The Commune of Koper, represented by the podestà and three consuls, endows the Bishopric of Koper with four villages – Lopar, Padna, Brič and Srmin –, a thousand vineyards, and with the oil tithes of the entire city, forbidding the bishops of Koper to ever enfeoff or otherwise alienate the endowed rights and possessions.
In nomine domini Dei eterni.
Regnante domino nostro Federico piissimo imperatore, anno Domini millesimo centessimo octuagessimo sexto, indictione quarta, mensis iulii quinto die intrante.
Actum in civitate Iustinopolitana in maiori ecclesia, in presentia nuntiorum domini pape, silicet magistri Gualandi sancte Romane ecclesie subdiaconi et magistri Tinosi domini pape capellani, et coram nunciis domini Gottofredi sancte Aquilegensis ecclesie patriarche magistro Ranulo et magistro Ubaldo et domino Hermano thesaurario.
Constat nos quidem Almericum Iustinopolitane civitatis potestatem et consules, silicet Litifredum, Iohannem Saracenum et Leonem, de voluntate et consensu Communis nostre civitatis, donationem et omnis nostre actionis quam habemus finem et refutationem super altare sancte Marie predicte civitatis fecisse de posessionibus nostro Episcopatui assignatis quas habere et tenere visi sumus, videlicet de Luparo, de Padena et de Pillo Roveredi ac de Insula Risani, cum omnibus suis pertinentiis in integrum, et de mille campis vinearum in finibus nostris, eo siquidem tenore, quod noster proprius episcopus et sui successores ad utilitatem sue mense habere et tenere debeant in perpetuum, tali modo, quod non debeant habere potestatem vendendi, donandi, infeudandi vel quolibet titulo eas possessiones alienandi.
Et si in quocumque tempore aliqua persona contra hanc nostre donationis et refutationis cartulam ire temptaverit aut aliquo modo vel ingenio corrumpere voluerit aut molestare vel infringere pressumpserita, tunc quidem per nos et nostros heredes ab omni homine guarentare et defendere promittimus.
Quod si guarentare et defendere iure ac rationabilliter non potuerimus sive noluerimus, tunc quod amissum fuerit sub extimatione bonorum hominum in consimili loco restituere spondemus.
Si vero restaurare noluerimus, tunc quod amissum fuerit sub extimatione bonorum per nos et nostros heredes nostro episcopo, qui tunc erit, auri optimi libras centum componere nos obligamus.
Insuper addimus et dare promisimus super idem altare decimaciones nostri olei, quod annuatim nobis Deus concesserit, pro remedio animarum nostrarum nostrorumque parentum, ut noster proprius episcopus et sui successores decetero in proprios usus habeant et possideant, ita quod non liceat eis has decimaciones infeudare neque aliquo titulo a sua propria mensa alienare.
Unde due cartule uno tenore sunt composite, quarum unam cartulam habere debet episcopus noster, et aliam cartulam habere debet Commune nostre civitatis.
Ad hec interfuerunt Dominicus diaconus et decanus prefate civitatis Iustinopolitane, Bernardus archidiaconus, Bonifacius magister scolarum, Venerius diaconus et thesaurarius, Germanus sacerdos, Albinus sacerdos, Petrus sacerdos, Salvator sacerdos, Iustus diaconus, Martinus subdiaconus, Iohannes et Iohannes subdiaconi, Petrus Pentulus capelanus, Rantulfus iudex dicte civitatis Iustinopolitane, Mengocius iudex, Iohannes iudex, Adalperius notarius, Ermanus maior et alii quamplures.
Ego Almericus Iustinopolitane civitatis notarius interfui et de precepto presentis potestatis et consulum ac Communis hanc cartulam manu mea propria scripsi.
a) sic C.
The charter presents the birth certificate of the Commune of Koper as the noun Commune in relation to Koper appears here for the very first time.
The Commune is represented by the podestà Almericus (anglicized as Emery) and consuls. First, the podestà mentioned in the charter is not a typical one that characterizes the urban communes of central and northern Italy in the 12th and 13th centuries – he is not a foreigner invited to govern the city for a fixed term, but rather a local who governed the city for decades. As such, podestà Emery is much closer to a comital gastald than to a podestà of Italian city-states. The term was most probably “borrowed” by Capodistrian scribes who were educated in northern Italy, and then uncritically “transposed” to the local officials who came closest to the term’s original semantic horizon.
The consuls, however, are most certainly a new communal institution, the leaders of the city governing in tandem with the local podestà. They are not merely judges, as iudices appear later in the document (three of them: Rantulfus, Mengocius, and Iohannes). There was some discrepancy in interpreting the number of consuls that appear in this charter. Benussi (cited above), counted four consuls, and Semi followed him in this reading. Jenko Kovačič (cited above), however, saw only three consuls appearing in the charter. The question revolves around the reading of “Iohannem Saracenum” – should there be a comma between the two names, thus referring to two individuals, or is one individual called John the Saracen? Manuscript C, the oldest surviving copy, clearly separated the names of the consuls by interpuncts (a dot in the middle of the line): one interpunct follows Litifredus, one follows Iohannes Saracenus, and there is another one after Leon. Therefore, if the 15th-century scribe of C is to be trusted, there were only three consuls in Koper in 1186.
The ubication of endowed possessions has already been answered by Kandler and Benussi (cited above): Luparum is Lopar, Padena ought to be Padna, Pillum Roveredi is Brič (Slov. Briz, currently in Croatia), and Insula Risani is Srmin. All possessions are situated around Koper, some closer to the urban center than others.
The title of the vidimus in T features the phrase “Pillo Roveredi seu Costę Bonę”, but this Costa Bona, present-day Koštabona by Koper, is not mentioned in the charter. Moreover, Pillum Roveredi is not the same place as Koštabona as the title would suggest. This erroneous title, most probably the work of 17th-century bishops of Koper who wanted to explain the origins of their jurisdictions in this particular locality, led many researchers to the conclusion that Koštabona was mentioned for the first time in 1186, in the hereby edited charter. This is wrong as it is based solely on the erroneous title of the 17th-century vidimus.
Since the name of the bishop is not mentioned, it is universally interpreted that there was still no Capodistrian bishop at this time, although the bishopric had been reinstituted by the decree of Pope Alexander III (see doc. 1177_PA), but governed by the incumbent bishop of Trieste, Wernher, until his death. The next known bishop of Koper would be Aldiger, appearing as such in several documents from 1189 (Reinhard Härtel, Die älteren Urkunden des Klosters S. Maria zu Aquileia (1036-1250) (Vienna 2005), docs. U 34–36, pp. 124–128).