Vol. 6: A 1421 usque ad 1535

The Venetian Senate debates the future of the newly conquered strongholds in Istria: Oprtalj, Petrapilosa and Buzet. First, the Venetian Senate decided to postpone deliberating on the fate of these three Istrian forts to another date and after lunch (P. 1); then, three days later, it votes on three proposals (P. 2–4), ultimately decreeing to accept the three communities into their dominion and keep their walls intact, authorizing the delegated rectors of Koper to appoint the citizens of Koper to serve as governors of these three places.

Doge Tommaso Mocenigo issues a ducal letter to all the Venetian officials in Istria and to Buzet, officially welcoming the community to Venetian dominion and promising to its citizens the respect of their old laws and custom that they had practiced before being subjected to Venice.

The Venetian Senate deliberates on the matter of the four recently annexed communinites in Istria and their unhappiness with the current regimen; the first proposal (P. 1), to modify the existing jurisdictional framework is rejected; the second proposal (P. 2) is accepted, changing absolutely nothing, but only advising the rectors of Koper to delegate literate and suitable persons to these posts.

The Venetian Senate heeds the pleas of Buje, allowing the community to elect their own rectors from among the members of the Venetian Great Council.

The Venetian Senate revokes the privilege accorded to Labin by which the community was allowed to elect their own podestàs from among the Venetian noblemen; henceforth their rectors will be elected by the Venetian Great Council.

The Great Council of Venice decrees that all the disputes between close family members must be settled by way of third-party mediation and compromise.

The Venetian Great Council creates a number of new administrative posts aimed to be filled by the poorer nobility, among them the podestà of Buzet.

The Venetian Great Council creates a number of new administrative posts that are henceforth to be filled by the Venetian noblemen, among them the rector of Medulin, the podestà of Oprtalj, and the podestà of Dvigrad.

The Council of Ten confirms the old privilege of the Commune of Koper and the original pact with Dvigrad by which the nobles of Koper elect among themselves the regularly rotating podestà of Dvigrad.

Due to the fact that Buje borders the lands of lord Emperor in Istria and that there have been many incursions and raids by the emperor’s subjects, the Venetian Senate agrees to support the proposal of the citizens of Buje and their delegated podestà, greenlighting the plan to fortify the city within five years and pay for this enterprise with the income provided by Buje’s regalian rights.

The Venetian Senate commissions the drawing of detailed maps of all their subject territories, highlighting their boundaries with adjacent dominions and lordships.

Due to poor management of public granaries throughout Istria, where the managers of these granaries used the money for other purposes rather than to purchase grains and other necessary items to feed the poor, the Venetian Senate enacts several rules to remedy this situation.

At the request of Stephen Satarel, the representative of the parish church of Saint George, Zorzi Sagredo, the incumbent podestà of Oprtalj, confirms the ancient boundaries between the tithe pertaining to the treasury of the parish church and that pertaining to the Bishopric of Novigrad, establishing that the tithe on lands situated above the boundary line (from the Carmargnach mill to Solina) belongs to the parish, while the bishop is entitled to the tithe on lands below the said line; the podestà condemns Mochor Turrina, lessee of the episcopal tithe, to restore what he has unlawfully collected and to pay the costs of the judicial process.

At the request of Francis, the representative of the bishop of Novigrad, the podestà of Oprtalj orders Bertolo Golcih, treasurer of the parish church of St. George, and the other wardens of the churches and confraternities of Oprtalj to appear within one month to respond to the bishop’s claim regarding the collection of tithes on properties bequeathed to the said churches by deceased persons.

Marco Antonio Foscarini, the bishop of Novigrad, and Andrea Ferro, syndic and procurator of the Commune of Oprtalj, settle the dispute concerning tithes on properties acquired by the treasury of the parish church of St. George and by other churches and confraternities of Oprtalj, establishing that said institutions shall pay the bishop in perpetuity the tithe on all properties acquired from private persons and of which memory still subsists, excepting only original endowment properties; in return, the bishop lifts the ecclesiastical interdict and grants absolution from excommunication with which he had struck the people and the Commune of Oprtalj due to unfulfilled tithe payments.