venice’s maritime empire in the early modern period 183
it did, for example, in the Istrian province of Pinguente in 1420,216 in 16th-
century Cyprus,217 or in the late 17th-century Morea.218
Unlike the main urban centers of the Venetian terraferma, those of the
stato da mar, though in many cases with a communal tradition of their
own, had not been (except for Cyprus) capitals of territorial states before
the Venetian takeover, and their elites were not as powerful as their terra-
ferma homologues. Nevertheless, the communal councils of the overseas
dominions still had considerable autonomy in managing local affairs, an
autonomy that tended to grow in the course of the four centuries sur-
veyed here.
Karapidakis’s study of the community of Corfu may serve as an example
for the development of these institutions.219 A pre-existing urban council
of some sort predated the Venetian takeover. About a century after the
latter event, apparently following the growth of the council resulting from
a growing number of Corfiots who gained the status of citizens (which
entitled them to be council members), a smaller council, the council of
150, was created in 1484. Its members were elected each year from a pool
of citizens who had previously served in various public offices.220 Over a
century later, in order to assure a more orderly decision-making process,
an even smaller council, the Conclava, was created, charged with prepar-
ing the deliberations of the greater bodies.221 This tripartite structure was
reminiscent of that of the Collegio, the Senate, and the Great Council in
Venice, which probably served as an institutional model. The Conclava,
established by a ducal decree of 1627, included three judges, four syn-
dics (the Latin and Greek heads of the community), two censori (who
controlled the legality of the council’s procedures), three capitolari (in
charge of drafting the demands sent to Venice), and if necessary, also the
216 Ivetic, L’Istria moderna, p. 37.
217 Benjamin Arbel, “Urban Assemblies and Town Councils in Frankish and Venetian
Cyprus,” in Theodore Papadopoullos and B. Englezaki, eds., Πρακτικά του Δευτέρου Διεθνούς
Κυπριολογικού Συνεδρίου, 3 vols (Nicosia, 1986), 2:203–13, repr. in Arbel, Cyprus, article no. IV.
218 Ranke, “Die Venezianer in Morea,” pp. 331–32, 346; Cozzi, “La Repubblica di Venezia
in Morea,” pp. 750–53; Alexis Malliaris, “Population Exchange and Integration of Immigrant
Communities in the Venetian Morea, 1687–1715,” in Siriol Davies, and Jack L. Davis, eds.,
Between Venice and Istanbul. Colonial Landscapes in Early Modern Greece (Athens, 2007),
pp. 97–109.
219 Karapidakis, Civis fidelis.
220 Ibid., pp. 120–21, 159 n. 74. Bacchion, Il dominio veneto su Corfù, p. 51; Lunzi, Della
condizione, pp. 272–78; Nicolas Karapidakis, “La formazione di un ceto di potere a Corfù
nel XV secolo,” in Chryssa Maltezou and Gherardo Ortalli, eds., Venezia e le Isole Ionie
(Venice, 2005), pp. 105–75.
221 Lunzi, Della condizione, pp. 299–302.