The Relationship between Public and Private on the Island of Rab during the Second Half of the 14th Century
The Relationship between Public and Private on the Island of Rab during the Second Half of the 14th Century

Author(s): Dušan Mlacović
Subject(s): Economic history, Local History / Microhistory, Social history, Government/Political systems, 13th to 14th Centuries
Published by: Hrvatski institut za povijest
Keywords: Island of Rab; 14th century; public; private;
Summary/Abstract: The second half of the 14th century was the only prolonged period after the year 1000 in which the island of Rab was not under the Venetian rule, but subjected to the Hungarian kings together with the rest of Dalmatia. The new political constellation entailed a significant restructuring of power within the commune. It was only to be expected that the noble kindreds who had linked their position in the commune to the presence of powerful Venetian kindreds, who had their own vested interests in Quarner, would gradually decline. This happened to the Hermolais, who were related to Rab’s noble Venetian kindred of Badoer and who had been used to their members holding the office of Rab’s bishops for so long. It was also easily predictable that those kindreds who were inclined to Hungary even during the Venetian rule would now have their chance of surpassing all their local rivals. There was, however, something that came as a novelty with the ascension of the Angevin kings, and the inhabitants of Rab still had to learn to deal with it, each in their own way: the absence of a powerful authority of a count, which increased the significance of the titles of the vice-count and the communal chancellor. The increased importance of these two functions, as well as the greater role of judges in the public life of the local commune, also led to the restructuring of the attitude of Rab’s elites towards the relationship between public and private in their own setting.

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