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Proclamationes venditionum Cancellariae (Declaration of sales registered at the Chancellery)

There is no reference to Jewish people in the series.
The series contains declarations, or public announcements of the sale of real estate and personal property. These declarations were publicly shouted by the municipal crier, who would announce the names of the sellers, the subject of the sale and the price of the property sold.

Procurae Cancellariae; Procure de Cancellaria (Powers of attorney registered at the Chancellery)

  • HR-DADU-17
  • Fonds
  • 1470-1475, 1580-1815

The fonds contains books of various types of powers of attorney registered in the period from the 15th to the beginning of the 19th century, in which, in addition to citizens residing in the Dubrovnik Republic, citizens from other countries are also referenced either in a role of authorised proxies or principals. The topics of these documents are mainly related to the conduct of various types of business both in Dubrovnik and in other, foreign countries, mainly in the Ottoman Empire and in the countries of the Apennine Peninsula.


The fonds is very important for the reconstruction of the Jewish business network in the Mediterranean and the Balkans. There are many references to Jewish people in the fonds: some references relate to the Jews who lived in Dubrovnik at the time, while others relate to those from other countries. The data show that many of the powers of attorney that were registered at the Chancellery were written in various cities of the Ottoman Empire (Belgrade, Sarajevo) or Italy (Ancona, Venice). The main topics of these documents are the collection of debts, the conducting of business affairs, and the representation at in-court and out-of-court settlements of commercial disputes. To illustrate, the following is an example of a power of attorney signed by the principal and written in Hebrew letters. The document refers to a certain Jew by the name of Solomon Barelia from Belgrade who came to Dubrovnik in 1674 and, at the Chancellery, authorized Jakob Almoslino to collect debts for him in Dubrovnik, Ancona, Venice, and in other cities in Italy (vol. 59, ff. 194-195v). Principals would often give a so-called general power of attorney in which they would declare the people they authorised as their alter ego. It is important to point out that a significant number of Jewish women are also referenced to in this fonds, most often also in the function of principals or of those who gave a power of attorney to someone else. Judita Luzzena is one of the few women to appear as a proxy: her husband Samuel Luzzena declared her to be his alter ego in 1795 (vol. 82a, f. 173). References can be found in this fonds to some members of Dubrovnik Jewish families, such as Ambonetti, Campos, Cohen, Fermo, Levi Mandolfo, Luzzena, Maestro, Pappo, Pardo, Russo, Terni, Tolentino, Valenzin, Vitali; to some of their relatives who lived abroad; as well as to members of some other Jewish people from foreign countries, such as Barrafael, Bianchi, Della Tomba, Mucciaccio.

Chancellery of the Dubrovnik Republic

Sententiae Cancellariae (Judgments of the Chancellery)

  • HR-DADU-18
  • Fonds
  • 1352, 1376, 1388-1406, 1414-1811, 1814-1815

The fonds contains the judgments of the judicial councils Curia maior and Curia minor as well as those rendered by civil judges (consuls) in the period from the mid-14th century to the early 19th century. In fact, in the 13th and the 14th centuries, civil and criminal cases were handled by the judicial councils Curia maior and Curia minor (for disputes worth up to 5 perpers). The members of these councils would be elected from the Minor Council (Lat. iudices). The Rector held the central position in the judicial council until the 15th century. While the Civil Court was established in 1416, initially there were six judges who presided, but their number later increased. The fonds provides information relevant for the research of the professional lives and business affairs of Dubrovnik Jewish people as well as of their business relationships with their Christian fellow citizens. It also preserves data on some famous figures of Jewish history such as Isac Ergas (who acted as the representative of Gracia Mendes in Dubrovnik), Isaac's brother Samuel, and Jacob Coen de Herrera (the brother of Abraham Coen de Herrera) (e.g., vol. 184, f. 99). The data in the fonds mainly relate to Jews who were living in Dubrovnik at the time, and were members of Jewish 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 some extent, the fonds is also important for the reconstruction of the Jewish business network in the Balkans and the Mediterranean, since the names of Jewish merchants from Italian and Ottoman cities occasionally are referenced in the documents related to the affairs of the Civil Court.

Chancellery of the Dubrovnik Republic

Lamenta politica; Lamenti politici (Political disputes)

  • HR-DADU-19
  • Fonds
  • 1312-1313, 1417-1419, 1441, 1537-1544, 1547-1563, 1570

The fonds mainly contains data on court cases with topics that could be potentially sensitive or even dangerous for the stability of the Republic, and which were the responsibility of the Minor Council. Some of these cases thus reference to investigations led against local people who, together with Uskoci, plundered the neighbouring areas under the Ottoman rule, or to investigations against those who would spy for foreign countries. This fonds also contains documents that are not of a political nature, such as, e.g., wine smuggling, quarrels, insults, and physical confrontations.


There is very little reference to Jewish people in the fonds. Some references can be found in a lawsuit and a related investigation against a sea captain from the Republic who in 1547 attempted to kill some Jewish merchants on his ship (vol. 5, f. 13), and another reference found is in a reported conflict from 1550 between a Dubrovnik physician Isaac and other Dubrovnik physicians (vol. 5, f. 164).

Josip Gelčić (1849-1925)

Lamenta de criminali sive Libri maleficiorum (Books of criminal complaints)

There is no reference to Jewish people in the series.
The series consists of registers of criminal cases from the mid-14th century to the mid-15th century, kept by the Curia Maior and Curia Minor (the Criminal Court was established in 1459). The oldest criminal cases are recorded in individual documents, while registers for criminal cases (Libri maleficiorum or Libri de maleficiis) had begun to be kept even before 1279. The data show that criminal proceedings were entered in the series Lamenta de criminali sive Libri maleficiorum for crimes committed in the entire area of the Dubrovnik commune.

Lamenta de criminali (Criminal complaints)

The series contains registers of criminal cases recorded during the period of five years in the 15th and 16th centuries. Criminal cases mainly relate to physical violence, murder, verbal violence, and property crimes. Each case consists of a lawsuit filed by a private person or by the state (ex officio). Witnesses are listed in the case and, if necessary, their written testimonies are also added. It is a characteristic of the Dubrovnik Criminal Court that it rarely rendered judgements, most likely because most disputes were settled in conciliation of the warring parties. The mark "fatta" entered on the margins of the documents indicates that a judgment was pronounced. Some judgements (legal decisions) were written at the end of the case, and, in most cases, judgements were registered in special books kept in the fonds Criminalia (HR-DADU-23).


The series Lamenta de criminali is a first-rank source for the research of everyday life of the Dubrovnik Jewish community in the broadest sense of the word. Also, the archival material provides an opportunity to analyse the relations of Dubrovnik Jews with both: their fellow citizens and the authorities of the Republic. The series does not contain a lot of documents, and there are approximately twenty references to Jewish people. The most notable Jews referenced in the series are Isaac Ergas, the representative of Gracia Mendes, who, according to the records, was very prone to conflict, and Isaac, the son of a surgeon Abraham. The data show that Isaac, the son of Abraham, sued Isaac Ergas in 1575 for repeatedly insulting him, having stated Didacus Pyrrhus as a witness (vol. 4, f. 32). According to the records, conflicts over the performance of religious rites, especially in the 16th century, were one of the characteristics of Dubrovnik's Jewish community. In this sense, there is a very interesting record dating to 1575, which describes in Latin a conflict over the manner of ritual slaughter of chickens: Graciadio hebreo di Ghetto fa querella contra et ad. Salamon hebreo di Ghetto dicendo, che hoggi havingndo in la mano un polastro, et volendo quello amazarlo, all'usanza di hebrei, dissi a esso Salamon che lo dovesse tenir cosci, et lui di subito mi dette molti pugni, poi mi prendi per la testa, con quella dette nel muro, rupendomele in la orechia sinistra, effusione di sangue, mostrando il capo tutto insanguinato ...; Testes: Hebrew venture; Iacob hebreo (vol. 4, f. 141).

Lamenta de criminali post terraemotum (Criminal charges after the earthquake in 1667)

The series contains registers of criminal cases recorded during the period of five years of the 15th and 16th centuries. Criminal cases mainly relate to physical violence, murder, verbal violence, and property crimes. Each case consists of a lawsuit filed by a private person or by the state (ex officio). Witnesses are listed in the case and, if necessary, their written testimonies are also added. It is a characteristic of the Dubrovnik Criminal Court that it rarely pronounced verdicts, most likely because most disputes were settled in conciliation of the warring parties. The mark "fatta" entered on the margins of the documents indicates that a judgment was pronounced. Some verdicts were written at the end of the case, and in most cases the verdicts were registered in special books kept in the fonds Criminalia (HR-DADU-23).


The series Lamenta de criminali post terraemotum is a first-rank source for researching everyday life of the Dubrovnik Jewish community in the broadest sense of the word. The archival material also provides an opportunity to analyse the relations of Dubrovnik Jews with both: their fellow citizens and the authorities of the Republic. In total, there are about 600 cases in which Jewish people are referenced to in the role of prosecutors, defendants, or witnesses, which is about 2% of the total number of cases recorded in this series. The members of eleven large Dubrovnik Jewish families dominate (Ambonetti, Campos, Fermo, Levi Mandolfo, Luzzena, Maestro, Pardo, Russo, Terni, Valenzin, Vitali). A catalogue of litigations belonging to this series related to Jews (1667-1805) was compiled in 2016. Disputes are presented in a precisely defined form with the following information: date of the lawsuit, name of the plaintiff, name of the defendant, type of crime, place and date of the crime, verdict, and archival signature.

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