Robbers, Murderers, and Condemned Men in Istria
(from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century)
Slaven Bertosa
Introductory remarks
The tenitory of Venetian Istria, which encompassed about threequarters
of the peninsula, suffered dynamic changes from the sixteenth to
the end of the eighteenth century. From the 1 530s, by transferring
navigation to the Atlantic and with the emergence of enemy fleets in the
Meditenanean, 1 Istrian towns were affected by a difficult economic crisis
which was followed by demographic decline. lllness, Iack of provisions,
povetty and war resulted in an increase in the mortality of the population?
In these turbulent times the land remained devastated and uncultivated,
peasants were abandoning their villages and those who stayed
behind became cattle-breeders, converting fields into pastures. The
Venetian government decided to populate the abandoned land and
initiated organised colonisation on a nurober of occasions during the
sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. In addition, it gave certain privileges
in order to stimulate colonisation.3
1 See Miroslav Bertosa, „L’Adriatico orien!ale e il Meditmaneo tra il XVI e il XVIII
secolo; abbozzo storico-antropologico,“ Atti del Centro di richerche storiche di
Rovigno 3 2 (2002): 183-227.
2 ldem, „Aspetti demografici della carestia e della pestilenza nell’lstria del primo
Ottocento,“ Proposte e ricerche: economia e societa nella storia de/1 ‚/talia centrate
27 ( 1 991): 226-47; idem, lstra: Doba Venecije (XVJ.-XVJJJ. stoljece) [Istria: the
Venetian period. (sixteenth and sevcnteenth century)] (Pula: Zavicajna naklada
„Zakan Juri“, 1 995), 2 1 -22.
3 !dem, „Prinos proLicavanju emicke structLire i kolonizacije Mletacke lstre u XVI. i
XVII. stoljecu“ (A contribution to the rescarch into tbe ethnic strucnare and
co1onisation of Venetian Istria in the sixteenth and seventeenth century) in Susreti
na dragom kamenu – Zbornik radova posvecen akademiku Miji Mirkovicu (The
meetings on tbe sacred stone. Festschrift in honour of Mijo Mirkovic, a member of
the Academy), vol. 4 (Pula: Visa ekonomska skola, 1 972), 192-206; idem, „Emicke
prilike LI Istriu XVI. i XVII. stoljecLI“ (The ethnic conditions in lstria in the sixteenth
and seventeeoth century), lstra 12 ( 1 974) 7-8: 87-91; idem, „Osvrt na
eUlicke i demografske prilike LI Istri LI XV. i XVI. stoljecu“ (A reflection on the
ethnic and demographic circumstances in Istria in the fifteenth and sixteenth cen-
98
Colonisation drastically changed the ethnic structure of lstria. The
newcomers miginated from different regions: the Apennine Peninsula,
Croatian and South Slavic countries, the Albanian coast and Venetian
estates in the Levant.4 The organised arrival of !arge groups, which were
sometimes lured by unattainable promises and settled together in one
location where they sometimes outnw11bered the natives, however, unavoidably
led to confrontations, primarily because of economic interests,
but also because of the different mentalities of the native and new populations.
5
The process of integration of the newly-anived population was
slow and long Iasting, followed by many obstacles and dramatic clashes,
in the first place with the natives. Official Yenetian documents use the
terms „old“ and „new“ inhabitants (habitanti nuovi and habitanti vecchi)
and the relations between them are described as tense, with occasional
open confrontations, sometimes even using weapons. The natives needed
to take over the payment of taxes and carry out duties from which the
„new“ population was exempt. The so-called carratada was especially
difficult, signifying the obligation to transport wood for the Venetian
Arsenal from where it was cut to the embarkation point (carregadora) on
the seaside that – with cow- or ox-drawn wagons – the native population
tury), Buletin Razreda za likovne umjetnosti JAZU I ( 1977) 1 : 89-99; idem, „Neki
povijesni i statisticki podaci o demografskim kretanjima u Istri u XVI. i XVIII
stoljecu“ (Some historical and statistical data on the demographic trends in Istria in
the sixteenth and seventeenth century), Radovi lnstituta za hrvatsku povijesr I I
( 1 978): 103-29; idem, „Pusta zemlja: kolonizacija mletackog dijela lstre“ (Waste
land: the colonisation ofthe Venetian part of lstria), Istra 1 7 (1979) 3: 67-69; idem,
„Migrazioni e mutamenti sociali nell’Istria Yeneta (secoli XV-XVII),“ in Gauro
Coppola and Pierangclo Schiera (eds.), Lo spazio a/pino: area di civilta, regione
cerniera (Naples: Liguori, 1991), 223-3 1 .
4 Slaven Bertoa. tivot i smrt u Puli. Starosjeditelji i doseljenici od XVIJ. do pocetka
XIX. stoljei:a (Life and death in Pula. Natives and newcomers from the seventeenth
to the beginning ofthe nineteenth century) (Pazin: Skuptina Udruga Matice hrvatske
Istarske fupanije, 2002); idem, Levanrinci u Puli (XVJJ. -XIX stoljei:e) (Levantines
in Pula from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century) (Pula: Zavicajna naklada
„Zakan Juri,“ 2003).
5 The best example of such colonisation is the settlement of hajduk families in lstria
in the second half of the seventeenth century. See Miroslav Bertoa, „Hajducka
epizoda naseljavanja Puljtine ( 1 6 7 1 .- 1675.): prilog problematici organizirane
kolonizacije mletacke lstre“ (The Hajduk episode of the settlement of the area of
Pula ( 1 67 1 – 1675): a contribution to the issue of organised colonisation of Venetian
lstria), Jadranski zbornik 8 (1973): 1 05-60. Cf. idem, „I ‚travagli‘ di una convivenza
difficile: ‚habitanti vecchi‘ e ‚habbitanti nuovi‘ nell’Istria veneta dal XVI al
XVI! secolo,“ in Popoli e culture in Istria: imerazioni e scambi, Atti del Convegno
di Muggia, 20-21 novembre 1987, vol. 5 (Triest: Circolo di Cultura Istro-Veneta
„lstria,“ I 989), 25-36.
99
was expected to deliver at their own expense.6 Conflicts often arose
among peasant farmers and peasant cattle breeders. The cattle breeders
often Iet their herds get into the farrners‘ crops in order to force them to
abandon their land and leave it to the cattle owners. The slow integration
in the Istrian area was also reflected in the existence of numerous outlaw
groups, who generated insecurity in the everyday life of lstrian villages.7
The processes of acculturation, assimilation and complete integration
Iasted for araund 1 50 to 200 years, although some „mental“ differences,
as seen among certain groups of inhabitants of the Istrian
peninsula, are present even now.8 An especially important issue is that of
the ethnic changes caused by the colonisation. Over the old layer of tbe
Istrian Croatian population, fifteenth-century migration waves later
brought new inhabitants of Croatian ethnos to this region. Although the
colonisation had multiethnic characteristics, the vast majority of the newcomers
belonged to the Croatian Catholic ethnic group. In that period this
ethnos also srread into areas where it had been a minority during the
Middle Ages.
Most of the immigrants had difficulty surviving under the new
conditions and the discrepancies between the promised Venetian support
and the monthly food supplies brought them to the verge of hunger and
poverty. The survival of the colonists, dependent on land, was also
affected by frequently extreme ctimatic conditions in Istria; drought and
great heat during summer altemating with very cold and sharp winters,
the occurrence of flood tides, Ieng-lasting rainy periods and earthquakes.
10
Under such critical conditions, in the years when hunger prevailed,
the newcomers became outlaws. They stole food, cattle, money, and all
that was necessary for survival. Violence, theft, kidnapping and assaults
on the roads were everyday-life occurrences in lstria for centuries.
umerous archival documents testify to dangeraus criminal groups and
their criminal endeavours: court records, registers of the deceased, and a
6 Danilo Kien, „Mietaka eksploatacija istarsk.ih suma i obavezan prijevoz drva do
Iuke kao specifian drfani porez u lstri od 15. do kraja 18. stoljeca“ (The Veoetian
exploitation of Istrian forestS and the mandatory transportatioo of wood to the
harbour as a specific tax in Tstria from the fifteenth to the end of the eighteenth
century), Problemi istocnog Jadrana I ( 1 963): 1 99-280.
7 Miroslav Bertoa. Zlikovci i prognanici. Socijalno razbojnistvo u Istri u XVII. i
XVIII. stoljecu (Villains and outcasts. Social robbery in lstria in the seventeenth and
eighteenth century) (Pula: Cakavski sabor, Istarska knjiievna kolonija Grozd,
1989), passim.
8 Idem, Etos i etnos zavicaja (Ethos and ethnos of the homeland) (Pula and Rijeka:
Cakavski sabor, 1 985), 33-101.
9 !dem, fstra: Doba Venecije, 606- 1 9 .
10 lbidem, 54-55.
100
lively con·espondence between the representatives of the Venetian
authorities in lstria and Venice.
During the early modern period, robbery, especially in rural areas,
expanded throughout Europe. Each country had its own peculiarities of
the development, organisation, and working methods, but there were also
common characteristics which defined robbety in general. The crirninals‘
network was weil developed in Europe. Their most common gathering
placcs were areas along the borders, fo rests, and mountains outside of
communities, which fac ilitated individuals hiding and flceing from the
authorities. Outlaws often sought freedom by crossing the border, since
they were beyond the reach of the local authori ties in the neighbouring
countty. 11 The political border between the Venetian and Austrian parts
oflstJia enabled the outlaws from each side to find refuge without fear of
being extradited to the authorities that pursued them.
In the sources, a person punished with banishment because of
crimes he had committed was called a bandit. lndividuals convicted of
banditty (al bando) were expelled from the environment where they lived
and worked and were thus pushed to the social margins. The outcasts
became part of the marginalised, although not all the marginalised were
outlaws neither by thcir nature nor by the nature of the crimes for which
they werc convicted. However, the fact remains that life at the bottom of
society, more usually then not, led to crime. The political and legal
mechanisms of lstrian society „reproduced“ crime and pushed some perpetrators
to the social margins. Banishment convictions often tumed
otherwise peaceful people into criminals dangerous to society. Thus, the
lstrian region, as attested by contemporaries, fa ced an infamous transformation
fr om a „refuge of peace to the crossroads of vi Hains“ and some
of the inhabitants received the unpleasant appellation of „subj ects of vile
nature“ (sudditi di natura prava). 12
The areas of criminal activity
Pula and its surroundings
Robbery in Istria had a long tradition. According to archival reports,
it began to develop as early as the thirteenth and fo urteenth century,
but only reached drastic proportions in times of great crisis and migration
movement. 13
11
For more on tbe detailed fe atures of robbery in certain parts of Europe cf. idem,
Zliko vci i prognanici, 13-20.
12 lbidem, 28.
13 Slaven Bertoa, Zivot i smrt u Puli, 209.
101
One of the crisis periods was that between 1629 and 1632, when
the Venetian province of lstria, especially the southern and western parts,
became the centre of multiple colonisation processes in addition to a great
plague epidemic, general hardship, and an elevated rate of mortality
among the population.14
Numerous reports by the representatives of the Venetian
government in Istria witness the emergence of !arge numbers of criminals.
for instance, the count of Pula, Christofora Duodo, wams the
government in the second half of June 1623 that Pula is „filled with
disobedient and brazen people that do not respect the rectors and, by
posing as newcomers, commit grave offences and steal from the o1d
subjects ( …) .“ He complains that despite many appeals and reports he can
do nothing against them since crimes committed by the „new inhabitants“
fall under the jurisdiction of the captain of Raspor, who presides in distant
Buzet. He was thus obliged to forbid the carrying of weapons according
to the old regulations of the Council of Ten. Unfortunately, not even this
measure was useful because the villains ignored this order and „faced him
armed with pistols.“15
Fig. I : The pon of Pula and the nearby bays and villages on a map
made around 1560 by the survcyor Zuan’Antonio deli’Oca16
14 An indication of the conditions in Pula is the I arge number of deceased, which is
conftrmed by the data in the parish registers, see idem, „Contributo alla conoscenza
della storia sanitaria della cina di Pola ( 1 6 1 3 – 1 8 1 5),“ Atti de/ Centro di ricerche
storiche di Rovigno 3 5 (2005): 92.
1165 Miroslav Bertosa, Zlikovci i prognanici, 29. !dem, lstra: Doba Venecije, 97.
102
An interesting example of criminal activity presents news about
sheep stealing in Pazin County; the accused were peasants from the
Venetian pat1 of lstria. Francis Knezic, the Iord of Trsat and Mune, whose
cattle were stolen in Zminj, applied to the captain of Raspor, who then
conducted an investigation in southern Jstria. At the same time, Knezic
also made a complaint to the captain of Pazin, who was also looking for
the culprits. However, the pursuit of the criminals in both cases ended
unsuccessfully, so Knezic decided to conduct his own investigation. Rather
quickly, his men managed to obtain a confession from a thirty-yearold
shepherd, who remained anonymous for fear of retaliation. The
shepherd claimed that the 232 sheep were stolen on the night of 9 Januaty
1 624 from Knezic’s house in Zminj. Among the assailants the witness
recognised peasants from villages sutTounding Pula – Liznjan, Filipane,
Loborike, Muntic, Medulin, and Marcana – led by their count prefect.
The sheep were divided at a pond in Marcana. Knezic infom1ed the
captain of Raspor, Antonio Contarini, of these findings, but since eight
months had passed from the tinle of the robbety and evidence of the
crime had already been wiped out or concealed and the witnesses‘ fear
was too great, the identity of the robbers could not be proven legally nor
could a criminal procedure be initiated.17
lt often happened that the peasants themselves prevented the arrest
of certain criminals, using force to stand against the authorities that
hunted them. Jn the rural area of Venetian Istria one can detect an
ambivalent attitude within the peasant population towards outlaws („public
opinion“). The village community (komun) in an organised or casual
way supported and defended them or left them to their own destiny, not
caring about their safcty; there are only a fcw examples in which a village
can be seen to have helped the authorities apprehend criminals. This was
due to the family connections of the culprits, the interest of the communities,
mutual solidarity and, surely, a deeply rooted fear of revenge.
The authorities usually requested that the village gastalds (merige)
help them with the anest of villains. They usually responded only
formally or, in the worst cases, took a passive stance, so they were of no
real use at all. However, sometimes, even with weapons, they prevented
the authorities from apprehending criminals. For example, the captain of
Raspor, Anzolo da Mosto, in an urgent reference to the Senate in late
1 625, presents the case ofSime LukaCic, who was anested in Marcana by
the village gastald and his entourage of 25 men. However, during thc
apprehension, a group of armed peasants tumed against the authorities
and through bodily ham1 managed to persuade them to release Lukacic.
They threatened the officers that they would shoot them with
17 Idem, Zlikovci i prognanici, 29-30.
103
arquebuses18 if they did not Iisten to them. In his Ietter to the Senate, da
Mosto writes with bittemess that such „despicable disobedience“ of the
population had become a reality of everyday life in lstria and as such it
must be stopped, for if it were not contained „the Province will become a
crossroad of thieves and lowlifes.“ Thus, at his request, in January 1 626,
an armed vessel was sent from Koper and immediately started to cruise
the shores of southern lstria with the intention of capturing Lukacic’s
group. The crew was in a bad state, however, with 20 sick and famished
sailors who had not been paid for several months, thus failing thjs
endeavmu·. Exhausted and unpaid soldiers did not have either the will or
the strength to capture criminals who hid in the nearby forests. In these
unfavourable conditions for repressing crime and due to the small nurober
and Iack of organisational skills of the Venetian law-enforcement troops
robbery increased, especially among the new population. Between 1630
and 1 6 3 1 , the captain of Raspor, Giacomo Contarini, came to Pula on
business and found numerous complaints, witness Statements, and reports
of investigation committees about the crimes committed by the „newcomers.“
He was thus forced to punish ten outlaws with the sentence of
rowing in the convicts‘ galley and one was even sentenced to death by
hanging.19
Attacks and thefts were not committcd only in the rural area, but
also in towns, in the course of which sometimes the rural and town
villains joined forces. For example, the captain of Raspor, Polo Michiel,
in a Ietter to the Council of Ten in November 1 660, cites a theft at the
palace of the count-provisor of Pula, David Trevisan that had occurred in
1650. A long investigation detem1ined that „the well known villain and
outcast,“ Jure Marasevic, had been the thief, helped by a citizen of Pula
named Constantin Senachi.20 When they were discovered, Senachi fled
Pula and went to the town of Feltre21 and Marasevic boarded a galley
from Brac as a mercenary soldier and sailed to Venice. The captain of
Raspor, with the aid of the Council of Ten, managed to apprehend them
and bring them to Buzet, where they were chained and imptisoned w1der
strict surveillance in the captain’s prison. They managed to escape from
the prison, however, and reach Austrian tenitory. The captain of Raspor,
Michiel, could only try to procw·e the extradition of the fugitives through
the help of the Venetian ambassador at the court of the archduke of
Austria. Such requests, however, rarely became fruitful, mostly because
the other side asked for a reciprocal concession.22
18 A type ofrifle (see fig. 5).
19 20 Miroslav Bertoa, Zlikovci i prognanici, 3 1 . Often noted in the towns registers (Slaven Bertoa. Zivot i smrt u Puli, 424).
21 A locality Northwest frorn Yenice, also under the Yenetian Republic. 22 Miroslav Bertosa, Zlikovci i prognanici, 32.
1 04
Colonisation by hajduks
Crime in southern lstria took on especially great momentum in the
period of the hajduk colonisation of the area areund Pula, from 1 67 1 until
1675. The Venetian goverrunent decided to settle hajduks from Boka
(most1y from the area of Risan and its sun·oundings) in Jstria in order to
preserve a new1y signed peace with the Otternans (at the end of the War
of Candia in 1699) and to resolve the difficult living condüions of the
hajduks and their families. After a brief time in Istria the hajduk elders
wrote a report to the Venetian govemment in which they requested certain
areas where they intended to settle and specified a series of privileges
to protect their legal and economic interests in their new homeland. Such
a request was exactly the opposite of the privileges that the Venetian
Republic usually gave its subjects and the governrnent could and would
not confirm them. In fact, in their statement the hajduks requested the
best patts of the lstrian land and exemption from duties and other tributes
on import and expert and also refused to pay taxes. Despite each and
evety effort of the captains of Rasper to give the hajduk popu1ation land
for cultivation, thus transforming them into fa1mers and cattle brccders,
they did not manage to dissuade them from thcir original goals, trade and
piracy, nor did they prevent the confrontation with the native population
which followed.
In agreement \.vith the Senate and the hajduks, the captain of
Raspor, Lunardo Marcello, managed to settle 630 hajduk migrants and
their families in Pula. In the beginning they received provisions from
Venice, but this was not enough for them to Iead a normal life and the
problern of food was worsened by the fact that a great number of hajduk
newcomers from Boka had no intention of working thus providing a way
to make a living. Colonisation of southem lstria with a warlikc, disobedient,
and unproductive hajduk element deteriorated the relations
between the native population and the newcomers. Conflicts and mutual
intolerance statted immediatcly after the hajduks arrived in Pula, and
lawsuits for the felonies they committed were still ongoing long after they
left Istria.Z3
23 Cf. Slaven Bertoa, „Nastanjenici i prolaznici iz Dubrovacke Republike, Boke
kotorske i Mletacke Albanije u Puli (17.-19. stoljece)“ (lnhabitams and passers-by
from the Republic of Dubrovnik, Boka and Yenetian Albania in Pula from the
seventeenth to the nineteenth century), Anali Zavoda za povijesne znanosti
Hrvatske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti u Dubrovniku 4 1 (2003): 1 57-74.
105
Fig 2: Entry on the baptism of Luke,
son ofthe hajduk Wolf Vidakovic from Perast, conducted in Pula24
It must be stressed that in the areas where these hajduks came from
robbery was considered a usual form of income, thus they behaved the
same in Tstria, frequently robbing fisherrneu and boats especially. An
extant written account by the Koper rector, Lorenzo Donado, describes a
criminal attack on the boat of a captain from Losinj, Sirnon Gladulic,
who, on his retum from Vcnice had to stop in the bay of Valmizeja near
Premantura because of bad weather. Six armed men attacked the captain
ofthe boat and his passengers on the night of 1 5 March 1 674. The captain
repelled them and was killed by a shot from an arquebus, three people
were tied up, and the boat was ransacked. The boat’s registry log was
taken, along with all of the money, 20 pieces of silverware and many
other objects. The witnesses claimed that the attack and murder was done
24 Drzavni arhiv u Paziou (State Archive in Pazio), Liber Baptizatonun, 242, IS’h of
October 1671.
106
by hajduks, whom they recognised by their „Turkish“ outfits and speech.
One of them was also seen later in Premantura. Right at that time other
armed hajduks were also noticed in Premantura and in April, 1 674, the
count-provisor of Pula indicted Bajo and Peter Nikolic, John Puhalovic,
John Misan, and Matthew Bilan.
There were also lawsuits based upon common reports, for example,
against the hajduk Vujina, who lived in Pula and stole a munber of sheep
from the peasants M atthew Statirica and Matthew Saric and then sold the
meat in Pula. When the sheepskin and head were found the owners recognised
them as their own by the brand mark; during the search of his
house Vujina fled the area.
What all those examples show is that the hajduks were poorly
adapted to their new environment. The majority of the agrarian population
in the area of Pula stigmatised them as raw and cruel and different in
their customs, ways of life, religion, and (social) relations.25 In addition,
they emphasised their alleged superiority and resolved conflicts exclusively
by using force. Hajduks were really – particularly the Orthodox
ones – a foreign entity in the social and economic organism of Istria at
that time?6
Some examplesfrom the registers of Pula
Information in the parish registers of the deceased also provides
clear insight into the crimes committed in the area of Pula. Killing as an
mmatural way of having one’s life ended were particularly annotated in
the registers. The same goes for the executions that were ordered by the
representatives of the authorities. In the period from 1 625 until 1 8 1 5, 30
murders were recorded. Sometimes there is only thc general statement
that the murder was committed and sometimes a more precise account of
how the murder was committed with the description of the place where it
took place. They occurred every few years, often more than one in the
same year. They usually happened during the night, far from inhabited
places, on unsecured roads and fields, and at sea.
In registers of the deceased from Pula one must differentiate four
main categories of captured outlaws or other convicted persons:
• murdered in prison,
• executed by order of the high er authorities,
• died in prison,
• died on the convicts‘ galleys.
25 Miroslav Bertosa, „Hajducka epizoda naseljavanja,“ 105-160.
26 Slaven Bertosa, Zivot i smrt u Pu/i, 3 2 1 .
107
In the village of Stinjan near Pula in the summer of 1 667 „Turks“
appeared that were actually pirates from Ulcinj and wounded messer27
Luke, who died after spending 33 days in a hospital. He was buried in the
church of St. Thomas in Pula.
The murder that happened in mid-April 1 796, is an interesting
example. Sixteen-year-old Jacob, son of Jacob Radolovic of Marcana,
was found dead. He was killed from ambush and the body was discovered
in a deep hollow that the locals‘ call fojba. The body was taken to the
cathedral in Pula, where it was buried.
In Pula at the end of August in 1 7 1 5 it was decreed by the public
authorities that Guy Skoravic of Marcana, a known assailant on the roads
and murderer, should be executed by musket. At the age of approximately
28 he was sentenced to death by the count-provisor of Pula, Nicolo
Zustinian. After receiving the sacraments, he was accompanied to the
place of execution by the parish priest and other clerics. They buried him
in the cathedral .
On the convicts‘ galley Delphin, which was commanded by Andrea
Vedova, three convicts died in November of 1783: 35-year-old Lodovico
Fanin, 40-year-old Gaetano Ferdinandi, and 45-year-old Antonio Dannoso.
According to the findings of the physician Pietro Tomaselli, the
cause of death was acute fever.28
Porec and its surroundings
In the area of Porec, robbery also increased drastically for causes
that were similar to those in Pula – a heterogeneous ethnic environment,
differing economic interests, and conflicts between the natives and colonists.
This is confirmed by different reports of the Yenetian rectors, exemplified
in the repmt of Podestä Antonio Barozzi in 1 63 1 , who
cautioned the Senate about the expansion of criminal activities in Porec:
daily violence, killings, thefts, and burglaries of houses, families, boats
and sailing ships harboured in the port ofPorec.
Outlaws were separated into several groups that consisted of locals
and „new“ residents. They later contributed greatly to the expansion of
crime in Istria, as was foreseen by the podestä. of Motovun, Piero
Loredan, who, in March 1 63 1 , notified the governrnent how some
colonists turned to a life of crime. He mentions John Kucic, known as car
27 Messer or messere (the abbreviation ser was also often used) is an indication of a
gentleman (given out of respect). See Giulio Rezasco, Dizionario del linguaggio
italiano storico e amministrativo (Bologna: LeMonnier, 1881), 628.
28 Slaven Bertoa, „Ubojstva i smaknuca u Puli (XVli.-XlX. stoljece)“ (Murders and
executions in Pula from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century), Acta Hi striae 10
(2002) 1: 63-80.
l08
(emperor), a famous bandit whose group of villains spread such great fear
amongst the population that the podesta had to bribe some peasants in
Visnjan to testify against him. Based on those reports, he apprehended
two outcasts, John Grubisic from the village Bacve, who, amongst other
crimes, had killed the podesta’s chancellor, Bcrto Carraro, and Makac
Kosinozic, a thief and fugitive from the arrny in Dalmatia Palma, and
Koper. Loredan thought that by doing this he was greatly diminishing the
force of the Kucic group.29
The robbery phenornenon was closely related to the social and
economic circumstances in Istria, which is visible from the report of the
Koper podesta and captain, Marco Michiel Salamon, from July 1 698 that
describes the unstable and changing conditions in Porec which had arisen
in the devastated and abandoned city and it had been only showing
inclinations towards a new fall. The rector of Koper emphasised a number
of reasons for the decline of the city: general poverty and scanty community
incomes, Iack of money to sustain the city physician who
managed to protect citizens, and the ruined storage barn, without capital
and grain. He mentions outcasts and „South Slavic peasants,“ descendants
of irnmigrants from Dalmatia and the Levant, as especially dangerous for
Porec, since they stole cattle and property of the rcsidents and brought
insecurity to the interior parts of Venetian Istria. South and East of Porec,
Rovinj, Bale, and Yodnjan and other places all the way to Kvamer, the
public roads were not secure. Robbery was so widespread that Salamon
compared it to an epidemic and calling it a „domestic plague“ (domestica
pestilenza).30
Porec at that time was in a difficult economic situation and many of
thc inhabitants had to leave their houses; the criminals, who also faced
great povetty, robbed and vandalised the territ01y of the Porcc commune
in order to survive. For this reason, in their report the city representatives
demandcd that the Venetian govemment publicly grants pardons to the
exiled so that they could rejoin their families who had had to leave their
Iands. The Vcnetian govemment at first refused to solve the problern in
such manner, but later started to take these suggestions into consideration.
3 1
For personal protection, food and preventing death, criminals had
to join fm·ces in groups. A criminal, an outcast who worked by himself,
could not last long. This is clearly shown by the example of the peasant
Matthew Zelenkovic, a „newcomer“ in the village of Vabrige in the Porec
area, which is described in detail in the report of the captain of Raspor,
29 Miroslav Benoa, Zlikovci i prognanici, 33-35.
30 Jbidem, 4 l -42.
31 lbidem, 42-43.
109
Zuanne Renier. According to the investigation and the witnesses‘ accounts,
Matthew and bis uncle, George Zelenkovic, were heading home
after having dinner at one of their relative’s home in late June 1635. On
the way, they stopped in the city square to say their farewells, but then
Matthew Zelenk.ovic took out his dagger and stabbed his uncle twice in
the ehest. Two days later, George Zelenkovic died of these wounds and
Matthew fled the same night. Several months later he was formally
charged and sentenced to exile and a bounty of 600 pounds of his own
property was decreed on his head. The indictment also states that
Matthew deliberately did the crime due to disguised hatred of his uncle.
However, after he was arrested four years later, in October 1639, in the
vicinity of the village of Vabrige, he was brought to the prison in Buzet
and at a hearing he presented reasons why he had acted the way he did.
He stated that his uncle, George Zelenkovi6, had beaten his mother and
taken her belongings, which was why he murdered him. Since then he
had been hiding in the forest, up until the beginning of October 1639,
when he encountered the outcast Bartholomew Justic from the village of
Maj in the Porec area, with whom hc devised a plan to go to Dalmatia and
join the army. However, they began to quarre) while drinking together.
What followed was a sabre duel, after which they parted ways. Matthew,
who was wounded in the fight, sought refugc in his native village of
Vabriga, in a bam located away from the houses. That is where the search
party, which consisted of peasants from Vabriga and Zbandaj commanded
by two village gastalds, found him. Afterwards the Raspor
Captain Alvise Tiepolo read the death sentence in the p1ison in Buzet and
on the same day Matthew was handed over to the executioner, Cavatier
Felician Arcolini, who hanged him.32
The reports of the Koper Podestä and Captain Salamon also give
information discovered by Salamon and his predecessor, Zaccaria
Bondumier, on the criminal and outcast James Prekalj from the village of
Zbandaj in Porec and the group he belonged to. Bondumier, in an investigation
which he started against the Albanian immigrants in Porec,
came to the conclusion that in those areas there was a group of criminals
Jed by Fraucis Arman one member of which was James Prekalj. It is
noted in the investigation that in the night of 4 February 1 688, the group
took the opportunity of a storm to enter Porec secretly and break into the
praet01ian chancellety, where the villains took down the doors by force
and removed 50 records about different crirninal and civil actions as weil
as many other documents and money. Afterwards they also attacked the
public bam. They opened the door with a drill, smashed the lock, and
entered the room, reached the iron ehest Jocated in the wall, forced it
32 Jbidem, 43-45.
1 1 0
open, and took one Genoa zechin, 68 pounds of gun powder, and 60 Iead
balls. They dragged all of this outside the town and bumed the lawsuit
documentation, community books, custom passes, and public records in a
vineyard near the church of the Blessed Lady of the Angels. A record on
the investigation was compiled by the judges of Porec, the Praetorian
Chancellor Bortoto Scarella, and the guardian of the armom-y and public
provisions, Antonio Corsini, but the perpetrators could not be apprehended.
Although no firm proofwas found indicating that immigrants did
indeed participate in this theft, they were nevertheless pronounced guilty
based on circmnstantial evidence and a generat conviction that only they
could do such a thing. The indictrnent handed down by the Council of
Ten was entered in the convicts‘ register; they were sentenced to exile
and if any of them ever crossed the border and was apprehended then, at
the usual time and place in this city, the executioner would hang him by
the neck on the high gallows until he expired. To those who managed to
catch or kill them, after they presented evidence of the killing, a bounty of
600 pounds was to be paid from the prope1ty ofthe outcasts.
In Prekaljs‘ criminal record there is also a document about the
murder of Andrew Cinic and the investigation conducted afterwards.
According to the report, the murders were done by the Grbin brothers
from the village of Musalei with the help of the aforementioned James
Prekalj, who participated due to the fact that he was related to the Grbins
by blood. After the report on the murder in 1 695, an investigation was
begun. The remains of the small field cabins betonging to the murdered
Cinic were searched and the crime was reconstructed. The Grbin brothers
were feuding with George Cinic because he had built a small cabin on his
own land near Porec so he and his son could watch the fields and pastures
day and night for intmding animals. On several occasions he chased away
the cattle of the brothers because they were damaging his prope1ty. After
long disputes and threats the three brothers and James Prekalj set fire to
George Cinic’s cabin on 1 January 1695 and they also shot off
arquebuses. On that occasion Cinic’s son, Andrew was killed, the cabin
was burnt down, and George, even though wounded, only managed to
escape by some miracle and fled from the attackers. After the group
refused to sunender into the hands of justice as requested by the Koper
rector an investigation was conducted and the act of exile was
pronounced.
However, James Prekalj was involved in another incident of bloodshed
the following year. It is noted and described how he participated a
revenge killing of a peasant in Fuskulin, a village in the area of Porec.
The crime was committed on 20 July 1 696, when Sirnon Svojkovic,
Prekalj ’s distaut cousin, was killed at the Madonna del Carmine winery
during a quarre! over an unpaid debt. The village gastald of Fiskulin
1 1 1
reported the crime to the authorities, but the murderer, George Brajkovic,
and his accomplices had already fled. However, relatives and supporters
of the murdered Svojkovic decided to take vengeance on Matthew
Stojmila, a man who had not participated in the killing, but whose
bludgeon was used accidentally in comrnitting the crime . James Prekalj
stood on their side and together they attacked Stojmila i n his field cabin
on the night of 25 July, six days after the murder of Sirnon Svojkovic, and
shot him, immediately after causing his death.33
Only two years afte1wards Jakov Prekalj found hirnself in a
difficult position and wrote a plea to Captain Salamon of Koper complaining
about not being free for many years and saying that he had no
way to support his !arge family. He decided to plea for mercy from the
authorities and in exchange for amnesty, he offered to take the position of
field guard (barigello di campagna), that is, leader of an a1med troop that
would maintain order in the area of Porec and catch and apprehend
villains. Likewise, he vowed that he would serve for five years with no
payment if the authorities suppotted his request and granted him freedom
after these five years. In the archival documentation there is no indication
of whether he was appointed as barigello or not, but it is known that the
authorities usually used criminals and outcasts for such tasks since they
were weil acquainted with the marginal world of crime and violence, its
mode of operation and hideouts, and the nature and character of
criminals. However, these outcasts did not agree to this service out of
regret for the crimes they had comrnitted, but were forced to associate
with the authorities and fight against criminals due to poverty and hard
lives as exiles. These „keepers of the peace“ were sometimes even successful,
but robbery still remained an acute problern during the long
eighteenth century and even beyond.34
Criminal activities in the eighteenth century
In the eighteenth century Venetian Istria was still burdened with an
economic and population crisis, illness, hunger and povetty, conflicts
amongst ethnically different inhabitants, generat stagnation and crime.
The population was unequally distributed into four cities (citta), ten
market towns (terre), eleven communes (castelli), and 1 45 villages
(ville). Every inhabited place had its own villains and criminal groups;
they were widespread the most in the area south of the Mima River.
33 Miroslav Bertoa, „Sudditi di natura prava: Banditismo nel Parentino nel Seicento c
nei primi decenni del Settecento,“ Atti del Centro di richerche storiche di Rovigno
1 6 ( 1985-1986): 294-99.
34 !dem, Zlikovci i prognanici, 53-54.
1 12
According to the witnessing of the Koper Podesta and Captain
Paulo Condulmer, in 1 7 4 1 there were 72,000 people living in Venetian
lstria, among which only a small number was „capable of work and
bearing arms.“ At the same time, there were 348 outcasts in this region,
meaning one bandit for approximately every 200 persons. Almost every
outcast had his personal group or was involved in some form of organised
crime. The frequency of crimes had not diminished nor had the problern
of the outcasts and their attacks on the population in the rural region been
resolved. The podesta and captain of Koper, Alessandro Basadonna, in
his report ofMay 1 700, again stated that the sentences of exile negatively
reflected on the colonisation of the province because in those cases entire
families left the Venetian part and headed to Austrian territmy where they
found refuge in Pazin County. That is why there were frequent news in
the seventeenth and the eighteenth centwy sources noting that the
Austrian area villages located along the border with Venetian lstria were
becoming more populated and that every day the peasants, called the
Benecans (former subjects of the Venetian State), were usurping more
parcels of land on the Venetian side.
The central and local govemments were mostly unable to solve the
problern of robbety. Istrian rectors did not have enough armed men in
their entourages to prevent the trespassing and catch the criminals. By
mid-August 1 705, in the chancellery of the Podcsta and Captain of Koper
Tomaso Moresini, 5 1 2 outcasts were noted. Most exile convictions were
for murder and, in addition, Moresini differentiated so-called „heavy
crimes“ from „minor wrongdoings.“ In his report to the Senate, he
criticised Istrian investigation offices and even the central court in Koper;
while the first were slow to discover criminals and gather evidence
against them, the latter pronounced sentences of exile, although according
to him it would have been more useful to catch the trespassers and punish
them with forced labour in the fields, rowing on galleys, building walls,
and so forth.
Simultaneously, Captain Francesco Pasqualigo of Raspor also
acted agairrst the spread of crime; on 1 9 December 1 704 he received
orders to take legal measures agairrst villains and tried, using secret arrangements,
to promise Jibetty to outcasts who would apprehend some of
the most persistent and dangerous bandits and band them over to the
authorities. By doing this he hoped that the „most ruthless and dangerous
Ieaders of the criminal groups“ would hunt down and mutually annihilate
one another. However, in reality this could not happen; the universal vow
of silence and mutual solidarity (the famous „ometta“) was strong in the
lstrian criminal world. Thus, this attempt of the captain of Raspor was
unsuccessful and instead of going against the criminals, it turned on their
helpers, accomplices, and the viiJage gastalds. The outcasts and villains
1 1 3
were blood relations of the peasant population, among whom there was a
persistent fear of vengeance, so no one from the Porec area wanted to join
the rector in his endeavours. Thus, the captain of Rapor could not execute
the order and had to ask the Venetian govemment again to send
funds for „buying bandits.“35
By the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth
century there were a nwnber of groups of criminals in southern lsttia that
robbed and disturbed the population, daring1y challenging the authorities.
A witness’s account is extant from February 1 7 1 0 noted by count-provisor
of Pula, Piero Loredan, about a criminal group from Marcana
village that was led by the Dragesi6 brothers and to which many denizcns
of Marcana belonged. Many peasants came to his chancellery to complain
of the robberies and violence they suffered, never mentioning the names
of the criminals, but seeking compensation for the damage. In only a few
months of service, the count-provisor received 54 requests to initiate
processes for „house robberies, kidnapping in the fields, seizure of
belongings and attacks on the roads.“ Supposedly, the actual damages and
violence were far greater, but many kept quiet about the crimes for fear of
retaliation.
Crime reached drastic rates, especially in Marcana and the nearby
villages of the Protina area.36 This is evident from the fact that in this
area, which might be the only such case in lstria, the villains even
managed to build their own fortifications. Piero Loredan states that by the
end of 1709 a criminal, Pave Hrvoi6, had finished „building a tower with
thick walls, open for arquebuses and observation which can offer strong
resistance.“ The tO\.ver was located in the midst of fields about a ki1ometre
from the village of Marcana on the border with Prodol. Loredan was
rightfully wonied that the tower would serve for criminal endeavours and
guarding loot.
Besides the crimina1 groups, some peop1e in the villages confronted
the authorities and at the same time enjoyed the generat support of the
viiJage community that defended the criminals and stood up to the
interventions of the authorities attempting to catch the villains. This is
confirmed by the example from Munti6 when Domenico Trevisan, Loredans‘
successor as count-provisor of Pula, presented in his repott. In the
early morning of 22 July 1 7 1 5 , Trevisan ‚ s cavalier came with spies and
an armed troop from Galizana to the village of Munti6 with the intention
of capturing a criminal, Stephan Dianovi6. In the attempt to apprehend
him Dianovic defended hirnself with a knife and wounded three spies.
Then Dianovic’s cousins appeared, along with the village gastald, Mike
35 lbidem, 54-57.
36 Prostina is a name for the territory south of.Kmica.
l l 4
Radesic, and his brother, village judge George Radesic; they demanded
that Dianovic should be absolved of wrongdoing and set free. They were
joined by the parish priest, who, by sounding the bells, alerted the whole
village and so the other inhabitants came, armed with knives, sticks, and
rocks. Armed troops scattered before the angry crowd and Jet the criminal
lose.
Count-provisor Trevisan, after this unsuccessful apprehension of
the criminal, was surprised by the attitude of the villagers especially that
of the parish priest, who instigated the rebellion instead of calming the
stubbom peasants as a proper priest should behave. He even threatened to
repott him to the ecclesiastical court. The rector of Pula apparently did
not know the circumstances in Istria and the centuries-long bond between
the village and their priest. A priest in Istria in the early modern period
was not, in fact, the humble executor of the orders given by the higher
ecclesiastical and lay authorities or their instrument for mling the
population, but he tumed to the people and took their side even in
extreme cases such as a rebellion agairrst the authorities. The priest
usually came from the people and sympathised with them regardless of
the norms of life and conduct of the so-called „educated culture“ (which
also included the doctrine of faith). Jt appears that lstrian parish priests
were usually the ones to stand against criminal groups who abused the
villages and sometimes they themselves became victims of the criminals.
In the case of Muntic, the parish priest took the side of the village for an
additional reason: his kornun (e.g., community, had the right to elect their
parish priest and he depended on the village economically. Whenever
possible, such village communities chose local men for their priests, who,
due to family ties, upbringing, and origin almost completely equated
themselves with the „mental“ stmcture of the village. This case was not
unique; there are many such examples and contemporaries thought them
typical of the relationship between a village community and the
authorities.37
Dangemus ctiminal bands
In almost all of the Jstrian villages there were criminal groups that
spread fear and anxiety and jeopardised the Jives of the population with
their hazardous activities. One must especially point out groups whose
activities and peculiar characteristics were noted in great detail in the
archival sources that provide detailed insight into the world of Istrian
robbery.
37 Miroslav Bertosa, Zlikovci i prognanici, 57-64.
1 1 5
Dracevac
In the village o f Dracevac, located in westem Istria, settled in the
sixteenth and the seventeenth century Croatian and Albanian immigrants,
there was a criminal group about whose violent behaviour the village
parish priest, James KuCipera, wrote a report that he submitted to the
Porec podesta at the end of 1765. This group managed to gain, through
intimidation, the reputation of being dangeraus criminals that no one
dared to stand up to. They were able, almost undisturbed, to kidnap
village girls, beat up new settlers, and steal cattle from the bams.
After the parish priest’s complaint and the investigation they tried
to take revenge. They shot him with an arquebus in order to frighten him
and also attempted in various ways to defame his character in order to
make him seem like someone who refused to do his duty. For instance, on
Christmas Eve, 1 756, during a great storm, they tried to force him to
serve the midnight mass in the field church located approximately a
kilometre and a half from Dracevac, although the weather conditions
were unfavourable and made travelling impossible. Since Kucipera
declined to travel during the bad weather, the next day the criminals
threatened that they would tie him up and take him to the bishop in Porec
as he had refused to perfonn his duty. Another act of intimidation followed
on 9 January 1758: they stabbed the parish priest’s horse with a
knife, wounding him fatally, and cut off his tail; then they injured thc
back of the mare, which was thus unable to be ridden. The same night
they tried to break into his hause, but they did not manage to break the
chains with which the oak stanchion was tied to the door.
After hearing the witnesses‘ accounts, the felons were apprehended
on the night of April 1757 Pascal Perkalj, John and Anthony Bestoli were
transferred to Kaper and placed in separate prison cells. Peter Sambri was
the only one who managed to escape since he was the first to find out
about the preparations of the chancellery of Kaper to arrest the er iminals
from Dracevac. Unlike the others, Sambri was the only one to take the
intentions of the authorities seriously and he fled to Lupoglav, the land of
the duke of Brigido in the Austri an area.
After several months spent in the dungeons, by mid-September
1757 a court hearing began and the accused were questioned. On this
occasion the scribes entered their descriptions in the records. For example,
Pascal Prekalj was described as a tall young man with a round
face that exhibited quite a bit of arrogance, with a black moustache, hair
tied in a ponytail, with a slight dark beard, dressed in a black linen cloak,
pants of white linen, white wool socks, and an old linen shirt; he was
approximately 24 years old.
1 1 6
All declared that their profession was working on the land and
refused to take the blame for the crimes. However, the testimonies were
full of information that confirmed their criminal activity. Their violent
behaviour was demonstrated on every occasion; they walked arow1d the
village armed with rifles and k.nives. They broke into houses seeking food
and drink, attacked the members of household, beat them, and threatened
them with murder, arson, and demolition oftheir property. They also took
their cattle into other people’s pastures and crops, thus causing great
damage. They usually insulted others, but they did not permit any jokes at
their own expense. Uncalled-for violence had one sole purpose: maintaining
the authority of the criminals and spreading fear amongst the population.
They ventured on every endeavour together, helped by accomplices
and criminals from other villages. The peasants complained about the
loud and outrageous swearing that followed every appearance of the
criminals. This was a part of their custom and everyday speech and it
instigated unease and fear. The criminals cursed everywhere, on the road,
in houses, taverns, etc.
Dw-ing the investigation and court procedure the witnesses revealed
facts that proved that social tensions in Dracevac had also developed from
different mentalities of the immigrant groups of Albanian Catholics and
how long they took to fit into their new surroundings. There were tensions
between the two worlds, two cultw-es, and among themselves, and
especially between the popular and literate culture. There lay the causes
for the conflicts between parish priest James Kucipera and the peasant
crimjnals. Kucipera came to Dracevac from Zadar, an area with a
different cultw-e and mentality. Defying the will of the village community
to accept as priest Sirnon Prekalj, a local man from a clan of Albanian immigrants,
Jacob Kucipera was elected to the position of curate. Although
he was young and inexperienced then, the energetic Kucipera begun to
strongly implement church discipline in the village.38
South lstria
Unlike the criminal group in Dracevac that limited its ruffian and
violent behaviour only to its own village, the criminals in southern Istria
were much more mobile; they were not limited to one place but appeared
out of nowhere at the moment they were least expected. Information on
these villains can be found in the records of the archival series of the
Council of Ten of 1 777, when an investigation was started by the countprovisor
ofPula, Pasqual Cicogna.
38 Jbidem, 73-93.
1 1 7
The record begins with the discovery of the criminal group: a tenyear-
old boy, John Biban from Valtura, first brought news about the
presence of the outlaws in June 1777. While he was guarding cattle
during the night in the forest of Magran in Valtura, he spotted six men
and one woman, arrned with pistols, sabres, and rifles; they were chasing
a bull with white hair. Soon other villagers noticed the criminals.
The sojourn of the criminals in the villages and their tour of public
spots and private houses had several ritual aspects. According to the
witnesses‘ descriptions, they came to the village of Kmica and stopped on
the square beneath the !arge tree called ladonja. A witness, John Mandu5ic,
observed from his balcony how the villains gathered in circle and
conspiratorially spoke among themselves. Such behaviour created an
atmosphere of conspiracy, tension and anticipation. Some peasants closed
themselves in their houses, prepared their rifles, and monitared the criminals‘
movements through closed windows while others went out in the
village to greet them and exchange a few words with them in order to find
out about their intentions and moods. Most of the members of the
criminal group were known to the villagers of Kmica and they already
had a special way of commwlicating with them. One of the more traditional
ways of contact with the criminals was to host them. From time to
time tbe peasants supplied the criminals with food and drink and in return
did not get robbed.
The goal of the criminals was often to create or reinforce their
image in the public eye by acting violently in public places to instill fear
in everyone’s present and thus impose their authority. The peasants
usually avoided giving declarations against accomplices coming from the
Lilie family of Kmica and other members of the criminal group out of
fear of retaliation. The example of young sixteen-year-old shepherd from
the Lilie family, John Hodan from Skitaca, a village in the area of La bin,
is noted in the sources. He repeatedly refused to cooperate and give a
Statement against the peasant James Lilie, whom he served. He repeated
that he did not know anything, negating his own words which had been
relayed under oath by other witnesses, denying that he had encounters
with the criminals and that they stayed and ate in house and bam of the
Liliei. That is why he received a reprimand for dishonesty and covering
up the facts during the interrogation and, as he did not want to testify
against Lilie even after that, an arrest warrant was issued for hiro. Hodan
was persistent in his stateroent for fear of bis master, who often abused
him, even physically. His obstinate negation of the events he had
witnessed left the investigators without the crown’s evidence of LiliC’s
ties to the criminals and his roJe as their accomplice. Therefore, Hodan
received a severe penalty as a matetial witness. The authorities putt him
in prison in Pula. Two weeks later the investigators again tried to question
1 1 8
Hodan, but he refused to talk even then, remaining withdrawn although
he provided several items of information that completed the picture of the
reality sunounding the rural world that was forced to cohabit with the
outlaws. Hodan was a young shepherd, an orphan without a fat11er, from
the poor village of Skitaca above Rasa Bay, weak, helpless, and
unprotected and totally left at the mercy ofthe anogant Lilie family. Even
though his master oftcn beat him, he dutifully executed his orders and
closed his eyes to Lilic’s crimes and associating with criminals. At the
end of the hearing, the investigators, the cavaher of the praetorian palace,
Pietro Rizzi, the court translator Monsignor don Matteo Grbin, and his
Excellency Count-provisor Pasqual Cicogna, were convinced that John
Hodan was not a conniving and untoward person who refused to give
information about the criminals, but a small, poor, frightened shepherd,
and they immediately ordered that he be released. What happened to him
next, whether his master punished him for the statement he gave, the
sources do not say.
Unlike Dracevac, where the rural world cohabited with the
criminals, in Krnica the criminals only came sporadically. However, their
accomplices, whom the peasants resented even more than the criminals,
wcre omnipresent. The Liliei family from Kmica, protected by the
authority of the outlaws, behaved anogantly, violently, and tyrannically,
causing hatred amongst the population. Likewise, because they accepted
criminals, they placed the whole village in danger, since the criminals not
only came there to rob, but also because they enjoyed the hospitality and
protection of their accomplices. In Statements to the investigators the
people of Krnica and Prostina voiced many more accusations and criticisms
against the Liliei than against the criminals.
An example of the violence of the Liliei towards the villagers was
stated by John Hrastic, a witness from Krnica. James Lilie wanted to
graze his cattle on Hrastic‘ s comfield at the beginning of August 1 776.
Hrastie did not allow this and staJted to chase the cattle away with a stick,
but Lilie pointed a rifle at him and chased him away and threatened that
he would regret that he ever dared to touch his cattle. Lilie actually
carried out his tlu·eat two days later by killing two donkeys that belonged
to Hrastic’s brother. After that, Hrastie, as he stated himself, did not engage
in any conflicts with Lilie.
In his investigation of this group, Chancellor Zuatme della Zuanna
tried to question all the people mentioned in the witnesses‘ accounts and
validate the infonnation about the villains which came from Prostina,
Barbat and Rakalj, going even further south to the village of Valtura and
estates between Pula and Medulin. Based on this information, it was
possible to determine the movements of the criminals. The chancellor
1 1 9
called the witnesses to Krnica from the area araund Prostina and he went
to remote villages bimself, which is well documented in the records.
In Prostina, in the forest araund tbe viiJage of Kavran, the peasants
encountered outlaws whose dress was similar to tbat wom by the peasants
in Kanfanar and Savicenta. An especially interesting account is tbat given
by John Postie from Kavran, who claimed that he saw the criminals
gathered in the forest not far from James LiliC’s estate and tbat with them
there was also a „woman wearing a hat.“ This is the only arcbival account
of the existence of a female criminal, which was a rare occurrence at that
time. The criminals encountered Postie and took bis rifle, pistol, knife,
and powder hom and emptied his tobacco box.
Afterwards, the questioning was done in RakaU, where the witness,
Paul Mandusie, confirmed that the pe1manent residents of that viiJage
were criminals, Guy Percan and Caspar Grubie, and that from time to
time tbe old outcast, Mike Lilie, who resided in tbe house of his brotherin-
law Roko Vale, also went there. He also claimed that in Percans‘ and
Grubies‘ housees atmed men from nearby areas gathered and Guy Marie
from Kanfanar also went there often. Mandusic as well as other witnesses
stated that these were the worst people in the village, who had been
sentenced to prison many times for their criminal activities and some had
even been banished, but despite that they still lived in Rakalj. James Lilie
was also connected to the group of criminals from Rakalj, since he visited
tbe communities and informed the villains about the movements of the
„black army.“39 The investigation in Rakalj did not discover any particularly
new facts about crimes and accomplices, but it was determined
that the criminals from Rakalj also bad boats harboured in the bay under
their surveillance and that they used every opportunity to attack them and
rob them although they were more oriented to endeavours on land. The
most important data that the chancellor obtained from this investigation
confirmed the connection of small groups of criminals that bad their own
„bases“ in villages, but were constantly on the move, circulating through
inhabited and unpopulated places all over southem Istria.
The chancellor then moved the investigation to Valtura, where a
fourteen-year-old girl named Lucy Perie was questioned; she declared
39 „The black anny“ (Ital. cernide) was a common name for the territorial forces of
the local miliria, which drafted able-bodied men from 1 8 to 35 years of age. According
to the regulations, a unit consisted of a caprain, I ieutenant, infantry – a flag
bearer, a batman, a discbarged soldier, rwo under-officers, and rwo drumrners. In
1700 a special decree prescribed a proper unifonn for tbem that at the beginning
differed from the uniform of the regular anny but afterwards, probably to save
money both dressed the same. See Miroslav Berto§a, „Crna vojska“ (Tbe Black
Army), in idem and Robert Matijasic (eds.), lstarska enciklopedija (Istrian
encyclopedia) (Zagreb: Leksikografski zavod Miroslav Krleza, 2005), 134.
120
that she saw the outlaws in the Magran forest while she was herding
swine. She fled afterwards and hid tmtil they passed her. Another witness,
fifty-year-old Luke Biban from Valtura, related information to the
chancellor about movements ofthe bandits from the Magran forest, where
they were hiding, to the village of Sisan and the estates of Sikici and
Skatari, where they operated.
After that, witness hearings were organised in Pula, where a
twenty-year-old peasant, Martin Skataro, presented many details, interesting
with regards to robbery, but also for social history. His encounter with
the villains happened at the meadow in Jadreski where Skataro brought
his bulls for pasture. He was then approached by three men, armed with
rifles and sabres, who asked him for directions. They forced him to accompany
them to Sisan to get wine, which he then had to carry on the
way back.
The witnesses‘ statements unequivocally proved that within the
jurisdiction of the count-provisor of Pula, Pasqual Cicogna, a group of
united villains and outcasts was present that had its own accomplices. The
exact number was not really determined nor was their identity, except for
eight criminals who belonged to different groups. lt was confirmed that
they committed violence, theft, threats, and revenge. I n his report, Countprovisor
Cicogna asked for authorisation from the Cotmcil of Ten to
continue with the investigation, that is, to atTest the outlaws. The end of
the investigation is not known and no further archival records refer to it,
but based on other indications it seems likely that nothing was done to
prevent crime and apprehend criminals.40
Plomin and surroundings
The criminal group that plagued Plomin and the nearby area was
formed by five brothers from the Filipas family (Mile, Matthew, Caspar,
Bamabas and Joseph). They all lived in the same house and formed a
!arge household in the village of Zagmje, within the jurisdiction of the
commune of Plomin. Their crimes are listed in the report written by the
judges of the commune of Plomin, which was then, in September 1769,
handed over to the Podesta of Labin Santo Muazzo, whose jurisdiction
also included Plomin castle. Two amongst them were sentenced to exile.
After the conviction, the brothers returned to their native house in
Zagorje, but the authorities did not intervene. Only after ten years of
criminal activities by the brothers Filipas did the cornmunal judges request
their prosecution because, due to their crimes and violence, the Jives
and property of the inhabitants were in danger.
40 Miroslav Benoa, Zlikovci i prognanici, 94-133.
121
During the investigation, a nobleman, Peter Kresevanic, a member
of the Council of Nobles of Pula and a former resident of Plomin, was
questioned. At the beginning his relationship with the Filipas brothers had
been good. Kresevanic lent them money and rented them his field cottage
close to their family house. The brothers, however, soon took down the
windowpanes and the iron construction of the balcony and afterwards
converted the cottage into a bam for !arge and small cattle. They Started
to chop down Kresevanic’s forest, take the cattle to pasture on his
meadows, steal grapes, and run sheep through the crops. This was the
source of the conflict between them and the nobleman that culminated
with the brothers Filipas invading KresevaniC’s house when his servants
were not present, frightening him and beating him up. He declared that he
had believed they would probably have killed him if several residents of
Plomin who had noticed the criminals enter his house had not run to his
aid. After this unfortunate event the nobleman left his estate and house in
Plomin and moved to Pula.41 The Filipas brothers took over his Iands,
harvested his crops, and disposed of his forests, vineyards, and meadows
while Kresevanic was barely able to feed his own family in Pula.
The criminals usually fought with the village gastalds, village
judges, and parish priests because they were the only ones able to stand
up to their arrogant behaviour and violence. Such was the case in Plomin,
where, in the J660s the Filipas brothers regularly insulted and threatened
the parish priest John Baneie on a regular basis. Even their arrival at
Sunday mass was a real spectacle.
ln the sources, an additional issue is mentioned ofwhich the Filipas
brothers were also accused: usurpation of Plomin communal land. They
had taken possession of the communal land that was intended by old
investitures for everyone to use. The witnesses explained how the Filipasi
came to appropriate by force the land of Plomin community that was
located below Zagorje, near the shore, on the hillside that descended
towards the sea. This area, called Pod Puskovo, was pasturage that was
rented to cattle owners from the area of Plomin. In 1767, communal
judges rented the pastures to the Filipas family, but they refused to sign
the contract that would legally regulate the rental. Irnn1ediately they
began to clear land and transform it into a vineyard and olive grove.
The Filipas brothers were accused of robbing the boat of the
patron,42 Anthony Kuci6 from Cres, in July 1762. The robbery occurred
41 Petar Ker§evanic and the members of his immediate and extended family were
often noted in the town registers (Slaven Bertoa, Zivot i smrt u Puli, passim).
42 Patron was the title of the owner or the captain of a ship (Rezasco, Dizzionario,
776).
122
during the night, when his bracera43 was harboured in the bay beneath
Brsec village and the patron and the passengers were sleeping in a private
house. Unknown thieves broke into a ehest and took articles valued at approximately
80 sequins. A month after the theft some of the belongings
from the robbed ship were exhibited in K.rsan and suspicion fell on the
Filipas family. Their acquaintance with the patron was revealed even
though their involvement in the theft could not be proven.
In cases of robbery in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Istria,
the Filipas brothers were a unique case. They were peasants as much as
they were criminals; they were permanently tied to the land and to their
criminal calling, as apt in farming as in handling weapons. The Filipas
brothers were undoubtedly a rare blend of criminal inclination and diligence
and enterprise, and unlike most other criminals they were actually
quite productive. They came to possess, albeit by fraud and theft, much
land, but they invested great personal effort and energy in caring for and
cultivating of these Iands. For instance, they cleared the weeds and stones
from the abandoned parcels on the communal land and planted a vineyard
and olive grove and witnesses testified that they saw them carrying !arge
stones and building a dry wall on the less accessible part of the usurped
land.
After consulting the investigation records and conespondence with
the heads of the Council of Ten in Venice, the new Podesta of Kaper,
Captain Niecola Donado, issued a public proclamation summoning the
Filipas brothers before the justice in order to be arrested and taken to
prison. The proclamation was read in Koper on the 7 August 1 770 and
copies of it were sent to Labin and Plomin, also in order to be announced
publicly. However, in the archival series of the criminal processes of the
Council of Ten of the State Archive in Venice there is no information on
the fmther destiny of the violent Filipas brothers. lt can only be assumed
that they probably did not surrender to the authorities and that they rather
chose exile then imprisonment. Conditions in Istria were favomable to
criminals since the chances of getting arrested where slim and the people
had a deeply rooted fear which enabled the villains, even after an official
sentence of banishment was pronounced, to reside m1disturbed in their
villages without facing any problems.44
A criminal venture of the peasants from Medulin
In lstrian villages there were individuals who constantly or
occasionally fell into stealing and crime, but there were also those who
43 A bracera is a small rowboat. Cf. Radovan Vidovic, Pomorski rjeenik (Maritime
dictionary) (Split: Logos, 1 984), 54-60.
44 Miroslav Bertoa, Zlikovci i prognanici, 134-54.
1 23
entered a life of crime accidentally. The chances for theft were numerous
and the persuasion of criminals was sometimes suggestive and tempting,
so that many, despite their convictions and good family reputation, ventured
on occasional risky and dangerous adventures. This generally happened
when the cattle were driven up to summer pasture on the slopes of
Ucka and Cicarija, when there were favourable conditions for stealing
others‘ property with a sense of ease that many feit because they were
away from their native environment and had the illusive hope that they
would be able to avoid arrest and punishment.
Such is the example of the endeavour of the Medulin peasant and
ilmkeeper Matt Lorencin, called Ostaric, who participated in a robbery in
the house-inn on Pehlin on the main road from Rijeka to Kastav. Together
with two other criminals, he robbed Anthony Juricic, the owner of the
inn. Based on the depositions of the household members, the investtigation
committee made a Iist of stolen items and estimated their value in
Venetian pounds in order to demand retribution for the darnage from the
rector of Pula. On the Iist, there were several objects made of gold and
silver, medallions and rings, pieces of garment (aprons, two linen aprons,
a silk scarf, a pair of socks), a mirror, a linen cover, a towel, tablecloths,
tin Spoons, forks and knives, gunpowder, etc. After the thieves had left,
the household members discovered that the robbers had entered the
closed house th.rough a small kitchen window. All th.ree of the household
were illiterate so they signed their joint statement with the sign of the
cross.
In this venture, Lorenein was the one to be arrested and taken the
next moming lmder guard to Rijeka, where he was imprisoned, chained,
and his identity was determined. During the two depositions he gave, the
first one before the captain of Kastav and the judges on October 1782 and
the second during the t1ial in January and February of 1783, his sincere
remorse for having committed the crime is clearly visible. After the arrest
he promised the authorities that he would give the whole truth and thus
help the investigation and the apprehension of other criminals in the hope
that he would thus be able to save his life. He claimed that he tried to distract
the robbers during the theft by deliberately putting out the candle he
was holding to light the place so that the thieves would leave the house as
soon as possible.
After a long hearing the „Independent criminal court of the town of
Kastav“ withdrew for consultation and, in April of 1 783, passed a verdict
that was read to Matt Lorenein before the court. Because of the burglary
and robbery, he was sentenced to the death penalty, according to which
he was to be taken to the scaffold and there hung. This was thc court’s
usual sentence for such a crime. However, in this case a rare concession
was made: the court council and president sought pardon from higher
124
authorities and after the answer the Kastav criminal court delivered
another verdict in May: Matt Lorencin, cal!ed Ostari6, held in prison in
Kastav for robbery, was given a new penalty instead of the death penalty
that he was sentenced to: he was to receive 50 streng lashes publicly and
afterwards be taken to the penitentiary in Ljubljana where he would spend
the next 1 5 years chained and working at the most difficultjobs.
Lorenein was saved from the death penalty by his sincere and
remorseful countenance and his cooperation with the authorities in
discovering the participants in this crime. This, however, was also supported
by the testimony of the robbed innkeeper Anthony Juricic, who
stated to the court authorities in Kastav that among all of the three villains
who entered his house, the most merciful was the one who was holding
the light. After the sentence Lorenein was taken to the penitentiary in
Ljubljana and his further destiny remains unk.nown.45
Preventing robbery. lnefficiency in preventive measures and pw1islunents
Venetian rectors of early modern lstria were constantly faced with
ehrenie and acute problems of maintaining the peace and suppressing
criminal activities. The representatives of the Republic of Saint Mark
were troubled for a long time with unsolvable issues: how to stand up to
the rise of crime, how to restriet criminal groups from roaming the province,
how to diminish the number of the outcasts who formed the core of
organised crime? As the Venetian rectors changed, each started over with
the issue of criminals.
ln 1635, the Captain of Rasper Giovanni Banista Basadonna considered
it more useful to hold the convicts captive in some place in Tstria
rather than banish them over the border since in this way they would stay
in the province even after the end of their sentence and no subjects would
be lost. One of his successors, Zuanne Corner, dedicated part of his report
in 1679 to the problem of bandits and the consequences that banishment
caused lstrian society. He argued that the simple fact of providing basic
living requirements for the Tstrian peasants in the light of rigid and
essentially harmful Venetian regulations and Jaws converted common
folk into outcasts and subsequently criminals. He did not condemn
trespassers to banishment, but during his service he sentenced 22
perpetrators to rowing on galleys so that they could be useful.
45 Ibidem, 155-76.
125
Fig 3: A convicted galley slave (schiavo sforzato della Galera Veneta) was
usually a person convicted for murder 46
In 1704, Captain of Raspor Francesco Pasqualiga entered inforrnation
in his report to the governrnent about rmmerous groups of armed
criminals that wandered Istria rohhing travellers and merchants on the
roads and also peasants and citizens, and he was forced to admit that it
was impossible to get rid of them. He proposed, however, that thc armed
troop undcr the authority of the rector in Buzet needed to bc strengthened
instead of having inefficient and umeliable land militia that was connected
with the criminals by blood relations and friendship. Likewise, he
stated that during their banishment criminals should serve in the arrny,
especially in Dalmatia.
However, even when the authorities had the opportunity to strike
the criminals harder, especially outcasts, they stayed tom between the
alternatives of what to do. Harsh punishments might provoke the loss of
too many subjects and at the same time they needed to protect trade and
remove the causes of a generat Iack of security and the domination of
criminals in the rural areas of certain parts of Istria. This problern
dominated the whole eighteenth century and all solutions seemed to be
inadequate. Most rectors suggested repressive measures against the
villains. For example, the Podestä of Koper Marco Michiel Salamon be-
46 lbidem, 136.
126
Jieved in 1 698 that the government should capture all of the most ruthless
criminals and members of their groups and sentence them to rowing on
the galleys. He advocated the establishment of the institution of field
guard (barige/la), which was a paid official in certain communities who
would deal with the criminal world. Two well-known bandits who
consented to do this service in exchange for pardans were Jacob Prekalj
and Francis Am1an, villains from the area of Porec.
However, after the post of field guard was established it was not
successful. Archival data mention the paid army as being the most
reliable in campaigns against villains. However, they usually failed due to
accomplices who stalked the soldiers, disclosed their plans, monitared
their movements and regularly supplied the criminals with this
information. For instance, in a campaign in Dracevac in 1757, the army
was supposed to surround the village, especially the houses of criminals,
arrest them, and ensure their delivery to the galley waiting in Lim Bay
and afterwards to the prison in Koper, but it did not quite succeed because
one of the criminals fled. In the 1 770s such attempts in the area of Plomin
and Krnica ended similarly.
The legal procedure of an investigation prior to an arrest was slow
and allowed the criminals to escape, work on their defence or hide their
tracks. In sh01t, repressive measures by the Venetian govemment were ineffective
and rarely resulted in a successful capture of the criminals.47
The Captain and Podesta of Koper Giorgio Bembo, in his report in
1738, made a correct observation that delinquency was strongly rooted in
Istrian society although he simplified some complex causes of the Istrian
early modern crisis. He believed that the province was not unproductive
because of the unfortunate circumstances in which it found itself, but because
the inhabitants were neglected and that is why they were all poor in
general. He presented different customs of the people who lived in the
territory and characterised the population as lazy, emphasising that they
led an inappropriate and sinful life and did not like to work diligently.
Bembo did not explain the core social causes for the emergence of
robbery, which could not be related to the „lazy population which finds it
difficult to abide labour“ since the outcast immigrants in Istria received
barren and rocky land which they were supposed to amelierate and use to
provide goods for thcir own subsistence. Small and irregular aid from
Venice often left them hungry and unfit for labour and many had to seek
help from the local authorities.
The usual punishment for robbery was the verdict of banishment
sentenced in absence. After they committed a crime most criminals fled
over the border outside the reach of the Venetian govemment and such a
47 lbidem, 1 79-97.
127
verdict was the only possible solution. Not only capital crime offenders,
murderers and ruffians were charged, but even those who committed
lesser criminal offences that could be settled by paying a fine. In exile
they continued with crime since this was the only way to survive, but that
only made crime more widespread and stronger.
If the Venetian governrnent was lucky and managed to catch the
criminals, the punishment was decided according to the nature of the
crime. By some calculations Venetian Istria had a high proportion of the
most major crimes in all rural Europe. The Podesta and Captain of Koper
Pietro Antonio Magno remarked in 1740 that one should differentiale
between those who committed a crime „due to their perverse and criminal
soul“ and those whose trespass was the „consequence of human
imperfection.“ Although both were in the category of fugitives or the
banished, one fled because of the seve1ities of his crime, while the others
fled for fear of facing justice.
The statutes of the lstrian communes specify harsh penalties for
murder. For instance, the statutes of Bale state that anyone who murders
someone and gets caught should be decapitated so that his head i s
completely removed from his shoulders, and if the murderer is a woman
then she should be bumt to death . If the perpetrator is not caught, he
should be banished forever. The fulfi lment of the punishment was usually
preceded by a „ritual of purification,“ that is, the chopping off of the
„violent hand“ (usually the right hand) with which the crimc was committed,
which was meant to symbolically „undo“ the crime. In the archives,
however, there was no record of the exact number of such
executions, decapitations, dismembennent or banging of criminals and
outcasts on the so-called „Hanging Hili“ (Monte delle Forche) not far
from Bale nor on any other scaffold in Istria.48
It is clear, however, that such repressive measures did not contribute
to thc decrease of crime and that the most distinguished representatives
of the Venetian governrnent usually tried to avoid them. The
cruellest criminals could not avoid the death penalty by hanging, though,
which i n most places served as a warning to other criminals and citizens
in general. Many were taken to Venice, where the executions were carried
out in the so-called Camerotto dello Giardin Scuro located inside the
prison building on Ponte della Paglia near the Riva of Hrvatov (Riva
degli Schiavoni). The decisions on executions were handed down by the
Council of Ten. The Jives of many people from Dalmatia and Croatia
ended in this room. For example, a note is preserved on the punishment of
Andrew Neretic by hanging, convicted and executed in 1 7 6 1 . He was a
captain from Veli Losinj who, together with guardian of ammunition in
48 lbidem, 198-2 1 3 .
128
the Venetian fortress of Corfu, secretly sold a cet1ain quantity of ammunition
and weapons to an Ottoman.49
(}
Fig. 4 : Large sabres and Lhe axe with which the executioners did their work:
examples from the sixteenth centur/0
In contrast, in the area of Pula in the seventeenth century
executions were mostly carried out by shooting with fire arms, usually
with a musket.51
0
Fig. 5: Musket and arquebus with which executions were carried out
52
Another type of punishment was placing the perpetrator in stocks.
The sources have only a few entries about this since it was usually
ordered by the representatives of the so-called „judicial bank“ (meaning
49 1bidem, 1 7 1 .
5 0 lbidem, 2 1 2 .
51 Slaven Bertosa, Zivot i smrt u Puli, 2 1 5 .
52 Miroslav Bertosa, Jedna zemlja, jedan rat: lstra 1615.-1618. (One country, one
war: lstria from 1 6 1 5 to 1 6 18) (Pu1a: lstarska naklada, 1986), 57.
129
ten village judges), that is, the owners of private estates. Only small
offenders such as petty thieves and people who swore in public were sent
to the stocks. 53
Fm1hermore, in many parts of old Europe, as in Istria, captured
robbers and criminals of all types were tied to the so-called „pillars of
shame“ (berline) where they were subjected to public mocking and even
attacks by wild dogs. Sometimes, for example, in Sutlovrec, cattle which
were caught doing darnage or on the meadows of another village
community were also tied to the berline until the owners settled the fine.54
In the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries there was an increase
in sentencing the convicted to galleys, mostly because the number
of men who would „volunteer“ as galley rowers for a salary was diminishing.
Instead of being sentenced to prison, hanged, shot or decapitated,
both minor criminals and serious offenders were more often
sentenced to the galleys, that is, they were chained to the bench and oar,
usually for ftfteen, twenty or more years.55
The Venetian auth01ities also issued verdicts of long-tetm
imprisonrnent in dungeons. However, the great difference was that the
establishments in Venice had dungeons which were famous since no one
could escape from them (for instance, the one called Prigioni Nuove),
while the prisons in lstria were usually inadequate for keeping accused
delinquents who waited for the end of the investigation process or for
those who were awaiting execution. Except for the dungeon in Koper,
other Istrian jails are described in the sources as shabby places,
sometimes even as wooden huts without strong doors, windows or
reliable guards. Although the accused and convicts were regularly
chained, the lstrian rectors often lamented their escape and evasion of the
hand ofjustice.56
Conclusion
The history of the early modern age in Istria is filled with shocking
revelations of deeply rooted hunger, poverty, depopulation, general insecurity,
danger, and robbery. The number of thieves, extortionists, lawbreakers
and murderers sometimes reached serious numbers. Robbery
was a side-effect accompanying the rapid deterioration of lstria from the
beginning of the second quarter of the sixteenth century. Unfortunately,
archival data about the growth of crime from that time are scarce,
sporadic and inconsistent. There is mentioning of different criminal
53 Miroslav Bertoa, Zlikovci i prognanici, 8 1 .
54 Jbidem, 209.
55 lbidem, 5 1 .
56 Jbidern, 172.
130
groups, darnage being done, numerous complaints by subjects and
Venetian rectors, but there are no investigation files, court records or
descriptions of crimes for constructing a more detailed p icture of robbery
in Venetian Istria in the period from the sixteenth to the eighteenth
centtUy.
Even the general archival data, however, show that crime in lstria
became widespread and omnipresent. The nurober of convicted criminals
in Jstrian Settlements does not portray the precise spread of the banditry
there. Although the local criminals were banished by the city podesta,
those who committed capital crimes were under the court jurisdiction of
the podesta and captain of Koper or the captain of Raspar in Buzet. That
is why these two places bad so many convicts who originated from all
over Istria, not only from Koper and Buzet.
The entire criminal world gathered areund bandits in groups of five
to ten and more people, including those who joined the criminals only
occasionally for thieving or to take revenge on someone. In this category
one must also include the accomplices who protected criminals and were
also criminals themselves. Witnesses‘ accounts directed to the Venetian
rectors demonstrate that the solution for the problem of crime was not
found and that it did not move from a standstill for almost a centmy and a
half.
Although Istria up to the fal l of the Venetian Republic was a land
where crime prospered, by the end of the 1740s the number of outcasts
was starting to decline. Thc population was still poor and there were still
thefts by individuals and groups, but there were fewer cases than in the
two previous centuries, when the fight to sustain bare life instigated
crime. Viilage communities began to organise in their fight against
criminals and introduced patrols and monitaring thc approach of known
criminal groups and h·ied to apprehend them with the help of the army
and the peasants, even though the fear of retribution often deterred such
attempts. Howcver, it must be stressed that in Istria the measures for the
maintenance of public security were modest, so was their success in the
fight against crime too. Therefore, crime managed to survive the transition
from an agrarian to industrial society and was transferred to the
nineteenth century and modern age. Criminals and outcasts lived for
centuries in lstrian society and represented a sinister and deadly symptom
of the society’s disorder and also the great crisis that the Venetian
Republic was experiencing.
(Translated by Kosana Jovanovic)
1 3 1
List of Contributors
Slaven Berlosa, Odjel za bumanisticke znanosti, Sveucili§te Jurja Dobrile u Puli (University
of Juraj Dobrila in Pula, Depanment of Humanities), P. Preradovica 1/1, 52100 Pula,
Croatia
Lovorka Coralic, Hrvatski institut za povijest (Croatian Institute of History), Opaticka 10,
1 0000 Zagreb, Croatia
Sabine Florence Fabijanec, Odsjek za povijesne znanosti Zavoda za povijesne i drustvene
znanosti HAZU (Croatian Academy of Seiences and Ans, Institute of Historical and
Social Sciences, Depanment of Historical Research), Strossmayerov trg 2, 1 0000
Zagreb, Croatia
Paul Freedman, Department of History, Yale University, 320 York Street, New Haven,
Connecticut, USA
Gerhard Jaritz, Department of Medieval Studies, Centrat European University, Nador utca 9,
I 05 1 Budapest, Hungary, and Institut fiir Realienkunde, University of Salzburg,
Körnermarkt 13, 3500 Krems, Austria
Kosana Jovanovic, Odsjek za povijest, Filozofski fakultet u Rijeci (Faculty of Philosophy in
Rijeka, Department of History), Trg lvana Klobucarica I , 5 1 000 Rijeka, Croatia
Damir Karbic, Odsjek za povijesne znanosti Zavoda za povijesne i dmstvene znanosti HAZU
(Croatian Academy of Seiences and Ans, Institute of Historical and Social Sciences,
Depanment ofHistorical Research), Strossmayerov trg 2, 1 0000 Zagreb, Croatia
Marija Karbic, Hrvatski institut za povijest, Podruznica za proucavanje povijesti Slavonije,
Srijema i Baranje (Croatian Institute of History, Department of the History of
Slavonia, Baranya and Syrmia), Ante Starcevica 8, 35000 Slavonski Brod, Croatia
Zoran Ladic, Odsjek za povijesne znanosti Zavoda za povijesne i drustvene znanosti HAZU
(Croatian Academy of Seiences and Ans, Institute of Historical and Social Sciences,
Dcpanment of Historical Research), Strossmayerov trg 2, I 0000 Zagreb, Croatia
Sanja Miljan, Odj el za Hrvatski latinitet, Hrvatski studiji Sveucilista u Zagrebu (Department
of Croatian Latinity, Centre for Croatian Sntdies of University of Zagreb),
Borongajska cesta 83d, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Suzana Miljan, Odsjek za povijesne znanosti Zavoda za povijesne i drustvene znanosti HAZU
(Croatian Academy of Seiences and Arts, Institute of Historical and Social Sciences,
Department of Historical Research), Strossmayerov trg 2, I 0000 Zagreb, Croatia
132
AT THEEDGE OFTHE LAW
MEDIUM AEVUM QUOTIDIANUM
SONDERBAND XXVIII
At the Edge of the Law:
Socially Unacceptable and Illegal Behaviour
in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period
Edited by
Suzana Miljan
and
Gerhard Jaritz
Krems 2012
MIT UNTERSTÜTZUNG
DER ABTEILUNG KULTUR UND WISSENSCHAFT DES AMTES DER
NIEDERÖSTERREICHISCHEN LANDESREGIERUNG
KULTUR 1!\ NIEDERÖSTERREICH ‚W
Copy editor: Judith Rassan
Cover illustration:
Justitia: St Michael and the Virgin Mary
Pembroke College, Cambridge
(Photo: Mirko Sardelic)
Alle Rechte vorbehalten
-ISBN 978-3-901 094-30-X
Herausgeber: Medium Aevum Quotidianum. Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der materiellen
Kultur des Mittelalters, Körnennarkt 13, 3500 Krems, Österreich. Für den Inhalt verantwortlich
zeichnen die Autoren, ohne deren ausdrückliche Zustimmungjeglicher Nachdruck,
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Druck: KOPJTU Ges. m. b. H., Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10, 1050 Wien.
Table of Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Damir Km·bic, The Thin Border Between Justice and Revenge,
Order and Disorder: Vraida (Enmity) and Institutional Violence
in Medieval Croatia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Marija Karbic, Women on the Wrong Side ofthe Law.
Some Examples from Medieval Urban Settlements
of the Sava and Drava Interomnium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1
Sabine Florence Fabijanec, Ludus zardorum:
Moral and Legal Frameworks of Gambling
along the Adriatics in the Middle Ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 I
Gerhard Jaritz, Outer Appearance,
Late Medieval Public Space, and the Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Zoran Ladic, C1iminal Behaviour by Pilgrims
in the Middle Ag es and Early Modern Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Paul Freedman, Atrocities and Executions
of the Peasant Rebe! Leaders
in Late Medieval and Early Modem Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Lovorka Coralic, Unacceptable Social Behaviour or False Accusations:
Croats in the lnvestigations of the Venetian Inquisition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Slaven Bertosa, Robbers, Murderers, and Condemned Men in lstria
(from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
List of Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Preface
This publication contains selected papers from a conference held in
Zagreb (Centre for Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb) in 2009, dealing with
the medieval and early modem period, and translated into English for this
purpose. • The main goal was to gather papers on a topic that has not been
researched enough amongst Croatian historians, that is, the socially unacceptable
and illegal behaviour of individuals who were „walking at the edge of the
law.“ The general idea was also to present various research questions at the
intersection of social and legal history, from the problern of feuding in medieval
society to the various types of delinquency by pilgrims. The emphasis was put
on the Croatian territory in the Middle Ages (from Slavonia to lstria and Dalmatia)
and set in a broader (East) Centrat European context. The articles follow
a chronological sequence, starting from the High Middle Ages, with a particular
focus on the late medieval and early modern period.
The first paper is by Damir Karbic, who dcals with the use of violencc as
a means of obtaining justice and re-establishing order, which was one of the
peculiarities of the medieval legal system when compared with Roman law.
After presenting different cases of feuds in Croatian sources, he discusses, how
medieval communal legislation treated feuds as a separate legal institute, using
the example of the city statutes of Split.
Marija Karbic concentrates on the ways in which women from the
medieval urban settlements of the Sava and Drava interamnium came into
conflict with the law by various criminal actions, from insults or brawls to
abo11ion and murder. She connects those problems with the economic situation
of these women, basing the analysis mainly on theft and prostitution cases. The
women were sometimes punished severely, but sometimes pardoned or punished
minimally.
The problern of gambling along the eastem Adriatic coast is the research
subject of Sabine Florence Fabijanec. She analyses the urban statutory regulations
Stretching from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centUJy. She deals with the
adoption of legal provisions against gambling and shows the diversity of approach
to gambling from city to city.
Gerhard Jaritz analyses the interdependence between Jate medieval
material culture, human behaviour, religious discourse, and legal culture using
the example of actions connected with superbio that played a role in public
• The Croation version of the conference proceedings is publisbed as Suzana Miljan (ed.), Na
rubu zakona: dru§tveno i pravno neprihvatljiva pona§anja kroz povijest, Biblioteka Dies
historiae, vol. 3 (Zagrcb: Hrvatski studiji, 2009).
7
urban arguments. The secular authorities emphasized moral, national, and religious
components, highlighting the necessity of averting God’s wrath.
The perception of the behaviour of pilgrims is the topic of Zoran LadiC’s
contribution. He shows, in cantrast to the idealized vision of pilgrimages and
pilgrims, that pilgrimages made by average medieval or early modem believers
were also considered superstition and that the pilgtims often engaged in fights,
robberies, prostitution, and other forrns of delinquent behaviour.
Paul Freedman offers an ariicle on late medieval and early modem public
acts of torture and execution, which were carefully choreographed events whose
solemnity and meticulous preparation made the infliction of mutilation and
death horrifyingly impressive. He also concentrates on the various topoi of peasant
rebellion as described by literate contemporaries, such as rape, murder,
cannibalism, the roasting of victims, and so on.
Lovorka Coralic deals with Croats accused in the records of the Venetian
Inquisition. Four types of accusation can be recognized: conversion to Islam,
Protestantism, the use ofmagic, and conduct considered improper for clergymen
(priests and other mcmbers of religious orders).
The last article is by Slaven Bertosa, dealing with poor social conditions
in Istria in the early modem period that led to hunger, poverty, depopulation,
and generat insecurity, which in rum provoked dangeraus behaviour, robbery,
and murder. Capital crimes were under the jurisdiction of the Potesta and
Captain of Koper or, respcctively, the Captain of Raspor with his seat in Buzet.
The village communities were also starting to organize themselves by introducing
patrols, although in a modest way.
The collection of articles tries to popularise the topics for one plain
purpose, that is, to erase the border between history and legal studies, since until
now one carmot actually speak of „interdisciplinarity,“ but only of looking at
many research problems from various reference points. Hopefully, this volume
will be useful not only for historians dealing with this poorly researched topic of
(Croatian) historiography, but also for a wider public generally interested in the
functioning of the legal and social system in the past.
Finally, my special gratitude goes to Judith Rassou for copy editing the
volume and to Gerhard Jaritz for offering the opportunity to publish it as a
special issue of Medium Aevum Quotidianum, thus promoting this research on
an intemational level.
Suzana Miljan
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MEMO - Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture Online
Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture Online
