Unit:
Κατεύθυνση Νεώτερη και Σύγχρονη Ελληνική ΙστορίαLibrary of the School of Philosophy
Author:
Raptis Panagiotis
Supervisors info:
Αναστασία Παπαδία-Λάλα, Καθηγήτρια Ιστορίας Νέου Ελληνισμού, Τομέας Ιστορίας, Φιλοσοφική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Κατερίνα Κωνσταντινίδου, Επίκουρη καθηγήτρια Ιστορίας Νέου Ελληνισμού, Τομέας Ιστορίας, Φιλοσοφική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Όλγα Κατσιαρδή-Hering, Καθηγήτρια Ιστορίας του Νέου Ελληνισμού, Τομέας Ιστορίας, Φιλοσοφική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Original Title:
Βάιλος και προνοητής-καπιτάνος. Βενετικά αξιώματα και μηχανισμοί εξουσίας στη βενετοκρατούμενη Κέρκυρα (16ος – αρχές 17ου αι.)
Translated title:
Bailo and proveditore e capitano. Venetian offices and power mechanisms in the Venetian ruled island of Corfu (16th - early 17th centuries)
Summary:
The present treatise aims at the study of the high offices in the Venetian overseas possession of Corfu, from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the first three decades of the seventeenth century. This period was crucial for the Venetian state, as it faced increased geopolitical pressure in the eastern Mediterranean from the centralized states of the Hapsburg domains and the Ottoman Empire. As a consequence, there was a vital need of updating the defensive fortifications of its maritime state, something that inevitably brought about notable administrative reorganization. As it was the case also in the island of Corfu, the course of these important administrative shifts was recorded in an eloquent way inside the reports (relazioni) of those high officials that served on the island and make up the basic source of this treatise.
The first chapter contains a succinct account of the major political events that took place on the island of Corfu from the Fourth Crusade (1204) until the beginning of the sixteenth century, as well as the framework and structures of the Venetian administration, along with the evolvement of the institution of the local community of Corfu, in the fifteenth century. The second chapter records, in its first part, the center’s administrative changes in the island from the office of baili and the extraordinary proveditori, until the final settlement and the enactment of the new high officer under the title proveditore e capitano (1574), while the second part attempts to clarify the procedure of consolidation of this administrative settlement until the beginning of the seventeenth century. In the third chapter an attempt to probe the relationship between the high Venetian officials and the institution of the local community is being made, trough the petitions (capitoli) of the communal representatives. The fourth chapter constitutes a précis of the provisioning policy of Venice in the island and how it was affected from the administrative reorganization of 1574 and the foundation of a communal granary in 1576. Finally, the fifth chapter undertakes a recording of the structure of the local treasury (camera fiscal) in the island, as it constituted one of the two major branches of the Venetian administrative structure, the chancellery being the second. Two significant changes took place: on high administrative level, the relieve of the treasury from bailo and the resumption of its control from the proveditore e capitano after 1574 and, on a lower administrative level, the assumption of four functionaries of the treasury stuff from the local community, after the communal delegation of 1542.
In the epilogue, this treatise concludes that Venetian administration during the sixteenth century corresponded to the challenge of defending her maritime territories in the Levant from the increasing centralized states dominated by the Habsburgs and the Ottomans through a new array of Venetian officials, who were also responsible to oversee and reinforce the updated defensive fortifications. One of the officials that were institutionalized was the proveditore e capitano for the island of Corfu in the year 1574.
Main subject category:
History
Keywords:
Venice, maritime state, sixteenth century, administration, early modern Europe
Number of references:
305
