Roman King Conrad IV accords privileges of the free elections of podestàs to the Commune of Koper, as long as they are elected from among those faithful to the Empire.
‡Conradus‡ Dei gratia Romanorum in regem electus semper augustus, Ierusalem et Sicilie rex.
Quociens a fidelibus Imperii aliquod iustum et honestum dea gratia postulatur, dignum est et consentaneum racioni ut imperialis celsitudo de magnificentie sue dono petita de gratia liberaliter largiatur.
Hinc est quod iustis peticionibus Andree Çenib potestatis et Comunis Iustinopolis fidelium nostrorum grato concurrentes assensu, volentes eisdem fidelibus Imperii et nostris et dicte civitati Iustinopoli, que fundata fuit a predecessore nostro dive memorie imperatore Iustino, graciam facere specialem, volumusc et presentis scripti privilegio largimur, ut prefata civitas Iustinopolis liberam habeat potestatem de fidelibus Imperii, undecumque et quandocumque voluerit, sicut imperialis civitas ab imperatore fundata, eligendi sibi potestatem, et in aliis omnibus que meram libertatem contingerintd libere utatur et plena gaudeat libertate, salvo honore et fidelitate nostra et salvo servicio quod exinde debetur Imperio.
Ad huius autem gracie nostre memoriam ete robur perpetuo valiturum, presens privilegium exinde fieri et sigillo magestatis nostre iusimusf conmuniri.
Presentibus Bertoldo marchione de Hoemburghe, Henrico comite de Spicçimbergh, Alberto domino de Trimbergh, magistro Gualterio de Ocra regni Sicilie cancellario, Phylippo Chenardo, Hugone de Abdemar(io)g et Fulco Rubeo de Calabria et aliis quam pluribus.
Data in Hystria apud portum Sancte Marie de Rosa, anno Dominice incarnationis millesimo ducentesimo quinquagesimo primo, mense decembris, decime indictionis, anno vero regni nostri primo.
Feliciter, amen.
Quod privilegium ego magister Iohannes de Brunde[sio]h regie curie notarius de mandato dicti domini regis scripsi et signo meo consueto signavi.
a) seq. nostra em. Böhmer. b) ex Zeno corr. B. c) ex volimus corr. B. d) sic B: pro contigerint seu pro contingent; contingent ed. Böhmer; contigerint ed. Baraga. e) add. sup. l. B. f) sic B; iussimus em. Böhmer. g) Abdemar cum sign. abbr. B; Abdemar ed. Böhmer; Abdemarr ed. Baraga. h) sic Brunde B; Brundesio em. Böhmer; Brundusio em. Baraga.
The second (or first since this charter is not dated with the day of the month) issued to the Commune of Koper by the new Roman king Conrad IV.
While the previous diploma (see it edited here) explained why the margravial authority in entire Istria reverted to the Empire following the death of Aquileian Patriarch Berthold V and why the citizens of Koper should not swear fealty to the newly elected patriarch, the zealous Guelph Gregory of Montelongo, but remain loyal to the Empire, this charter accorded the freedom of free elections of podestàs, as long as they are persons loyal to the Empire that is.
The privilege is a gift whose expected counter-gift was supposed to be Koper’s loyalty to the Empire, that is, to House Hohenstaufen and the Ghibelline party, and utter rejection of any secular authority of the newly appointed patriarch of Aquileia. The counter-gift failed and Koper would soon recognize the worldly authority of the new, Guelph patriarch-margrave.
Notes on manuscript tradition:
Baraga (cited above) claims that the charter survives in two copies: one in the State Archive in Venice (the one used in this edition) and the other in the Austrian Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv in Vienna. This claim is wrong and stems from Böhmer's notes who indeed consulted the document in Vienna back in the last third of the 19th century, but a large part of that archive pertaining to Venice (and Venetian possessions in Istria) was returned to the State Archive in Venice in several waves, first in 1868 and then in 1921. Thus, the "Viennese" copy used by Böhmer is in fact the same one that is nowadays in the Archivio di Stato di Venezia.
The publication of the facsimile of B (Venice, Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Miscellanea atti diplomatici e privati, busta 4, doc. 138) is granted free of charge by Archivio di Stato di Venezia by way of the “simplified procedure” of publishing archival facsimiles (La circolare della Direzione generale archivi n. 39 del 29 settembre 2017: procedura semplificata: pubblicazioni online che perseguano finalità scientifiche o pedagogiche, non beneficino di inserzioni pubblicitarie o commerciali e non siano soggette ad accesso a pagamento).
Photo by the editor.
The facsimile remains under the exclusive copyright of Archivio di Stato di Venezia.