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Naula et securitas Cancellariae; Noli e sicurtà de Cancellaria (Maritime transportation insurance registered at the Chancellery)

The series contains records of maritime transportation insurance of merchandise that mainly arrived from the area of the Ottoman Empire and was transported to Italian ports, mostly Ancona and Venice. The records contain the following data: name of the sales representative, name of the merchant, i.e., the owner of the merchandise, sometimes even the name of the city where the merchant lived, details of the merchandise (type and quantity), place of loading, name of ship, name of captain, place of unloading, name of insurer and price insurance. The records of the series date from the period from the 60s to the 30s of the 17th centuries.


Between 1564 and 1646 an approximate number of 4,000 maritime insurance contracts were registered which show references to Jewish population. Most of these records are part of the series Naula et securitas Notariae (HR-DADU-54.2). A very small part of these records, approximately a dozen of them, were recorded in this series which consists of only 6 volumes. Jews appear in this series in the role of both: merchants and trade representatives. Jewish names belong to certain members of Ragusan Jewish families such as Benaso, Bono, Ergas, Feri, Levi, Saba, Sabadul, Trigo, who were residents of different towns Dubrovnik, Leš, Sarajevo, Skopje. Related to the type of merchandise that was shipped to Ancona via Dubrovnik, it mostly consisted of wool, wax, and various types of leather.

Montes; Monti (Books of business transactions with monetary institutions)

  • HR-DADU-41
  • Fonds
  • 1575-1577, 1583-1588, 1601, 1621, 1700-1724, 1789-1790

There are no references to Jewish people in this fonds.
The books of this fonds contain data on money investments in foreign banks and on interest income gained from these investments. The data mainly refer to banks (monti) in Italian cities such as Rome, Naples, Venice, Genoa, Palermo, Messina, and, since the 18th century, also to the banks in Vienna.

Treasurers of the Cathedral

Mobilia (Testimonies in civil disputes concerning movable property)

  • HR-DADU-26
  • Fonds
  • 1471, 1475-1476, 1478-1479, 1482-1483, 1486, 1488-1490, 1492, 1495-1497, 1502, 1504-1507, 1509-1519, 1523, 1529, 1549, 1573-1575, 1577-1578, 1580-1581, 1585, 1587-1589, 1591, 1594, 1599, 1601-1815

Lawsuits in the civil court and the first testimonies of plaintiffs, defendants and witnesses were registered in the books of the fonds Intentiones Cancellariae (HR-DADU-22). If it was deemed necessary, the Civil Court would continue with the court proceedings by hearing prosecutors, defendants, and witnesses. If these were movable property proceedings, the hearings would be then recorded in the volumes of this fonds, which covers the period from the 70s of the 15th centuries to the beginning of the 19th century. The books in the fonds are divided in two parts: Mobilia ordinaria and Mobilia extraordinaria. If the proceedings were terminated by reaching a verdict, the information about the verdict was recorded on the margins. Using this system, it is easy to find a specific court judgement in the fonds of judgments of the Civil Court (Sententiae Cancellariae; HR-DADU-18).


The fonds is important for the research of the business life of Dubrovnik Jews and the types of their business cooperation with their Christian fellow citizens. The fonds contains data on some famous people in Jewish history, such as Isac Ergas (the business representative of Gracia Mendes in Dubrovnik), Isaac's brother Samuel, and Jacob Coen de Herrera (the brother of Abraham Coen de Herrera). The data of the fonds mainly relate to Jews who were living in Dubrovnik, and belonged to families such as Abeatar, Abenun, Abuaff, Almoslino, Altarac, Ambonetti, Arari, Azubi, Bensahen, Campos, Cittanova, Coen, Costantini, Danon, Esperiel, Fermo, Franco, Gaon, Israel, Lanciano, Levi, Levi Mandolfo, Luzzena, Maestro, Miranda, Oef (Ohev), Pappo, Pardo, Penso, Piade, Ribero, Russo, Salama, Saralvo, Sarfatin, Terni, Tobi, Tolentino, Valenzin, Vitali. To a certain extent, this fonds can also be seen as relevant for the historical reconstruction of Jewish business and trading network in the Balkans and the Mediterranean, since the names of Jewish merchants from Italian and Ottoman cities, such as the Penso family from Venice and Adagno and Baruch from Belgrade, occasionally are referenced to in the Civil Court proceedings and documents (i.e., vol. 54, f. 5v).

Chancellery and the Judicial Office of the Dubrovnik Republic

Misericordia (The foundling home of the Dubrovnik Republic)

  • HR-DADU-51
  • Fonds
  • 16th century – 19th century

The fonds contains accounting records of the expenses of the orphanage such as the payment of fees to breastfeeding mothers and other employees as well as the expenditures for the purchase of clothing for orphans, the baptismal records of orphans, books of agreements on breastfeeding and foster care, books containing lists of names of children living in the institution, books with records of the arrival of pregnant women at the institution (without mentioning the names of these women). These books date from the late 16th to the early 19th centuries.


The fonds contains very little data on Jews that can be used for the analysis of their work in the public and state services of the Republic. Namely, there are references to Jewish bookbinders who in the 18th century made books for the needs of this institution. The bookbinders were members of some Ragusan Jewish families such as Coen, Fermi, and Vitali (e.g., vol. 14, f. 1).

Foundling home of the Dubrovnik Republic

Miscellanea, Massa Negrini (Various documents from the legacy of Rajmund Negrini)

  • HR-DADU-61
  • Fonds
  • 14th century -19th century

The fonds is divided by centuries and covers the period from the 14th to the 19th century. It contains fragments of various books of the Chancellery and the Public Notary, wills and testaments, private letters, letters sent to the authorities of the Dubrovnik Republic from Italian and Ottoman cities, as well as some letters sent from other various parts of the territory of the Republic. Some of these documents were health certificates, petitions to the Minor Council, Criminal Court records, bills of exchange, various receipts of payments and bills.


The State Archives in Dubrovnik have preserved only a few wills and testaments related to Jews so that these documents are of great value and importance for any research related to the life of Jewish population in Dubrovnik during the Dubrovnik Republic. One of those rare documents can be found in this fonds (17th century, vol. 16, no. 8). Jewish people are also referenced in some documents related to court investigations. The fonds also shows records of several letters from the 16th century, that some Jews from Ancona wrote to a Ragusan nobleman, from the Giorgi family (e.g., 16th century, vol. 3, no. 171).

Rajmund Negrini

Minutae litterarum veterum; Minute di lettere per Levante (vecchie) (Rough drafts of precedent state letters addressed to the Eastern countries)

The series contains the drafts of letters and instructions of the authorities of the Republic to Dubrovnik emissaries, tribute ambassadors, consuls, administrators of Dubrovnik consulates, chargé d'affaires, or merchants in the cities of the Ottoman Empire. The preserved registers date from the middle of the 17th century to the 60s of the 18th century.


The series contains a small number of letters addressed to some Jewish people from Sarajevo, such as Abram Meramet, Abram Levi, and others (e.g., vol. 1, no. 25).

Minutae litterarum Ponentis; Minute di lettere di Ponente (Drafts of state letters to the Western countries)

There is no mention of Jews in the series.
The series contains drafts of letters from the authorities of the Republic to foreign rulers and other politicians, as well as drafts of letters and instructions to Dubrovnik ambassadors, consuls, administrators of consulates of the Republic, charge d’affairs, and merchants in the countries and cities of Western Europe. These cities are mostly cities of the Apennine Peninsula, some Dalmatian cities under Venetian rule, as well as some local territories of the Dubrovnik Republic. The documents of the series date from the 60s of the 17th century to the mid-18th century.

Memoriae (cronicae, diarii, manuscripta diversa, curiosa) (Memoria: chronicles, diaries, various documents)

  • HR-DADU-62
  • Fonds
  • 16th century - 19th century

The fonds is very important for the research of the history of Jews in the times of the Dubrovnik Republic since it contains two volumes related to Didacus Pyrrhus. Volume no. 42 contains a transcript of Didacus's poem De Rhacusinae urbid laudibus Carmen from a book which had been printed in Florence in 1613. Volume no. 95 contains a transcript of a short debate on the life and work of Didacus Pyrrhus, entitled Della vita e degli scritti di Didaco Pirro, altrimenti detto Jacopo Flavio Eborense. The text was written by Tomo Krša, a Dubrovnik writer and translator (1782-1826) and it was published in 1826 in Florence in _Giornale arcadio di scienze, lettere ed arti (_vol. 32, 1826). This fonds also contained a volume entitled De Didacho Pirro, Appunti which has been long lost.

Josip Gelčić (1849-1925)

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