Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 16th century – 19th century (Creation)
Level of description
Fonds
Extent and medium
37 volumes; 1.6 linear metres; textual records
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Archival history
The Foundling Home of the Dubrovnik Republic, the so-called Hospital of Mercy (Hospitale Misericordia), was an orphanage founded in 1432. It should be emphasized that according to the data social care of abandoned children had existed even before: the first shelter for abandoned children was in the monastery of Poor Clares, which was founded in 1290. The Foundling Home of the Dubrovnik Republic was managed by three senators (officiali del hospital della misericordia). Their main duty was to control costs and ensure provision of quality care. An accounting of the payments of all expenses related to the home had to be made to the state treasurers. The administrators elected the head of the Foundling Home, the abbess (abadessa) who took care of the clothing, nutrition, and health needs of the orphans in the home as well as those orphans that were entrusted to breastfeeding mothers and foster families. Breastfeeding mothers, maids, and barbers were employed full-time in the foundling home and priests, soldiers, midwives, and gravediggers were also employed part-time, to satisfy the needs of this institution.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
The fonds has been linked to the archive since its inception. In 1945, the archival material of the fonds was handed over to the State Archives in Dubrovnik.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
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).
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
The fonds is fully accessible to researchers in accordance with the Ordinance on the work in the reading room of the State Archives in Dubrovnik and the Law on Archival Materials and Archives NN 61/18 (Pravilnik o radu u čitaonici Državnog arhiva u Dubrovniku and Zakon o arhivskom gradivu i arhivima NN 61/18).
Conditions governing reproduction
Taking photographs and scanning are allowed, for a fee.
Language of material
- Italian
- Latin
Script of material
- Latin
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Paper. The archival material is well preserved.
Finding aids
Građa za generalni katalog Državnog arhiva u Dubrovniku, box 18, folder 7.
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, »Državni rizničari Republike Dubrovačke.« Rad JAZU 127 (1896): 1-101. Vicko Lisičar, »Petstota obljetnica osnutka dubrovačkog nahodišta.« Narodna svijest 9 (1932): 2. Baldo Marinović, »Jedna važna ustanova starog Dubrovnika.« Dubrovački liječnik 19/1 (1933): 23-28. Risto Jeremić, Tadić, Prilozi za istoriju zdravstvene kulture starog Dubrovnika, I-III, Beograd: Centralni higijenski zavod, 1938-1940. Bogdan Krizman, »Memoire Bara Bettere austrijskom generalu T. Milutinoviću o dubrovačkoj republici iz 1815. godine.« (résumé: Memoire de Baro Bettera adressé au general austrichien T. Milutinović, sur la Republique de Raguse et datant de 1815) Anali Historijskog instituta u Dubrovniku 1 (1952): 423-464. Vladimir Bazala, Pregled povijesti zdravstvene kulture Dubrovačke Republike, Zagreb: Dubrovački horizonti, 1972. Petar Kačić, Zdravko Šundrica, »Zdravstvena služba u Dubrovniku po izvještaju apostolskog delegata Giovani Francesco Sormani-a iz 1574. godine.« Acta Historica Medicinae Pharmaciae Veterinae 12/2 (1973): 51-62. Ivan Mustać, »Briga za djecu u starom Dubrovniku: dubrovačko nahodište.« Dubrovački horizonti 25 (1985): 53-58. Zdenka Janeković-Römer, »Nasilje zakona: Gradska vlast i privatni život u kasnosrednjovjekovnom i ranonovovjekovnom Dubrovniku.« (summary: The Violence of Law: City Government and Privacy in Late-Medieval and Early-Modern Dubrovnik) Anali Zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku 41 (2003): 9-44. Filip de Diversis, Opis slavnoga grada Dubrovnika, ed. Zdenka Janeković-Römer, Zagreb: Dom i svijet, 2004. Zdenka Janeković-Römer, »O napuštanju, udomljavanju i posvajanju djece u Dubrovniku i Dalmaciji.«, in: Filii, filiae...: položaj i uloga djece na jadranskom prostoru, ed. Marija Mogorović Crljenko. Poreč: Državni arhiv u Pazinu, Sveučilište Jurja Dobrile u Puli – Odjel za humanističke unanosti, Zavičajni muzej Poreštine, 2011: 15-32. Rina Kralj-Brassard, »Nikola (1673-1674) "The Child of the Commune".« Dubrovnik Annals 15 (2011): 119-146. Rina Kralj-Brassard, »Između skrbi i nasilja: životni ciklusi napuštene djece u Dubrovniku (XVII.-XIX. st.).«, in: Filii, filiae...: položaj i uloga djece na jadranskom prostoru, ed. Marija Mogorović Crljenko. Poreč: Državni arhiv u Pazinu, Sveučilište Jurja Dobrile u Puli – Odjel za humanističke unanosti, Zavičajni muzej Poreštine, 2011: 204-223. Rina Kralj-Brassard,Ivica Martinović, »Dojilje za nahočad – javna služba u Dubrovačkoj Republici.«, in: Bioetika i dijete. Moralne dileme u pedijatriji, ed. Ante Čović, Marija Radonić. Zagreb: Pergamena, Hrvatsko društvo za preventivnu i socijanu pedijatriju, 2011: 63-120. Rina Kralj-Brassard, Djeca milosrđa: Napuštena djeca u Dubrovniku od 17. do 19. stoljeća (summary: Unwanted Maternity, Nationalized Paternity: The Abandoned Children in Dubrovnik from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century), Zagreb – Dubrovnik: Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku, 2011. Rina Kralj-Brassard, Kristina Puljizević, »Clandestine Birth: Care of Unwed Pregnant Women and Parturients Within the Dubrovnik Foundling Hospital in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century.« Dubrovnik Annals 16 (2012): 37-67. Kralj-Brassard, »Pozornice milosrđa: smještaj zgrada dubrovačkog nahodišta (1432-1927).« (summary: Scenes of Charity: the Location of the Dubrovnik's Foundling Home Buildings, 1432-1927) Anali Zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku 50 (2012): 39-62. Nella Lonza, »For the salvation of the souls, for the welfare of the state: Ragusan Treasurers and perpetual trusts for pious purposes from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century.«, in: Knjiga rizničarskih najmova; Liber affictuum Thesaurarie (1428-1547), ed. Danko Zelić. Zagreb - Dubrovnik: Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku, 2012: 25-41. Danko Zelić, »Liber affictuum Thesaurarie (1428-1547): The Book of the Treasurers' rents (1428-1547); Perpetual legacies providing funding for pious purposes.«, in: Knjiga rizničarskih najmova; Liber affictuum Thesaurarie (1428-1547), ed. Danko Zelić. Zagreb - Dubrovnik: Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku, 2012: 69-95. Danko Zelić, »Knjiga rizničarskih najmova: Liber affictuum Thesaurarie (1428-1547).«, in: Knjiga rizničarskih najmova; Liber affictuum Thesaurarie (1428-1547), ed. Danko Zelić. Zagreb - Dubrovnik: Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku, 2012: 97-300. Zdenka Janeković-Römer, The Frame of Freedom. The nobility of Dubrovnik between the Middle Ages and Humanism, Zagreb - Dubrovnik: Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku, 2015. Rina Kralj-Brassard, Irena Ipšić, Ivana Lazarević, »Godparents Network of the Dubrovnik Foundlings (17th-19th centuries).« Annales de démographie historique 130/2 (2015): 161-185. Rina Kralj-Brassard, »The Children of the Commune: Care of Abandoned Children in Early-Modern Dubrovnik.«, in: Orphans and Abandoned Children in European History, Sixteenth to Twentieth Centuries, ed. Nicoleta Roman. London – New York: Routledge, 2017: 201-218. Rina Kralj-Brassard, »From Ashes and Dust: Hospitale Misericordiae in Dubrovnik and its Operation in the Aftermath of the 1677 Earthquake.« Dubrovnik Annals 23 (2019): 87-109. Rina Kralj-Brassard, »Više od milosrđa: Dubrovnik u svjetlu socijalno-zdravstvenih institucija i mjera.« Dubrovnik u hrvatskoj povijesti. Zbornik radova u čast akademiku Nenadu Vekariću, ed. Mario Crnčević, Nenad Vekarić. Zagreb: Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Hrvatski studiji, 2019: 257-269. Rina Kralj-Brassard, Dubrovačko nahodište i njegovi štićenici (1818-1908) (summary: Dubrovnik Foundling Hospital and its Wards, 1818-1908), Zagreb – Dubrovnik: Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku, 2020.
Notes area
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
Descriptions of fonds, series and sub-series are made according to the ISAD (G) standard (general international standard archival description)
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
2021
Language(s)
- English
Script(s)
Sources
Archivist's note
Description prepared by Vesna Miović (Fonds, Series, Subseries) Croatia [The Institute for Historical Sciences in Dubrovnik, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (CASA)] Translation to English by Zrinka Friganović Sain