Baranke u Dubrovniku: Matična komuna u izjavama njihove posljednje volje (XIV. – XV. stoljeće)
Women from Bar in Dubrovnik: native commune in the declarations of their last wills (14-15. centuries)

Summary/Abstract: The research is based on the analysis of the unpublished sources from the State Archives in Dubrovnik, the materials dating back from the last two decades of the 14. century and the first half of the 15. century. Several exemplary declarations of the last wills of the testatrices born in Bar or originating from that town are showing the significant segment of connections of the two communes of the Southern East Adriatic coast. Citizens of Bar as denizens of Dubrovnik - which they, especially during the fourteenth, the fifteenth and the second half of the sixteenth century regarded as their second homeland – were numerous – and in archival sources of Dubrovnik often recorded. Hence, the analysis of particular aspect of relation of these two communes is more important, contributing to the clarification not only of the historic streamlines on the part of Adriatic coastland, but, beacause of lack of archival sources from Bar, to the reconstruction of entire social history of that town. The archival sources of Dubrovnik primarily reveal the facts on integration of related women from Bar in the environment in which they arrived, mostly marrying the well-heeled members of the class of citizens. Founding of the family and later familial occasions are reflected in their testametary disposals. Commercial activity, credit transactions of the spouses or persons that were close to testatrices can be presumed according the amounts of money they determined for certain bequests, valuable movables and objects of luxury, as well as the real estate, with which they disposed in Dubrovnik, Bar and the relating surroundings. On basis of such a data, furthermore, discerning the topography of the patrimony, can be reconstructed the district of Bar, and also recognized the antiquity and perseverance of its toponymy. The facts that those documents contain are of particular worth for the onomastic research, for the lexical history of the lineage surnames of which the bearers were mostly the nobles, distinctive functionaries in the structure of the town’s regimen and administration, as well as the ecclesiastical dignitaries. The relations with the closest family members and with the relatives are significantly defined through hereditary legating and the testatrices’ disposals with the marital and dowry property. The relation of legal traditions of two communes can be ascertained on a trace of Dubrovnik’s usage, according to wich in case of a defunct wife without a children the half of a dowry have to be returned to her ancestral family. Preoccupation with the salvation of the soul embraces significant parts of considered last wills, bringing the series of facts on bond with the Church. Distinguished are the donations to franciscans of Bosnia, to dominicans, and for pilgrimages to the distant locations, such are St. Sepulchre of Jerusalem and Santiago de Compostela.

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