Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1667-1811 (Creation)
Level of description
Series
Extent and medium
222 volumes; textual records
Context area
Name of creator
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
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.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Vesna Miović, Ivan Čerešnješ, Research, inventory and cataloguing documents of the criminal court registers Lamenta Criminalia post terraemotum, Diversi e possesso de Criminale and Criminalia in the State Archives of Dubrovnik involving Jewish litigants (1667-1808), Ljubljana: Research and Documentation Center JAS, 2016; e-book available at: https://dubrovnik.jas-center.eu/. Građa za generalni katalog Državnog arhiva u Dubrovniku, box 17, folder 10.
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
Publication note
Konstantin Vojnović, »Sudbeni ustroj republike dubrovačke.« Rad JAZU 108 (1892): 99-181. Miroslav Pantić, »Izbor dokumenata o dubrovačkim jevrejima od sredine XVII do kraja XVIII veka.« Zbornik Jevrejskog istorijskog muzeja 1 (1971): 341-402.Nella Lonza, »Criminal Justice Perspective on Social Groups: The Eighteenth-Century Case.« Dubrovnik Annals 4 (2000): 81-101. Nella Lonza, »"Two Souls Lost": Infanticide in the Republic of Dubrovnik.« Dubrovnik Annals 6 (2002): 67-107. Nella Lonza, Pod plaštem pravde, Kaznenopravni sustav Dubrovačke Republike u XVIII. stoljeću (summary: Criminal Justice in the Eighteenth-Century Republic of Dubrovnik), Dubrovnik: Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku, 1997. Nella Lonza, »Criminal Justice Perspective on Social Groups: The Eighteenth-Century Dubrovnik Case.« Dubrovnik Annals 4 (2000): 81-101. Vesna Miović, The Jewish Ghetto in the Dubrovnik Republic (1546-1808). Dubrovnik-Zagreb: HAZU Zavod za povijesne znanosti, 2005.Ivana Mrđen, Ana Prohaska, Nenad Vekarić, »The Rhythm of Crime: Annual and Monthly Distribution of Criminal Offences in the Dubrovnik Republic in the Eighteenth Century.« Dubrovnik Annals 17 (2013): 69-113. Goran Cvjetinović, Nella Lonza. »Protutužbe u dubrovačkim kaznenim postupcima 18. stoljeća.« (summary: »The Countersuits in the Penal Practice of Eighteenth-Century Dubrovnik.«) Anali HAZU Zavoda za povijesne znanosti u Dubrovniku 52/1 (2014): 235-254. Goran Cvjetinović, Ruža Radoš, Nella Lonza. »Tempo suđenja i trajanje dubrovačkih kaznenih postupaka u 18. stoljeću.« (summary: »The Tempo of the Court Activity and Duration of Criminal Proceedings in Eighteenth-Century Dubrovnik.«) Anali HAZU Zavoda za povijesne znanosti u Dubrovniku 52/1 (2014): 317-358. Hrvoje Baričević, Ruža Radoš, Nella Lonza. »Kazneni postupci pokrenuti po službenoj dužnosti u dubrovačkoj praksi 18. stoljeća.« (summary: »The Criminal Proceedings Initiated Ex Officio in Ragusan Court Practice of the Eighteenth Century.«) Anali HAZU Zavoda za povijesne znanosti u Dubrovniku 53/1 (2015): 195-239.Darija Stanić, Ivana Mrđen, Rina Kralj-Brassard. »Nasilje prema djeci i maloljetnički kriminal u Dubrovniku u 18. stoljeću.« (summary: »Violence Against Children and Juvenile Crime in Eighteenth Century Dubrovnik.«) Anali HAZU Zavoda za povijesne znanosti u Dubrovniku 53/1 (2015): 241-264. 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.
Notes area
Note
Most registers contain subject indexes according to the prosecutor's personal name, with an indication of the number of the page on which the case begins.
Alternative identifier(s)
Old reference code
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
2021
Language(s)
- English