venice’s maritime empire in the early modern period 161
Judicial appeal to higher magistracies in the colonies themselves, as well
as to central judicial organs in Venice, was an important instrument of
colonial rule. Besides providing Venice’s subjects with indispensible access
to equitable justice, it also served as a means of control over Venetian
colonial magistrates and constituted a unifying framework to the colonial
administration of an empire that was so diversified in many respects.
To avoid flooding Venetian courts with appeals from overseas territo-
ries, especially from the closer ones, appeals from minor localities were
first directed to Venetian magistrates in major colonial centers, and only
those of certain importance, as defined by law, could be forwarded to Ven-
ice (the official reason was to save local subject the trouble of making
the long trip to the metropolis). For example, appeals from the sentences
of the podestà of Antivari went to the conte e capitano of Scutari, and
only those involving a penalty of at least 100 ducats were sent to Venice.123
Similar arrangements were established for Nona, from which appeals had
to go to Zara; from Poglizza, from which appeals had to pass to Spalato;124
and for most of Istria’s minor centers, wherefrom appeals went to the gov-
ernor of Capodistria.125
As far as appeals to Venice were concerned, the auditori alle sentenze,
and later the auditori nuovi, were the magistrates who first handled all
appeals in civil cases. They could deal with appeals regarding penalties
that did not exceed a certain sum (20 gold ducats in 1407 and 100 ducats
by 1668). In such cases, their endorsement of a former sentence was final.
In more important cases they could only endorse former sentences on
condition that they did so by unanimous vote of the three magistrates.126
If they considered the appeal to be justified, the case was transferred to
the appropriate court, normally the Quarantia civil nova.
Appeals regarding criminal sentences (as well as important civil cases)
were dealt by the Avvogadori di comun, who acted in such cases as con-
trollers of proper judicial procedures. Once they were convinced that an
appeal was justified, they issued an official note to the Quarantia criminal,
or to the Quarantia civil (for a civil case), a copy of which was sent to
the court that had passed the original sentence in order to suspend the
123 Levi, “Venezia e il Montenegro,” p. 47; Cozzi, “La politica del diritto,” p. 68.
124 Cozzi, “La politica del diritto,” p. 70.
125 Ivetic, L’Istria moderna, p. 59.
126 Ceferino Caro Lopez, “Gli auditori nuovi e il dominio di Terraferma,” in Gaetano
Cozzi, ed., Stato, società e giustizia nella Repubblica Veneta (XV–XVIII sec.) (Rome, 1980),
pp. 259–316.