196 benjamin arbel
somewhat earlier, the cittadini (and the popolani as well) were able to
convene in order to elect their procurators and draft their demands is
rather significant, even if this initiative did not lead to the creation of
new constitutional councils.269 Giacomo Foscarini, Provveditore Generale
of Crete in 1574–77, also refers in his relazione to the cittadini and the
popolani as two distinct groups in the island’s towns.270
A sort of compensation for the inability to participate in the councils,
but also a kind of temporary phase towards the attainment of noble sta-
tus, was the organization, in the second half of the 16th century, of a fra-
ternity of Greek cittadini (πολίτες). Several members of this organization
later succeeded in becoming noblemen.271
As from 1616, citizenship was required in Crete for employment in pub-
lic offices, and candidates had to be in possession of a prova di cittadi-
nanza that could be acquired only under certain conditions: being at least
25 years of age; being of legitimate birth and a descendant of respectable
parents who had not been engaged in mechanical arts for three genera-
tions; residence in town; and a good social reputation. This looks like a
belated imitation of a similar development that concerned the Venetian
cittadini originarii about a century earlier.272 In any case, the emergence
of Cretan cittadini as another respectable group within Cretan urban soci-
ety appears to have been a successful way of assuring the fidelity of new
or not-so-new elites that existed in early modern Cretan towns, especially
members of the Greek-speaking town dwellers. A census carried out in
Crete in 1644 reflects this reality: in Candia there were 14,451 inhabitants,
among them 118 noblemen and 164 cittadini; in Canea there were 10,400
inhabitants, 97 of whom were noblemen and 153 cittadini; and in Rettimo
there were 8038 inhabitants, 65 of whom were noblemen and 70 cittadini. 273
It should be emphasized here that the significance of the terminology
denoting civic status was not identical throughout Venice’s dominions.
269 Papadia-Lala, Ο θεσμός, p. 123.
270 Lamansky, Secrets d’État de Venise, 2:632.
271 Papadia-Lala, Ο θεσμός, p. 124.
272 Aspasia Papadaki, “Αποδείξεις αστικής ιδιότητας στην Κρήτη το 170 αιώνα (prove di
cittadinanza),” Πεπραγμένα tου Ζ’ Διεθνούς Κρητολογικού Συνεδρίου, vol. Β-2 (Rethimno, 1995),
pp. 619–34; Papadia-Lala, Ο θεσμός, p. 124.
273 Manoussos I. Manoussakas, “Η παρά Trivan απογραφή της Κρήτης (1644) και ο δήθεν
κατάλογος των κρητικών οικών Κερκύρας,” Κρητικά Χρονικά 3 (1949), 51, 55, 57; see also Fotis
Baroutsos, “Sovvention per fabricar galioni. Ο βενετικός μερκαντιλισμός και οι αντανάκλασεις
του στην κρητική κοινωνία του ύστερου 16ου αιώνα,” Thesuarismata 29 (1999), 199–202; and
Kostas Lambrinos, “Η κοινωνική διάρθροση στη βενετική Κρήτη. Ιεραρχίες, ορολογία και
κατάλογοι κοινωνικής θέσης,” Κρητικά Χρονικά 31 (2011), 221–39.