venice’s maritime empire in the early modern period 191
and notwithstanding the attachment of the popolani to Venice, which
was generally stronger in this area than that of the noblemen, Venice was
not ready to accept the popolani’s demand of full share in the communal
councils. However, the Republic often accepted less radical demands pre-
sented by the popolani of Dalmatian towns. Thus, after occupying Zara,
Venice rejected the attempts by the local nobility to have decisive influ-
ence in the judicial sphere and to have the sole right to elect its members
as governors of what they claimed to be districts under Zara’s jurisdiction
(such as the islands of Pago, Arbe, Cherso, and Ossero). On Curzola, fol-
lowing the demand of the local popolani, the governor was elected from
1441 onwards in Venice’s Great Council, not in the council of Curzola’s
commune (dominated by the local nobility) as it had been during the
first 20 years of Venetian rule.248 Venice also accepted the demand pre-
sented by the commoners of Zara to nominate candidates from their rank
as interpreters in local courts of law and to open the profession of advo-
cates to commoners and foreigners.249 But concessions of this kind were
not universally applied. For example, in Capodistria, similar requests were
rejected by Venice as late as in 1769.250
The economic and social dynamism of the Dalmatian burghers resulted
already in the 15th century in the creation in several towns of a università
di popolo e cittadini, a corporate body parallel to that of the commune.251
Thus, in the mid-16th century, the università of Zara’s popolo assembled
and drafted demands (capitoli) of its own to be presented to Venice, and
the local governor was instructed by the Signory to let them do so with-
out hindrance. Similar developments took place in Pago (Pag) and Lesina
(Hvar).252 During the 17th and 18th centuries this process developed fur-
ther, and the burghers, although always excluded from the communal
council, found other ways to consolidate their influence, especially in the
framework of professional and religious confraternities, which sometimes
operated as the popolo’s università.253 Another field in which the growing
influence of the popolo can be discerned is the administration of various
248 Ortalli, “Il ruolo degli statuti,” p. 207 n. 32.
249 Cozzi, “La politica del diritto,” p. 74.
250 Ivetic, L’Istria moderna, p. 109. This was also the case in Pirano in the late 18th
century.
251 Praga, History of Dalmatia, p. 154; Pederin, “Die venezianische verwaltung... und
ihre Organe,” p. 105.
252 Pederin, “Die venezianische verwaltung... und ihre Organe,” pp. 104, 123.
253 E.g., ibid., p. 124 (the Scuola della Misericordia, founded in Zara in 1572); Pederin,
“Die Venezianische Verwaltung Dalmatiens... (XVI–XVIII Jh.),” pp. 184, 195, 216–19, 245.