184 benjamin arbel
Provveditori alla sanità. Like the Venetian Collegio, the Conclava became
the body that decided which matters were to be brought for deliberation
in the councils, at what stage, and in what manner. Although a few feu-
dal families were represented in the Corfiot community council, member-
ship in this body was originally not associated with noble status. However,
already in the 16th century it tended to be a preserve of certain families
who, in the 17th century, styled themselves “noblemen.”222
Zante’s council seems to have been modeled on that of Corfu, and the
same goes as far as Cephalonia is concerned, although with greater func-
tional difficulties. On Cerigo, a council of 30 members was established in
1572, elected on the basis of property qualifications. The council of Santa
Maura, established following its occupation in 1684, operated in a similar
manner and was reformed in 1760.223
Crete, as in many other respects, was different from all other maritime
territories in this regard as well. At the beginning its councils were repli-
cas of the Venetian ones, with only Venetian patricians as their members.
There was a Cretan Great Council, a Senate, and even a Council of Ten.
Another body, not modeled after the Venetian one, was the council of feu-
datories. However, in the course of time, local dignitaries, alongside Vene-
tians and others, obtained recognition as “Cretan noblemen” and, as such,
were entitled to be members of one of the three councils of noblemen
that existed in Candia, Rettimo, and La Canea. But the marked presence
of Venetians in all councils still constituted the main difference between
the Cretan councils and those of all other overseas colonies.224
In the kingdom of Cyprus, before the Venetian takeover, there had been
the High Court, a feudal institution that was rarely convened and, both
in Nicosia and Famagusta, some sort of loose framework of universitates,
which had no active role in the administration of the kingdom. During
the Genoese occupation of Famagusta (1373–1464), a corporate body of
the Genoese settlers seems to have existed there. Venice abolished the
Cypriot Haute Cour, since it also had some flavor of sovereignty, but it
considered favorably the request of the representatives of both Nicosia
222 Karapidakis, Civis fidelis, pp. 120, 123.
223 Lunzi, Della condizione, pp. 309–12; Miller, “The Ionian Islands,” pp. 224, 226–27;
Despina Vlassi, “Η αναμόρφωση του συμβουλίου της Κεφαλονιάς από το Γενικό Πρoβλεπτή
tης Θάλασσας Giovanni Battista Vitturi (1751),” ΣΤ’ Διεθνές Πανιόνιο Συνέδριο, Ζάκυνθος, 23–27
Σεπτεμβριου 1997. Πρακτικά, 2 vols (Salonica/Athens, 2000–011), 2:321–35.
224 Anastasia Papadia-Lala, Ο θεσμός, pp. 52–62, 94–100.