is that some members of the Jewish community in Dubrovnik are identified in these documents as leaseholders of the warehouses belonging to the Customs House since the end of the 16th century. The community paid an annual rent in the amount of 750-770 perpers for these premises (e.g., vol. 21, f. 34). The data revealed in another study on Jewish families living in that period (1546-1940) also confirm that some Jewish families cease to be referenced, and names of other Jewish families begin to be referenced in the 17th century. The data of this series from the 17th century thus show references to Jewish family surnames (last names) such as Abeatar, Abenun, Abudente, Baruch, Coen, Consolo, Danon (Bendanon), Esperiel, Lanciano, Luzzena, Oef, Macchioro, Maestro, Miranda, Pappo, Penso, Ribera, Sages, Saralvo, Senior, Zevi. Very notable Jewish merchants among the above mentioned were Aaron, David, Elazar and Raphael Coen, and Jacob and Tsadik Danon. The name of a Jewish merchant Isaac Jeshurun (vol. 22, f. 81v) particularly stands out: he was a merchant who was accused in 1622 of committing a ritual murder of a girl from Dubrovnik. The records show that the books of this series from the 18th century provide multiple data on different members of some other Jewish families such as Ambonetti, Baraffael, Campos, Costantini, Fermi, Janni, Levi, Levi Mandolfo, Luzzena, Maestro, Nahas, Pardo, Penso, Russo, Valenzin, Vitali.

Liber dominorum syndicum (Books of syndics)

There are no references to Jewish people in the series.
The service of syndics, state officials for the supervision of offices that provided services for locals, was introduced in the 15th century. These officials would visit the area of Dubrovnik every spring to handle complaints from the population and investigate ex officio any issue they would consider relevant and necessary to solve. Upon their return, they were required to compile a report and submit this report to the Senate. The volumes of this series contain records made by syndics beginning in 1545.

Repizo (Books of construction work and repairs)

There are no references to Jewish people in the series.
The service of syndics, state officials for the supervision of offices that provided services for locals, was introduced in the 15th century. These officials would visit the area of Dubrovnik every spring to handle complaints from the population and investigate ex officio any issue they would consider relevant and necessary to solve. Upon their return, they were required to compile a report and submit this report to the Senate. The volumes of this series contain records made by syndics beginning in 1545.

Diversa thesaurariorum (Various documents issued by treasurers)

The series contains registers of state revenues and expenditures from the 17th to the beginning of the 19th century.


The only reference to Jewish people in this series is the reference to extraordinary taxes that had to be paid by Jews, sea captains and Orthodox community of the Republic in the 60s and the 80s of the 18th centuries for the costs of protection against the plague (e.g., vol. 5, f. 12v).

Dona Turcarum (Presents given by the Ottomans)

There is no reference to Jewish people in this series.
The series contains registers with entries of presents, most often in live stock such as cattle, which the authorities of the Republic had received from Ottoman dignitaries, mostly from Dubrovnik hinterland. The data shows that donors received monetary compensation from the Dubrovnik authorities in accordance with the value of the gift.

Registrum citationum de foris (The register of summons to a court hearing or to a court discussion sent to addresses outside of the Dubrovnik Republic)

The series contains invitations from consuls (civil law judges) which, at the request of the plaintiff, were addressed to persons (defendants) outside the Dubrovnik Republic. These persons were asked to come to Dubrovnik for a court hearing or a court discussion within a certain period, usually 2 or 3 months. The registers of this series date the 30s of the 15th centuries, and from the period from the beginning of the 17th century till the beginning of the 19th century.


The series contains a small number of records concerning Jews, and the data in the series are relevant for the analysis of the Jewish business network in the Balkans and in the Mediterranean. Some members of Dubrovnik Jewish families are referenced to in the series, as well as some members of Jewish families living in Italian (Ancona) and Ottoman cities (Sofia, Sarajevo). The records show references to the following families: Abeatar, Azubi, Barnathan, Benvenisti, Campos, Coen, Maestro, Oef, Pappo, Pardo, Usiel. For example, in April 1652, at the request of David Maestro, who was Solomon Oef's attorney, the consuls invited Achiva Barnathan from Sofia to come to Dubrovnik within two months' time or to send his representative. He was charged with a debt to the deceased Abraham Oef (vol. 4, ff. 56v, 57).

Diversa de foris (Various agreements settled outside the city walls of Dubrovnik)

The registers of the Diversa de Foris began to be kept in 1593 with the intention of registering the documents created outside Dubrovnik, which were of concern to the citizens of Dubrovnik in any way. There are also entries that should be filed in different fonds, the Diversa Notariae (HR-DADU-9) or Diversa Cancellariae (HR-DADU-15). Therefore, it can be concluded that the registers from this series and from the afore mentioned two fonds contain data on public-law and private-law affairs. The documents filed in these registers provide information on all aspects of political, economic and cultural, public and private life in Dubrovnik.


The series is very important for the research of the history of the Jewish people. It provides relevant data on business and private connections of Dubrovnik Jewish people with other countries in Europe, mostly in the Southeast, then with North Africa and the Middle East, in the period from the end of the 16th century to the beginning of the 19th century. Among the first entries in this fonds is a ketubah registered in 1593, which was translated into Italian by Didacus Pyrrhus (vol. 1, ff. 71-75). According to the data, Jews who wished to register ketubahs in the books of the Public Notary or at the Chancellery would first have those translated into Italian. Almost all translated ketubahs were registered in this series, and they were written in Dubrovnik, Split, Ancona, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Thessaloniki and Sofia. This series also shows record of the will of Mira Alfandrino from 1614 (vol. 30, ff. 55v-62) as well as the record of the only existing translation of a divorce document (gett)) from 1692, between Bianca and Gabriel Valenzin (vol. 125, ff. 39v, 40). In addition to documents of private and legal matters, many business contracts were also registered, whether signed in Dubrovnik or outside of the Dubrovnik Republic. These include, for example, contracts by Dubrovnik shochets contracts on the division of labour, or trade contracts concluded between Jewish merchants and Dubrovnik sea captains. Some of the documents worth mentioning provide evidence to a very lively participation of Jewish people in the maritime affairs of the Dubrovnik Republic, primarily through co-ownership of ships belonging to the fleet of the Republic and through the granting of various maritime loans. As for important people from the history of the Sephardim, names that especially stand out are Abraham Coen de Herrera and the descendants of the famous Dubrovnik rabbi Aron Coen. A very important document from Antwerp from 1612, which was registered in Dubrovnik a year later, at the request of Abraham Coen de Herrera, states that his Christian name was Allonso Nuñes de Herrera (vol. 26, ff. 198-200). The series also references to other members of the Coen de Herrera family, as well as a very large number of other Jews from Dubrovnik, the Apennine Peninsula and the Ottoman Empire.

Results 71 to 80 of 114