VENICE AND FERRARA: CITIZENS, SUBJECTS AND... BASED ON THE MATERIALS OF THE DOGE’S EPISTLES FROM THE COLLECTION OF N.P. LIKHACHEV

Abstract

The basis of this work is 12 letters of the Venetian Doges (lettere ducali) of the XIV-XV centuries to Ferrara from the collection of N. P. Likhachev (1862-1936), stored in the Western European Section of the Scientific and Historical Archive of the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Until the last decades of the last century, they remained practically untouched by researchers. The article involves identifying the terminology that is used in the messages to indicate the place in society of everyone who was mentioned in them, for example: civis-citizen; subditus-subject; colonus-colon, etc. Such terminology is key for lettere ducali, as documents of public nature, in contrast to private acts of this time, where it is almost not found. The study of the Doge’s letters of 1375–1437 sent to Ferrara provides a vivid illustration of the emergence of traditions of international relations in protecting the interests of their citizens. At the end of the XIII century, most citizens who did not belong to the nobility lost their political rights, but outside of Venice, Venetian citizenship did not lose its status and prestige. It should be noted, however, that the concern of the Venetian government extended not only to citizens whose interests were infringed outside the possessions of Venice, but also to those representatives of its population who did not belong to the composition of its citizenship.The analysis of the social and legal realities revealed as a result of the study of lettere ducali can provide new material for studying the legal status of various strata of society in Northern Italy of the XIV – XV centuries – a topic that cannot be considered fully studied.

Keywords

• doge’s epistles (lettere ducali)
• citizens and subjects
• venice
• ferrara
• xiv – xv centuries