Fonds HR-DADU-52 - Sanitas (Office of Public Health)

Identity area

Reference code

HR-DADU-52

Title

Sanitas (Office of Public Health)

Date(s)

  • 16th century - 19th century (Creation)

Level of description

Fonds

Extent and medium

26 volumes; 1.2 linear metres; textual records

Context area

Name of creator

Archival history

In 1377, after several strong plague epidemics, the authorities of the Republic passed a quarantine provision for travellers from the infected areas, which is considered to be the first provision in the world of that type. In 1390, a permanent health anti-epidemic service was established and called the Office for Public Health. Depending on the degree of danger of the plague, the office was managed by three to eight senators. These members of nobility had broad powers, but the most important decisions were made by the Senate.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

The fonds has been linked to the archive since its inception. In times of the Dubrovnik Republic, the books of the fonds were stored in the Public Health Office. By 1891, the archives were relocated to the Rector’s Palace and were consolidated thus becoming available to researchers. The archive in the Rector's Palace has been functioning as an independent institution since 1920 and it was dislocated to the Sponza Palace in 1952, where it is still located today.

Content and structure area

Scope and content

The fonds consists of two parts. The first part contains 14 registers of the movement of people and goods through the Lazarettos in Ploče, in the eastern suburb of Dubrovnik (18th century). Those registers were kept by the Captain of Lazarettos. The registers contain the following information: the date of the passenger's entry into the Lazarettos, the name and surname of the passenger, the name of the place from which the passenger arrived, the list of merchandise the passenger had brought, the number of the specific lazaretto where the passenger would be quarantined and the date of release from quarantine. The second part of the fonds (16th-18th centuries) consists of volumes with the following data: provisions of the Office of Public Health and the Senate which were related to the protection against the plague, expenses of the Office, investigations conducted by the Office of Public Health against persons who violated the measures for the protection against plague, and lists of health officials who were deployed throughout the territory of the Republic at the time of the danger of the plague.


The registers containing data of the movement of people and goods through the Lazarettos in the 18th century are very important to the research of the business affairs of the Jews from Sarajevo as well as for understanding their relationships with the Jews from Dubrovnik. Many of these records testify about the arrival of Jews in the Lazarettos almost all of whom came from Sarajevo (e.g., vol. 11a, ff. 10v, 39, 39v, 41v, 48v, 59, 64, 74v, 76, 80, 81, 82c, 85, 91c, 97, 101c, 102c, 103, 104, 109, 116c, 127). The records show that most of these Jews were originally from Dubrovnik and were returning home from Sarajevo, and there are also records of Jews from Sarajevo who would come to Dubrovnik for private or business reasons. There are also references to members of the following Jewish families: Abinun, Abramović, Altarac, Asser, Atias, Campos, Cohen, Danon, David, Escenasi, Fermo, Finzi, Forte, Franco, Gabai, Gaon, Haion, Joel, Jona, Levi, Montiglio, Musafia, Musafir, Papić (Pappo), Pinto, Saba, Saltiel, Seferović, Tedeschi, Tolentino, Vitali and Zevi. Apart from the Lazarettos, other facilities located in the suburbs of Ploče were also used for the purposes of quarantine. Among those buildings was the house of a famous Dubrovnik merchant Samuel Ambonetti. His house has been used as a quarantine area since the late 1750s, and the data shows that it was named the “old Ambonetti lazaretto” (e.g., vol. 7, f. 13v). There are less references to Jews in the second part of the fonds. Those references are primarily to Jewish bookbinders who bound books for the needs of the Office of Public Health. There are also references to the taxes imposed on the Dubrovnik Orthodox community and sea captains from Dubrovnik as well as taxes imposed on the Jewish community for the costs of protection against a very strong plague epidemics that ravaged the Dubrovnik hinterland in the 60s and the 80s of the 18th centuries (e.g., vol. 2, August 20, 1767). Particularly interesting is the reference to Abram Abuaf, who in 1691 during the epidemic, treated plague patients in the city of Dubrovnik (vol. 7, f. 12).

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

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 8. Josip Gelčić,»Catalogus i. r. Archivii Ragusini.« Glasnik Zemaljskog muzeja u Bosni i Hercegovini 22 (1910): 537-588.

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

Consilium Rogatorum (HR-DADU-3), Consilium Minus (HR-DADU-4)

Related descriptions

Publication note

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. Zlata Blažina Tomić and Vesna Blažina, Expelling the Plague, The Health Office and the Implementation of Quarantine in Dubrovnik, 1377-1533, Montreal&Kingston - London - Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2015. Rina Kralj Brassard, »A City Facing the Plague: Dubrovnik 1691.« Dubrovnik Annals 20 (2016): 109-148. Vesna Miović, »Life in the Quarantine: Lazaretto at Ploče During the Republic.«, in: Lazaretto in Dubrovnik, ed. Ante Milošević. Dubrovnik: Institute for Restauration of Dubrovnik, 2018.

Notes area

Alternative identifier(s)

Old reference code

Fonds of the Dubrovnik Republic and the territory of the former Republic under the French Administration, series 55, 55.1

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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

Accession area

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